The Rise

Front view of The Rise

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright. Psalm 20:7-8 (ESV)



We have been in our new place just over a week now and I think we finally have things unpacked—at least as much as we need for these 4 months.  Our new place is called The Rise and it is located behind one of the main shopping malls in Chonburi.  The tenants are primarily Thai but there are a few foreigners as well.  There must be enough foreigners here that some of the local restaurants have the main menu in English.

Our new place is less than a 5 minute walk from the office which makes it really convenient for when we need to go there.  And the mall, which is slightly further, has two grocery stores to choose from!

View of Central Plaza from the roof (behind the pink building)

Our place in The Rise is a bit of a let-down from the old place in Bangkok—16 floors to be exact.  We’ve moved from a 22nd floor to a 6th floor.  But there is a nice rooftop which we can get to which offers views in all directions—from the Gulf of Thailand to the west to the hills to the east.  It’s nice to have a view of some green space, which is a bit different than Bangkok.

Even though Chonburi is a much smaller city than Bangkok, there is still lots of traffic, on weekends especially.  This is because there are two popular attractions—the mall is popular with the locals and the ocean is popular with the people from outside of town.  I have just started driving this week so I am trying to get used to some of the unwritten driving rules (which are often contrary to the written ones).  It’s amazing how long one has to wait to make a right turn in some places (since we drive on the left side, this is similar to making a left turn across traffic in North America.) 

On the roof with the ocean in the background

Our apartment is a bit larger than the one we had in Bangkok and is designed much more nicely.  There are three rooms plus a bathroom—living/dining room, kitchen and bedroom.  The big plus is the kitchen—while it is not terribly large, it actually has cupboard space.  It has no window screens—though we hope to change the situation soon—but it does have air conditioning.  Lately we’ve been having lots of gusty breezes blowing, which makes it more comfortable.  (Yesterday we were enjoying the cool evening breeze after the rain and I checked and saw that the temperature was 85F/29C.)

Some of the green space visible from the roof

Even though we have only been here a really short while, we have already become quite involved in the different ministries here in Chonburi: The Abundant Life Homes Orphanage, the Sila Church and the Thailand Mennonite Brethren Foundation office.  But we ill say more about those later.  Meanwhile, here are some pictures of our new home:

Living/Dining Room

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bedroom