Attending Concert in Another Country as Parents with Toddler
Last month, I attended the Stardew Valley Concert in Bangkok with my wife.
https://www.stardewvalleyconcert.com/
It was a first for both of us in many ways:
- First time attending an orchestra.
- First time taking a transit flight.
- First time leaving our child with a complete stranger.
- First time hiring nannies.
Why Stardew Valley?
It was a game that we played a lot back when we were still dating. We spent hundreds of hours together designing farms, balancing efficiency and aesthetics. Where should we optimally place flowers? What colors for the walls? Where to put the totems? How many mixed seeds can we harvest in Winter? It reminds us of a time when life was simpler. It's a game full of nice memories.
It was also a few days away from our wedding anniversary.
Announcement
We learned about the concert back in October. It wasn't going to be held in Indonesia, my current country, or Singapore, the nearest neighboring country. But we found out it would be held in Sydney, Bangkok, and Seoul. We ruled out Sydney and Seoul because I am not familiar with them and didn't want to deal with the VISA application process at that moment. Hence, Bangkok it was.
Ticket Sales
On the original announcement, Bangkok was listed as TBA. This meant we didn't know when it would be held. Three months later, it was announced that it would be held in late March, two months away from the announcement date. Ticket sales were to begin one week from the announcement date.
https://twitter.com/StardewValleyFS/status/1746842161944093179
Tickets were sold on eventpop, a Thailand-based ticketing platform. The user experience was quite nice. I could sign up using Facebook, and they accepted both debit and credit card payments. I had 15 minutes to complete my order. It wasn't as contested as I expected because I managed to secure 2 tickets 40 minutes later.
Travel and Lodging
I live in Kediri, and the nearest airport, Surabaya, is around three hours away (120 km). There were no direct flights to Bangkok, so I had to transit via Singapore. Since I was traveling with my toddler, I wanted to minimize long travel as much as possible. Hence, I departed from home a day before my flight and stayed in a hotel 10 minutes away from the airport.
The concert venue, Prince Mahidol Hall, was an hour away (60 km) from the airport. I opted to rent a room via Airbnb, 15 km from it. I didn't mention the commute time because it's quite variable. During peak hours, it takes 40 minutes, while later at night, it only takes 10 minutes. This will be important later.
Before The Concert
The concert was scheduled from 7:30 PM until 9:30 PM. Nannies were booked for 4 hours from 6 PM until 10 PM. We hired 2 nannies because it was a rented place, and 1 nanny might not be enough. The nannies arrived early, around 15 minutes before 6 PM. We spent the next hour explaining the situation and expectations: they only needed to take care of our son until we returned home. Both nannies were fluent in English and understood the task. An overlooked problem was that our son didn't speak English. Worried about the time squeeze, we requested to extend the duration until 11 PM. We left our place at 6:45 PM.
Outside of our expectations, there was heavy traffic, and the estimated commute time became 45 minutes from the original plan of 20 minutes. To make things worse, we would not be allowed to enter the halls once the concert started. Online taxi drivers in Bangkok mostly consisted of elderly people who drove carefully and didn't understand English. I opened up Google Translate and wrote, "Can you please drive faster? We need to be there before 7:30." In response, the driver smirked and said, "OK. LET'S GO!" We arrived at Prince Mahidol Hall at 7:22 PM.
I picked up our tickets at the reception and headed to the hall immediately. There was a photobooth with a Stardew Valley backdrop, but we didn't think we had time to queue.
The Concert
It was forbidden to take pictures during the concert. I don't think it was enforced; it was more of a deterrent. People definitely sneaked photos, but it was really nice not to see phones while enjoying the concert.
In the middle of the concert, there was a pause. We went out to buy some merchandise and took pictures with cosplayers, then quickly got back to my seat.
It was really nice. I squeezed my wife's hand many times throughout the concert, reminiscing about our time together. We were worried about our son throughout the whole thing, though.
Getting Home
As soon as the concert ended, we immediately headed out. We didn't even take a picture together, even though my wife wore a really nice dress for the night. A cab took a few minutes to arrive, and we left the place around 9:40 PM. Again, unexpectedly, the commute home was quicker than expected. It took a little more than 10 minutes to get home. We arrived back at our place at 9:55 PM.
Our son was hysterical because it was near his bedtime and he kept looking for us. We thanked the nannies and sent them home. They were confused because we still had 1 hour left and offered to do some house chores, but there wasn't much to do, and we just wanted to spend time together without anyone. The nannies said that the language barrier proved to be hard, but there were no serious problems. They told me that my son asked to walk outside with my luggage, LOL.
Overall, I'm really satisfied with the nannies. I'll link the service I used just in case you want to visit Bangkok and need some help.
End Words
Traveling abroad with a toddler is definitely harder than without. A lot of planning and time need to be spent on travel. While adults can hold back hunger, rest, and sleep, our toddler can't. Not to mention all the additional costs and stuff we need to bring. But to me, the trip feels more fulfilling. I would definitely do it again.
Thanks for reading!
View this page on gemini! (Same content, just different protocol.)
gemini://bentinata.com/log/stardew-valley-concert-as-parent/