02/02/2015 We rate
hotels by their breakfast buffets and this one in Bangkok was pretty good. But the internet was not so good. And then some bomb went off a few blocks away
the night before. Oh, well, rebels and
all that. Our guide called herself
“Ten”, which is probably much better than calling yourself a "Two". :-) The first stop was the Royal Grand
Palace from the 18th century kingdom of Siam. Remember “The King and I”? The real story took place here. Unlike simple, classic Greek architecture,
every doodah, curvy, pointed building and temple on the compound was decorated
inside and out with either tiny ceramic or mirrored tiles or gold leaf, or
carvings. There was no surface that was not
covered. And thousands of Buddhas everywhere. Why do they have to have so many – can’t just
one do?
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| Look at the elaborate roof lines! |
One of the temples (Wat Pho) held a very large reclining
Buddha inside and ancient plaques depicting how to give a Thai massage. They consider it their first medical
university. We ate a great lunch on a
docked boat. Anne reports it did have
western style toilets, but when flushed, air came up out of the others (along
with a spray of whatever else was in your toilet bowl). Afterwards we hopped on a smaller skiff that
took us on a tour of the canals of the Chao Praya River (they call it the
Oriental Venice). We were let off for a
while to climb the temple along the riverside called Wat Arun, part of which
was being restored. That evening we were
treated to dinner and a show. The Thai
food was great but some of our teachers actually fell asleep during the
show. It featured highly painted, exotically
costumed dancers performing traditional Thai dances. Basically they strike a pose, then move very
slowly, then strike another pose. The
makeup was so heavy and they are such beautiful people that we were half way
through the show before we realized one dancer was a man. And he was playing a male role – took us that
long to figure it out. They were the
ones with shoulder pads. And they can
really bend their fingers backwards.
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| Toes of the reclining Buddha |
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| Elaborate roof lines at Wat Arun |
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| S - L - O - W Dancing (guys are on each end) |
02/03/2015 Today is Leanna’s Birthday – what a happy
day when she entered our lives! We are
so glad we got to spend some time with her last week. Today we were taken to the Dangerous
Market. It is an “icky” market like we
are used to only this one is set up over a railroad track. A train goes right through it 8 times a day
(and has for the past 30 years). The
shop owners barely pull in their awnings and move their tables to just allow
for the train’s size as it passes and then set up shop again. It’s an unlucky tourist who stays too long to
seal the bargain. We were told there are
several deaths each year from the train.
After that we were taken a long ways out to the Floating Market. We’ve been here before on our way back from
New Zealand. While there are shops all
along the waterway, people also go up and down in long skinny boats, selling
their wares. Anne was thrilled to find a
pair of simple sandals in her size for when the weather heats up. That night several people, including Clyde,
went out for an authentic Thai massage. Five
of us went for the massage, two guys and three ladies. They stared by washing our feet with a salt
rub and warm water, very relaxing. Then
we were each taken to a separate, curtained stall and were given some pajamas
to change into. After we had changed,
the workers pulled the dividing curtains back and the five of us were lying
next to each other on thin mats. The
lights were low and soft music was playing.
The lady who worked on me was small.
They start with your feet and legs.
The motion they used was like kneading bread. She used her hands and elbows when working on
me. They started gentle but got more
intense as they progressed. They worked
on my feet, legs and then my hands, arms, shoulders. They even did a scalp massage on me. I rolled over on my stomach and she worked on
my back; this is where her feet got into the action – walking up my spine! I sat up and she worked some more on my back
and tried to twist me certain ways. I
guess I’m pretty stiff, because I started to laugh and told her I don’t bend
that way. After the 90 minutes were up,
I was very relaxed, but my lady had had a good workout.
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| The Dangerous Market |
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| The Floating Market |
While in Bangkok we had the privilege of visiting the bridge
made famous in the movie “The Bridge Over the River Kwai”. It is based on a true story where US service
men (and other Japanese prisoners of war) during WWII were forced to work on
the Thailand-Burma railway. But we were
told that the movie version wasn’t exactly how it happened – who would have
guessed! Afterwards we visited a museum
dedicated to the story of the railway and the POWs. It was very well done and we wished we had
more time to study all the displays. It
was very sobering. I think there is a
movie out about it now called “The Railway Man” with Colin Firth. Approximately half of the 700 US POWs there
died working on the railway.
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| Bridge over the River Kwai |
02/04/2015 Today we caught an early flight to Chiang
Mai in the northern part of Thailand.
From the airport we were taken to the hotel but it was still too early
to check in so we left our luggage in the lobby. The tour guide for this city took us to a
really lame museum about the city. The
bottom floor was closed, the top floor was undergoing renovations so we
couldn’t go there. The ground floor had
a few relics but no signs or descriptions in English. We were supposed to be given lunch but the
guide had failed to plan that one so we were each given a few coins and told to
fend for ourselves. Our next planned
activity wouldn’t be until lunch the next day.
We were not a happy bunch. Maybe
we could have used some free time at the end when we knew our way around, but
we had just arrived. Some of our group took
naps, some women got their nails done, and we unpacked. It was maybe a little less than 3 start hotel
– tile floors instead of carpet (nosier) and bad internet connections. We ate Pad Thai noodles from a street vendor
for lunch and dinner. Clyde got a little
uncomfortable after the second round because of some peppers he put in his
dinner.
02/05/2015 With no plans for the morning we slept in and
we ate the adequate buffet breakfast.
For 20 Baht each we took what can only be described as a “paddy wagon” (a
small covered red pickup truck with two bench seats in the back) to the walls
of the old town. We walked through a
couple of temples. One place let us ring
their giant gong. Awesome. Running out of time we decided to hire a tuk-tuk
to take us to three more temples and then back to our hotel. Five of the other BYU teachers had signed up
on their own to pay for and take a Thai cooking class that morning. Since they were going to eat what they cooked
they didn’t come back for the lunch that was included in the tour.
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| Banging on a Big Gong |
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| A dragon being eaten - or emerging? |
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| Night Market |
We all met in the afternoon and were driven to a place in
the mountains that the royalty used for a summer home (but they are too old
now). It is called Phuping (sometimes spelled
Bhuping) Palace, but is pronounced “pooping”.
We all had to come up with a few jokes about that as we walked around
the lovely flower gardens. After that we
were driven to the Phrathat Doi Suthep – a gold domed Buddhist temple. We took a cable car up to the mountain top
but a 306 step dragon-headed serpent staircase down. Once again – lots of Buddhas. One of the “treasure rooms” reminded me of
something out of an Indiana Jones movie.
For dinner we had Thai food at a lovely outdoor riverside
restaurant. Chiang Mai has a very nice
Night Market – much quieter and more organized than HK. Our hotel had a free shuttle bus to and from
so we gave it a try.
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| At the "Pooping" Palace |
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| Clear skies and bright gold buildings |
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| The Serpent Staircase |
02/06/2015 Today was Elephant Camp. There are preserves in the hills that take in
old or wounded (think land mines) elephants.
They also raise and train others.
The entry fees help go towards those efforts. We were first taken by ox cart to an old
village. We each got a turn to drive the
cart. On the way we purchased banana
bunches and sugar cane to feed the elephants.
While we were waiting for our turn we saw truck loads of soldiers on
manuers marching around the hills and doing target practice. Two people at a time were positioined in a
box on the elephant’s back while a driver sat on its head. We were taken up and down hills and through a
river to the elephant training camp.
Here they showed us elephants doing tricks like dancing, playing with
balls (basketball and soccer) and watercolor painting. They were really good at painting scenes of
trees, flowers, other elephants, and then signing their names. These painting were later sold to tourists.
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| Driving an Ox Cart |
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| Riding an Elephant |
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| A painting Elephant |
We ate lunch at the camp and
then were taken on a bamboo raft trip on the Mae Taeng River. We had a guide at the front and one at the
back, each with a pole to move us along.
They let us take turns using the pole.
It was very peaceful. From here
we were taken to a nearby refugee of sorts camp called the Long Neck
Village. This group of people fled
Myanmar and now live off tourist money selling crafts. The women start wearing neck rings at age
five and add more as they get older.
Some say it is for beauty or cultural identity and others say it was
started to protect women from tiger bites to the neck. Whatever.
They let the ladies try on some modified ones and they were extremely
heavy. It actually depresses down their
clavical and shoulders and they end up with really weak neck muscles. We visited an orchard farm where they are
grown on a hanging rack without dirt (like at Epcot Land exhibit). The roots are watered twice a day and sprayed
with a liquid fertilizer once a week.
When we were told we’d be going to a cultural center for dinner and a
show we all groaned a little thinking it would be slow dancing again. And it was but they also included a knife
balancing act that livened things up a little.
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| Riding the River |
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| Anne as a Long-Neck |
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| Knife balancing act |
02/07/2015 We had to check out at 5:15am. We loved Thailand and would like to go back
and visit the beaches there sometime.
Since we were too early for the buffet breakfast we were handed a boxed breakfast. Wonderful Thai airlines again so Anne was
able to watch two movies: “The Good
Lie”, and “The 100 Step Journey” and liked them both. We were flying back to China to meet up with
another set of BYU teachers to continue on with the next planned tour – to Vietnam
and Cambodia. We landed in HK, took the
express train back to Kowloon station, a bus to the train station, and then a
train to Guangzhou, and the subway to the hotel. We were very tired and slept well.
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