September 15, 2010. At about 1 in the morning, we both are awakened to torrential rain. I mean it is coming down so hard, you think we might float a way. We have experienced rain while here, but nothing like this. We were beginning to believe that the monsoon was a myth. But it is not, it came in the night, and it came with a fury. It poured for a good two hours, the occasional roar of the thunder would over power the noise of the rain. Then as suddenly as it came, it went. We returned to our slumber, only to be roused by round 2 of the Southwest Monsoon. The rain came straight down, no wind another two hours of solid rain, and again it suddenly just stopped, no gradually change to ... read more

September 13, 2010. The alarm went off at 5:30 am, I was confused, it was dark and I don’t remember turning on the alarm. I had forgotten to turn it off from the train ride. I got up to go to the bathroom (I don’t know what it is, but here we seem to need to go a lot during the night, must be the humidity and all the water we are drinking) then quickly feel back asleep. The fan alone was enough of a breeze to keep us comfortable and there were no mesquites at all. We finally woke up at 9. We dressed, brushed our teeth and headed for breakfast. Buffet breakfast, nice but compared to the Lebua it was like eating cold cereal. We did both have made to order omelets, turned out ... read more

September 11, 2010. A WAT, SUMMER PALACE AND A TRAIN Our final day of the cruise started early, Army woke us up at 6:30 as breakfast was at 8 and our tour began at 9. We showered and head up to the deck. Breakfast was again, fruit and pastries, actually a perfect start to the day. The of course would have cooked anything we wanted but we were satisfied with the fruit. At 9 our guide, Q, met as at the boat and we took a quick tour of Wat Niwet Thammaprawat. I have lost count of how many Wats we have now seen. The interesting thing about this Wat is not the Buddha image; but that the temple is built in gothic style. Yes it looks like a small cathedral that you would expect to ... read more

THE MANOHRA CRUISE September 9, 2010. DAY 1 Let me start by saying this is something we have never done before and I did splurge on this portion of our trip. A splurge that was worth every baht. Two nights and three days and a food orgy (all inclusive except alcohol). The only thing close to this experience was when we took the overnight ferry to flee Palermo, but it does not compare to the Manohra In the morning we had our final breakfast at Lebua and then checked out. Even the check out process was easier than the states. I had a small question on a charge on the bill, and they without hesitation removed it. Jerry went to the outside of the hotel so he could smoke and tip James are very helpful bellman ... read more

September 7, 2010 THAI COOKING CLASS There are so many things to see and do in Bangkok, Wats, massages, street food, night life, and so on. But if you have the time I strongly recommend taking a Thai cooking class. There are several to choose from, guide books will steer you to the Blue Elephant Cooking school, more expensive and less hands on. I recommend the Silom Thai Cooking School. It was 1,000 bahts a person, basically $35, which includes all the food and reimbursement for travel to and from. We took a cab to Silom and Soi 11 and waited on the corner for our instructor to arrive. Also waiting was three people from the Philippines and a young German couple. The husband of the German couple did not look overly excited to be there. ... read more