Where’s Friday?

---

Flight # 3 landed around noon and it took another hour for the last of the 4 bags to finally appear. Thank you kind people at Alaska Airlines! Once again EVA Air was great and it is definitely worthwhile to fly in their Elite Class for a flight of this length. I actually thought my seat was broken because it reclined so much and the foot rests make it almost seem like a bed. The only disconcerting part is the fact that we left San Francisco late Thursday night and now it is mid-day Saturday. The idea that we lost a day does not sit well given that we only say one sunset and one sunrise. If there is any comfort to be had it is that in April when we head home it is going to feel like Friday forever as we will not encounter our first sunset until approximately 24 hours after our last sunrise. Going home always means much worse jet lag than when we head here.

We decided to stay in Bangkok for a couple of nights just because and after leaving 2 of the bags at left luggage we caught a $10 cab to our hotel, the “official” cabs were quoting $30 for the same trip. The Asia hotel has been our ‘home’ in Bangkok many times and we no longer need a map to get to many of our favourite spots. The traffic is just as bad if not worse than we remember but this may be due to the fact that the King’s Birthday is on the 5th and the entire country is getting ready to celebrate.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the longest reigning monarch in the world. He has been the ruler of Thailand for 61 years and has been in poor health lately. He was briefly hospitalized in November and released about 10 days ago. There was great concern amongst the people but since he appears to be on the mend there is cause for great celebration. There are stores that sell only pictures of the King and his family and almost every shop and home you enter has his portrait hanging in the place of honor. It is a criminal offence to speak badly of him and / or his family and people have been sentenced to jail for doing so. The King was born on a Monday and in Thailand each day of the week is assigned a lucky colour, Monday’s colour is yellow and it is not uncommon that 90% of the people on any given bus are wearing yellow golf shirts or t-shirts as a sign of respect.

---

Photos

Sunrise
View from the plane

Shopping
Pantip Plaza

Wat
Bangkok's Grand Palace

Grand Palace
....no decorations on this one

Gargoyles
Way tooooooo many to count