Leaving Bangkok

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Our first full day in Thailand was very a great way to get acclimitized. :-) After grabbing Starbucks, we headed to the Royal Palace only to discover that it was closed to tourists for the morning for a Buddhist ceremony. So, after being accosted by a Tuk Tuk driver and his friend, we let the Tuk Tuk guy take us on a tour of some other temples.

We first went to th Golden Mountain temple and rang the bell for luck. They were all labelled in Thai - I'm not sure which one I rang - with my luck it will be fertility. :-) Then we saw the Golden Buddha- It was all very impressive but I should have read the guidebook first. :-) From there, the tuk tuk driver took us to THai Center where we looked at jewelry way outside our price range. :-)

The Tuk Tuk then took us to all the shops that he gets a coupone for if he can talk tourists into going there. We did end up having dresses made at the tailor - would have had a suit done if I was sure I had income coming in. Mr. Tuk Tuk was very happy.

Then we went back to the Grand Palace to look around. It was amazing - very impressive architecture, tile work, etc. Huge.

By this point, I was pretty exhausted so we grabbed lunch near the palace and split up. Athena went to get a massage and tour a couple more places. I set off with a photocopied map to find the hotel. Yup - with my lack of direction, I was loose in Bangkok. My 4 block walk became a much longer adventure.....strangely enough, there were streets not on the map and the names seemed to be translated a couple of different ways. It wasn't pretty. An hour later, I finally found the hotel, crawled back into bed and collapsed.

After a 2 hour nap, we went back to the tailors for a fitting and then met up with the group. We're 2 of 3 Americans on the tour. Its 8 single women and a family of 4.....lots of Aussies. Should be a fun group - many have done these tours before. Our guide's name is Pick and so far she has taught us that the bathroom should be referred to as the "happy room" and that when women use the squat toilets, its called "picking the flower." Men shoot the rabbit.

I feel so international now.

After the meeting, I went to bed....Yup. I'm the worlds most exciting traveling companion. :-)

Today we take a long tail boat to Wat Po and a boat to Kachanaburi. We're staying there the next 2 nights - no idea if we'll have internet access from there but if we do, I'll keep you updated......

Love,
Christine

PS: I'll admit to a slight bit of homesickness - not for the US but for people...so write to me!

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Comments

[Kate]

Hi!
Hi! Sounds like you're having a good trip so far, aside from all the sleeping. I am having a lot of trouble with the "picking the flower" imagery, though. It's making my head spin a bit. I'm going to try and forget I read that. Are you going to be able to post pictures on this blog? All's well here - your nephew has brand new cowboy boots (purchased by his grandpa) that he refuses to take off. There were tears this morning when I was adament about them not being worn in the bath. Yup, life here is just filled with international glamour and intrigue... :-) Don't be homesick, you're only missing the post-holiday funk. Caleb's first words to me this morning were, "no more presents", in this sad little voice. Enjoy yourself!

[M Thomas]

Jealous!
Sounds like your Christmas went great! How exciting to be somewhere so exotic. I am jealous since I am home cleaning up after housing 14 family members overnight-ugh-way too much family time. Have so much fun on your adventure! Thanks for doing the blog. So fun for me to be able to live vicariously ;)

[Sam]

Thailand
Sounds like your having fun. I hope it is wrm at night.:)