January 23, 2008

Seems like we’re doing a weekly blog now. That seems to work except I have trouble remembering what we’ve been up to. Not that it’s been much. Tom and I are both getting over colds so spent most of last week just vegging. I’m perfectly fine now but Tom is still coughing his head off. So, let’s take a walk down memory lane…………

January 18^th – Decided it was time to get off our back sides and take a walk. Had written some letters and had some pics to send to family and friends without computers – if you can imagine – so walked to the post office. Seeing as how we’d walked to the sky train we thought we might as well consider going to town centre and checking out an old theatre to see “Across The Universe”. This is a new movie much along the lines as Momma Mia but with Beatle tunes. It was actually quite good. Tom really enjoyed it. The characters were named Jude, Lucy, Prudence (who actually “came in through the bathroom window”), Sadie, Max and JoJo. I think the write up said there were about 30 Beatle tunes covered. Came home and stopped to pick up fruit shakes and wraps for supper. I had falafel and Tom had BBQ lamb. We really lack for nothing here.

January 20^th – Met up with our friends Lee and Harvey and had a really great day. Left here at 8:45 am and got to their hotel just after 10:30. That’s with taking a bus, train, water taxi and then walking, all for a cost of not even $3.00. Lee and Harvey were staying in the tourist area so we walked around there for awhile, stopped and had a shake and then just headed out walking and talking. We managed to figure out how to take the cross river ferry so went to the Royal Barges Museum. That was an adventure in itself. We obviously look like tourist and a fellow called out to us to tell us the way to the museum. He then proceeded to lead us on a twisting path for a small fee……. He could have been leading us down a path to be beaten and robbed and we wouldn’t have been any the wiser. The barges were fascinating to see. So ornate and colorful. It must be incredibly amazing to see a procession with 52 of these boats floating down the river. There are five rows of barges that measure 1,110 metres long and 90 metres wide and are propelled through the water by 2,082 oarsmen. We might just have to come here some year at the end of October when the king makes his visit from the palace to the temple – a distance of 3 kilometers. I just can’t begin to imagine what it must be like. After that we made our way back across the river and wandered down streets and through university grounds and then stopped for lunch at a restaurant along the river. Again had shakes and the guys had spicy prawn soup and Lee and I had fresh spring rolls. We had fruit punch shakes and Lee and Harvey had lime shakes and we forgot to say no salt or sugar. Unfortunately there definitely was salt added to the lime shakes. That seems to be fairly normal - salt

with fruit. A useful piece of info for travelers – remember shakes – no salt no sugar!! We were all pretty tired by the time lunch was finished so we walked to the park and then parted company. Tom and I did a total of 22,500 steps that day. Lee and Harvey were meeting up with their small tour group (about 12 people tops) the next day before heading out on their tour of the most popular places in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. It will be an awesome trip and I can’t wait to hear all about it. Did you all watch the finale of Amazing Race – we did!! I was cheering for the Asian girl and her father but alas they came in second. On Thursday we also watch Amazing Race – Asia. I don’t think it’s quite as good as the other and the tasks seem to be somewhat easier. Tom would say a lot easier!!

January 21^st – Didn’t do too much today. I actually wasn’t feeling too well stomach wise. Probably a combination of too much sun, beer and greasy food – Jenny made fries and we also had nacho’s and guacamole dip. We decided to take the plunge and get our hair cut. I always do this with great trepidation – only because Thai people aren’t used to cutting curly hair. It actually was a wonderful way to spend some time. They spend about 20 minutes shampooing and massaging your head. Tom thought his guy was a little too good at it. Then after they cut your hair they wash and massage again. Then they love to make my hair straight and that takes awhile – not a curl anywhere. What do you think??? Of course once the kids came home from school it was off to the pool and a wet head. It was beautiful for a bit though. Tom wanted his cut a little shorter on top but the guy just couldn’t bring himself to do it. And for some reason they don’t seem to know anything about making your ‘sideburns” or whatever you call it the same length. I meant to check some guys out to see if maybe Thai guys just don’t grow hair in that area.

January 22^nd – This was a big day. We headed out to immigration to get our Tourist Visa’s extended. It opens at 8:30 so Jenn said to be there for 8:00 so that meant leaving at 7:00. She also said you could spend quite a bit of time there so we brought our books and some fruit and water. We were out by 9:00 AM. Very efficient people……….Now we had to decide what to do. It seemed a shame to just head home. So off we headed. Put on 17,500 steps. There was an “interesting” home to see but once we found it we discovered it was only open on the weekends. We got back on the sky train and headed out for some touristy spots. First hit the Suan Pakkad Palace museum. This was originally the residence of a prince ( a grandson of Rama V and the current king is Rama IX). 4 of the buildings are traditional Thai homes from the 19^th century that were taken apart, transported and then reconstructed on the grounds in 1952. Over the years 4 more homes were added in order to display all the Royal family’s artifacts and their private collection of musical instruments, rocks and minerals, porcelain, crystal, silverware, a private chapel with Buddha paintings, prehistoric shells and fossils, puppet figurines, and prehistoric ceramic wares. This is not only Thai artifacts but also many things given by dignitaries from Europe etc. The prince also had a small temple from the ancient historic capitol of Ayuthaya brought to the palace in 1950 for the Princess’ 50^th birthday. It’s a beautiful peaceful place in the middle of busy Bangkok. From there we headed to Baiyoke Sky Hotel. It is touted as the tallest hotel ever?? The 84^th floor is the revolving roof top restaurant. It costs 200 Baht ($6) to go up to the observation deck but it was still pretty foggy, hazy or smoggy – your choice. So we went up to the 18^th floor and had a bite to eat. Mixed fruit shakes and wonton soup for Tom and deep fried spring rolls for me. Everything was very good and not overly pricey and even came with a bread basket all for about $12. Then we just wandered around a market area and headed for the train home. When we got to the apartment I decided to go into the massage place and see about a foot massage – my first this year but definitely not my last. An hour massage is 250 baht. First they bring you a cup of tea, wash your feet and lead you to a reclining chair. Then I just zone out and they massage my feet and legs. Then when that’s done they have you sit on a little stool and give you a little neck and back massage. She ended up spending about 1½ hours on me. It was awesome. When the kids got home from school they wanted me to take them swimming and I just said no way. My feet and legs felt way too good!!

Today, when I’m done this we’re going to go grocery shopping. Jenn doesn’t have school this evening so I expect Gone will cook. Time for some veggies………….The next couple of days are supposed to be cooler so guess we’ll do the tourist thing again. It’s supposed to rain on Saturday so that could be interesting. Watch, it will probably just sprinkle for a minute. Hope everyone is well back in the western world. Seems “Pleasantville” is not quite so pleasant these days as there have been 17 break-ins in the last couple of weeks. Of course half of the neighbourhood isn’t there for the winter. Fortunately for us we have the best house sitters in the world. Thank you Wayne and Wendy!!