February 23, 2008

Sorry, couldn't send all the pics I wanted and I think I might have a couple out of place but hope you enjoy what is here..............

February 20 - A new adventure begins. Up early for a 5:00 AM taxi ride to the airport. Now, let me tell you…………for any of you who watch Amazing Race…if the contestants ask the drivers to go faster I’m sure they’re not traveling in SE Asia. The drivers over here are insane – but I must admit it seems to work. Driving in Cambodia is another new event to overcome. Steering wheels are on either side of the car but at least they do drive on the same side of the road as us – for the most part. If you’re turning left onto a road then it seems you just drive down the left side as all the bikes and motorcycles scatter until there is a break for you to move over to the right side. I’ll soon need to take a valium before I walk out the door – haha!! Anyway, back to the flight. We were to leave at 8:00 AM but it was 9:00 before we got away. Seems one of the two take off strips needed to have work done on it (after only 2 years in operation??) It’s only a 35 minute flight to Siem Reap so it didn’t much matter. Got through immigration no problem and the visas were only $20.00 each. Got a cab to the hotel - the Borei Angkor Hotel - for $5.00. Our hotel room was a pleasant surprise. Apparently they were fully booked with tour groups so upgraded us to a small suite. It’s very lovely – a lot of wood. Has a lovely large balcony too. Our drivers name was Ranet and he is now our driver for sightseeing for the rest of our trip – until the 23^rd. Really nice young fellow, speaks English very well and isn’t a crazy driver. He came back to the hotel at 2:00 PM, I’d made a list of what I felt was important to see and we went from there. We’re paying him $85 for 2 full days off driving us around. He then took us to a restaurant to make a reservation for the evening and then dropped us off at the old market. We just can’t get over the changes here in 4 years. Of course there are way more tourists and therefore tons more hotels. The old market had previously been mainly for the Cambodian people. Now that area has become tourist mecca with bars and restaurants lining the streets. The old market caters to the tourists and has loads of mass produced trinkets and T-shirts so that was a little disappointing. We then walked back to the hotel, had a rest before going out for dinner at 7:00PM.

We went to a buffet dinner with an Aspara show of Cambodian Classical dance. The whole thing was very well done. We then took a tuk-tuk (motorcycle pulling a cart), driven by a very young lad home had a beer and went to bed.

February 21 – Another early start. Up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00 and Ranet picked us up at 7:00. The breakfast here is wonderful – a huge buffet including fresh waffles and eggs any way you wish as you wait. Unfortunately these countries have no idea about herbal tea so I have to settle for Lipton yellow label tea with lime. And then we were off and running. I’ll only bore you with a brief description of all the temples we visited – taken from a guide – so that I can include pictures more easily. We’re saving Angkor Wat for the end though………….. Walking around all these ruins gives me a strange sense of being in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie. It’s all so surreal!

1) Banteay Kdei – Constructed in the late 12^th century atop a pre existing 10^th century site. The site was extensively cleared in 1920 – 1922 but stands of tall trees remain, some still attached to portions of the building.

2) Ta Phrom – For many the highlight of a visit to Angkor, this jungle covered site really is straight out of a Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) movie. In some places the trees are destroying the monument and in others, they’re all that hold it together. It was the centre piece of a town of over 10,000 and was an active Buddhist monastery

3) Banteay Srei – Undoubtedly Angkor’s most beautiful temple. It was consecrated in 967, is one of the smallest temples and built of soft pink sandstone. The name translates to Citadel of Women and some believe it was actually built by a woman as no man could have created something so beautiful and with so fine a hand with all its exceptional carvings. The French came across the site in 1914 and it was totally covered by forest and partly buried by the earth.

4) Preah Khan – Completed in 1191 it was thought to have been a religious university home to in excess of 1000 teachers. Some of the “asparas” (celestial dancers) remain in excellent condition

5) The Bayon – One of the most written about and most photographed of Angkor’s monuments, it is also one of the most unusual in the world. Originally it was comprised of 54 (or 47) towers each of which supported 4 faces looking north, south, east and west but only 37 remain standing. The site was cleared in 1911-1913 and it was thought that it was only a matter of time before it would be completely ruined. There is a complete restoration of the library going on now

We were last at Angkor Wat in 2004 but only saw #2 and #5 of today’s visits at that time. The changes in those 4 years are amazing. While there is more restoration completed and going on there seems also to be more blocks falling. It will be interesting to compare our pictures when we get back. We came back to the hotel around 3:00 and called it a day. Had a shower, grabbed a beer and a sandwich and downloaded the camera. Have quite a bit of work ahead of us as we took 270 pics today – big clean up needs to happen. Will get to bed early tonight in preparation for another day of temples tomorrow.

February 22 – Well, had a bit of a rough night. Got up at 2:00AM and took some zithromax and that seemed to do the trick. My stomach is a little queasy but I was able to get through my temple day. We had a later start at 9:00 AM which is good in some ways but not so good in others. Today was so hot and our last two hours at Angkor Wat was really tiring. Sure was glad we’d already seen it. Again the changes were quite something. Where we had taken our lives in our hands 4 years ago climbing some of the stairways, they now either simply don’t let you up or they have new wooden stairways in place. And of course some of the reconstruction that has been completed is amazing. I can’t imagine what an undertaking it must be to put this gigantic structures back together. Our day started off with the Roulos Group of 3 smaller temples, much smaller than than Angkor and therefore fewer tourists which was good for us.

1) Preah Ko – This small temple was built in 880 and what remains are 6 small brick towers with a few out buildings in varying states of ruin. The main points of interest are the lime mortar lintels and other decorative work that was affixed to the the brick towers. And, they were little bricks, not big blocks.

2) Lolei – This temple - built in 893 - actually sits atop an island. Today the water has been drained for rice cultivation but the island still hosts Lolei and an active Wat. Only 4 brick towers remain and their highlights are again the lintels and the door jams.

3) Bakong – Built in 881, before its reconstruction started in 1937 it was a pile of rubble atop a small hill. It took 7 years to rebuild and the results are impressive. There were 5 levels to climb and the view was quite impressive. There were still some elephants on the corners and even the harness details were still visible.

4) Angkor Wat – “The masterpiece of an unknown Michelangelo”. It is the largest religious monument in the world and considered the ultimate example of Khmer architecture. It was built between 1113-1150 and dedicated to Vishnu – the Hindu god. The outer walls stretch 1.5K east and west and 1.3K north and south and are surrounded by a beautiful moat 200 meters wide. The inner walls display some of the most beautiful carvings telling the tale of Angkor Wat in bas-reliefs.

Ranet brought us home at about 3:30 and we called it a day. That was enough temples for way more than two days. I’m so glad we did it though. I found it all very intriguing. One thing that did come to mind though was that perhaps I should have my own camera. Not that I’m a good photographer – it’s just that perhaps I see something in a different way than Tom. As for Siem Reap proper, I really don’t care for it. It’s growing way too fast and not always improving. I bought a couple of little things here. I tried once to haggle the price but I’m just not comfortable doing that especially when I know how little they have. Oh well, we had some very interesting conversations with our driver Ranet and learned a little bit about how life is lived here.

Decided after a shower and nap just to have dinner here at our hotel. They had quite an extensive buffet happening. And, we even ordered a bottle of wine!! For me the best part of dinner were the salads. They were amazing – so very different. One with slices of marinated eggplant, another - mango, carrot smoked fish, one with asparagus, crumbled blue cheese and cashews. The main courses included a beef dish, chicken dish, pork tenderloin stuffed with cheese, steamed fish and an assortment of vegetable dishes. For dessert numerous fruits, cakes and then some very strange looking concoctions.

February 23 – Had a sleep in – hooray! After breakfast got everything packed up and then spent some time on this blog and working on pictures. We have so many. It’s really hard to choose just a couple for the blog. Will soon make our way over to the Angkor Century Hotel to meet up with the group for our Mekong River Cruise. Hopefully will get this sent off before we go.

Hope everyone is keeping well.

February 19, 2008

Good day all. Have just finished cleaning this apartment, doing laundry and getting packed for our trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. We fly out tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM so will leave from here at 5:30. Finally got my temple days under my belt. I know a lot of people talk about getting “templed” out but we really haven’t seen many and I was sort of missing that.

February 14 – Started the day by going to the boy’s school to take part in Nick’s birthday. We made “cup cakes” the night before and I got to bring them in. First met with Jennifer and managed to get a few pics of her and her students and then we went to Nick’s class and spent some time singing, eating and watching how their day unfolds. Seeing as how it was Valnetines day they (3 kids) were already in the midst of eating some chocolate cake brought in by one of the other teachers. Of course their teacher also had a big chocolate heart for them. To say Nick was a little wound up when he got home would be putting it mildly. Because Jennifer had school we decided to put off the actual birthday party until Saturday. That way we could also celebrate Oliver’s birthday at the same time.

Got away from the school by 10:00 AM and headed out for “templing”. There is one temple that can be seen from the River that has always intrigued me. You have to take a cross river ferry to get there though. It’s called Wat Arun and is known as the Temple of Dawn. It’s really quite fascinating, the steeple looks like a corn cob adorned with colorful floral murals made of glazed porcelain. It was constructed in the first half of the 19^th century under Rama II and this site is where the king established his palace before relocating to Bangkok. You can climb stairways to the upper levels which we did of course to get quite a view of Bangkok. All these temples have their “guardians of the gates” which really seem quite comical looking at times. I need to investigate the history of them a bit more. After time spent there we headed back across river. Stopped for lunch at a little spot along the street and had a mixed fruit shake – no salt or sugar – and fried rice with chicken and egg. It was really nummy. Tom had a noodle dish with veggies and shrimp in tamarind sauce and enjoyed it too. This place was more like some of our old haunts in Chiang Mia.

Next we headed to the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple
of the Emerald Buddha). The temple was closed for a private ceremony to do with the deceased Princess so seeing as we spent quite a bit of time here in 2000 we decided we would move on to Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) We had also been here in 2000 and not much has changed except the crowds are larger. This temple is supposedly the oldest (from the 16^th century) and largest Wat in Bangkok. In the early 1800’s it was an open university and today it is the national headquarters for the teaching and the preservation of traditional Thai medicine including Thai massage. It also has the largest collection of Buddha images (394 gilded images) and the longest reclining Buddha (46m long and 15m high) in Thailand. This Buddha is finished in gold leaf and mother-of-pearl inlay adorns the eyes and the feet. It’s a pretty amazing sight. There are tons of little gardens and figures within the grounds providing shade, greenery and quirky decorations inherited from China. Some of the figures are giant size, carved out of granite, resembling Marco Polo and other political figures. They were transported aboard Chinese junks as ballast. You can spend hours at some of these temples. By 3:30 we were getting hot and tired so headed to Tha Tien pier to make our way home.

February 15 – Another day for exploring……There are some specific places I wanted to go but we also came across a couple of unexpected things that really made the day. Our goal was to get to Wat Saket (The Golden Mount). So we walked, sky trained, and river taxied to Tha Chang pier. As we walked along the street we came across an intersection with a huge Elephant statue. It was beautiful but I have no idea what it was about. Across the road we were heading to Lak Meuang - the City Pillar Shrine. A wooden pillar was erected by Rama I in 1782 to represent the founding of a new capitol. The pillar is endowed with a spirit that is considered to be the city’s guardian. We watched people purchasing scarves to wrap around pillars that were then taken off by another gentleman and apparently resold. Quite a business……

Next store to this place was the Ministry of Defence. The building itself is
beautiful and surrounded by cannons. Of course at one time it was a Palace for some royal family member. There are actually five what were minor palaces in this compound. Tom went to walk up close and personal to some cannons and was told quite clearly in Thai to vamoose. From there we walked along “temple goods” street to the Sao Ching-Cha (the giant swing). The giant swing was just that. Apparently at one time festival participants swung in ever heightening arcs in an effort to reach a bag of gold suspended from a 15m pole and many died trying. In 1932 the Brahmans power was terminated and the festival was discontinued.

Temple goods street was interesting. Here you can purchase - I suppose for donation to a temple – bells, Buddha images and monk images, monk robes, alms bowls whatever you might need.Across the road from the swing was Wat Suthat. It was a very peaceful little spot. This temple is special for its association with Brahman priests. These priests perform The Ploughing Ceremony in May and religious rites at 2 Hindu shrines nearby. From there we walked along the Buddhist bell street and the wooden door street – and they sold exactly that. Our final stop was Wat Sakhet aka The Golden Mount. We climbed 251 winding steps through and around the artificial hill to reach the top. The hill was created when a temple under construction by Rama III collapsed. Rama IV built another temple atop of the mud and brick hill. Then Rama V added to the structure and then in WWII concrete walls were added to prevent the hill from eroding. There are burial walls along the way but all the writing is in Thai so you can't even understand dates. This being 2008 is 2551 in Thailand. Again the views from the top are outstanding. I imagine some of these temples are absolutely stunning to see in the evening. From here we made our way back to Chinatown. We thought it was crazy during the Chinese New Year but that was nothing compared to this day. The crowds were something else. You get on these little lane ways and are competing with people, motorbikes, carts and tuk-tuk’s to get down the alley. Absolutely anything and everything is for sale. We stopped along here for a snack at Hong Kong Noodles then made our way to the subway station and home.

February 16 – Got up early this morning to decorate a birthday cake for the boys that we’d made the previous evening in Jennifer’s toaster oven. Jennifer, Gone and boys came up around 10:30 and we did the birthday thing for both boys. Jennifer left for school and we had the boys as they went crazy with their remote control cars and their new Spiderman video game. The batteries were dead within a half hour and the boys were video game crazy in about the same amount of time. Bet Jenn was glad she had to go to school. For dinner we all went to the Great American Rib restaurant. Jennifer and I shared a BBQ chicken salad in a huge taco shell and a pulled pork sandwich. Tom and Gone had a platter with ribs, chicken, pulled pork and tenderloin and corn, onion rings, bowls of baked beans, potato salad and coleslaw. The boys had fish and chips and ice cream. And of course we had pitchers of beer. It was more expensive than usual Thai restaurants but at $75 that’s probably still cheaper than in Canada. There was a bit of a playground for the boys to entertain themselves and a separate smoking area. Thailand has just banned smoking in all entertainment venues……… Will be interesting to see if they follow through with the fines etc. which are quite hefty.

February 17 – A mixed day. The plan was to go to Lumpini Park and Suan Lum night Bazaar. We had already been to the park but on a “dead” day and there was supposed to be some kite flying going on. Well, the heavens opened up and there went that plan. Then we decided we’d all go to the shoe to see “Enchanted”. Jenn and family took a taxi and Tom and I walked and sky trained to Siam Paragon where we meet at the theatre floor. We had made a tentative reservation on the phone based on the online info. Well, seems that was incorrect info and the movie was full – even for the next two showings. We were just going to wander around for awhile (boring) so I said maybe we should just go to Lumpini cause the rain had stopped. Off we went and what a wonderful time we had. The park was packed. There were groups of a hundred people scattered throughout the park doing aerobics, big speakers blasting out tunes to exercise to and a leader on a stage showing all the moves. Tons of joggers doing their thing. Then as we approached this green area, so many people were sitting in chairs and on mats on the ground with picnic baskets at hand and glasses of wine and beer being enjoyed. There were some musicians in a bandshell seemingly getting ready to play. Jenn and family headed off and Tom and I hung around. Well I’m so glad we did as it was the Bangkok Symphony orchestra. Apparently they practice on Sunday evenings in the park. There were 3 young singers making an appearance too. It was awesome. They played classical, show tunes, Thai music and modern music. Because we were originally just going to the movies I had told Tom not to bother with the camera so I was a little pissed at myself about that. After about an hour Jenn called to see where we were as they had found the beer garden at Suan Lum. We hated to leave but off we went. This beer garden was immense. Tom says the size of 4 hockey arenas but I’d say 2, maybe 3. So we stayed there for abit, drank some beer, ate some snacks listened to some more music and watched some dancers – rock stuff. The kids loved that part. By the time we thought of walking around the bazaar it was 8:30 so off we headed home. Again the kids in a taxi and us walking and skytraining and taking the 6 Baht red bus. It actually was an amazing day.

February 18 – Our friends Harvey and Lee were back in Bangkok from their 30 day Indochine trip. Spending a couple of days here before heading back to Canada on the 20^th. We met them at Siam Paragon – one of the major shopping centres – to have lunch and hear about their trip. It sounds like they really enjoyed it and traveled with a great group of people. They would have even been prepared to go on had there been another country. I find it so hard to really describe what SE Asia is like and to explain my feelings about it so I’m really happy when I’ve recommended something so strongly and people come away understanding why we enjoy this part of the world so much. We had a lovely lunch and then home again. Gone cooked us a lovely supper of vegetables with chicken and cashews and a tom yum soup.

So now here we are heading off on another adventure which I’m really looking forward to. Organizing it all has been a little crazy but that’s OK. I should be able to write from Siem Reap in Cambodia but once we’re on board the ship I ‘m thinking we’ll be incommunicado. Hope everyone is well. Take care all.

February 13, 2008

It’s time again……. And hopefully I won’t make this blog as long as the last. Unfortunately I think it might even be a little longer. Well, it’s still hot here and getting hotter – or maybe it’s just more humid. Even as I sit at the table typing the sweat is poring off my face. I think this little nook gets absolutely no air. When we first arrived in Bangkok clothes would dry outside within a couple of hours. Now it takes almost two days. I can’t imagine what it must be like during the rainy season.

February 7 – Chinese New Year and we did make it to Chinatown.
Unfortunately we didn’t see any parades, dragons or fireworks. Bright colours of red and gold everywhere. And people, people where ever you looked. Arrived there around 10:30 and stayed till about 1:30. I think Tom and I would have walked around a bit more but Gone had to get back to pick up the kids from school. At first we walked up and down streets looking for the Talat Kao market. This is a market that has been operating continuously for more than 200 years. Well, lo and behold, we were in the verymiddle of it. And, what a market it was. Everything was for sale and
I mean everything. I’m hoping we can go again to see if it would be any less crowded on a regular day. Plus most of the shops were closed and we’d like to see all the wares in the shops. As we made our way home, the line up at the China Gate where people pay their respect to Buddha was now streets long with men and women, old and young. We had read a couple of articles advising not to try the shark fin soup or birds nest soup while in Chinatown but that certainly wouldn’t have been a problem for me and I simply told Tom and Gone it wasn’t an option!! So, we stopped at a food stall for lunch and Gone and Tom ate noodle soup but I played it safe – yet again. I still don’t like to take too many chances at street
food stalls. Roasted chestnuts are really big here and Gone bought
some but I’m not a big fan of those either.

We managed to get into a number of temples and you could hardly movefor people. The air was thick from incense and candles burning.One of the temples we were at had a monk blessing the people and handing out ‘blessed: strings and amulets so I joined the women and children on my knees (so that I’d be lower than the sitting monk), made my donation and am now blessed once again. We were going to go back up on Friday evening but after much discussion decided the crowds might be a little too much to handle.

February 9 – Well this was our second last Saturday in Bangkok so thought we’d better get out and about. There are a couple of places that are only open on the weekend so we took off for M.R. Kukrit Pramoj’s historical home. I was familiar with this name as I’d read a book written by him entitled Four Reigns. It was an awesome book – historical fiction. This guy was pretty talented – he was owner of a newspaper, Prime Minister at one time, an author of over 150 books, a poet, a classical Thai dancer, university lecturer……… His home is 2 acres in the middle of the city. There are actually 5 teak buildings, some over 100 years old, that were all from different places, dismantled and then brought to the Bangkok location and reassembled. It’s amazing how often this seemed to happen. The home is a lovely old Thai traditional home and the gardens were beautiful too. Very peaceful. He has passed away but the home is maintained with many of his belongings still there.

On our way home wedecided to stop for lunch. We came across this lovely place called Baan Khanitha & Gallery. What a delightful place. We’ve since read that it has won best restaurant awards for the last nine years. They brought an appetizer dish to the table unordered and we weren’t quite sure what to do. A waiter came to the table, explained what was in each dish and showed us how to put it all together. The tray had a dish of tamarind sauce in the middle with 5 little dishes around it containing toasted shredded coconut, chopped lime and ginger, chopped shallots and chilies, dried baby shrimp, and peanuts. You took a leaf and by folding, shaped it into a cone, added a little from each of the 5 dishes, then topped with the tamarind sauce. It was amazingly good. I don’t think we’ll be able to reproduce it at home though as I don’t think we can get the main ingredient – that little leaf. You’ll see in the picture. Tom then ordered a noodle dish that looked very good and I had pad thai (another noodle dish). Definitely a place to revisit.

February 10 – Jennifer and Gone left for Rayong at 9:00 AM. Jenn had an interview at an International school there. We were all going to go down for the weekend but then I thought it might be better if we stayed in Bangkok with the kids and give Jenn and Gone some time on their own. We just sort of hung out in the morning cause it rained again, then Nick had a sleep and then we took off for Siam Ocean World. This is SE Asia’s largest aquarium with they say over 400 species of sea animals. It actually was pretty amazing. There is even a glass bottom boat ride. The kids were pretty impressed anyway. After a few hours in the aquarium we then headed to the 4D adventure showing. I had no idea what to expect but it scared me half to death. And then just when I thought I had every thing under control the seat would be moving, cold air would be whooshing on my face or legs. Adults were screaming, kids were crying….. Nick was terrified. If he could have pressed himself into my body, he would have. Even Oliver was damn near on Tom’s lap. It was definitely an exhilarating 20 minutes. Certainly gave the kids lots to talk about on the way home. Nick took awhile settling down in the evening. He cried for mommy for quite awhile. He preferred to stay with us “tomorrow” he said. Finally fell asleep though and was perfectly fine the next morning.

February 11 – Today was the long awaited Zoo day. You know, it’s so neat having Oliver with us arranging taxi’s and entrance fees. Most venues have a 2 tier fee – one for foreigners and one for Thais. I say “these kids are Thai” and then the ticket seller proceeds to question them about their parentage. After an hour ride in the taxi, we finally made it. At first I wasn’t quite sure that the driver even knew where we were going. He and Oliver yik yaked all the way there though. We let the kids set the pace and just wandered at will. Oliver had a “map” and led the way. The animals weren’t nearly as active as they were on our first visit - maybe they’re feeling the effects of the heat too!! The kids seemed to enjoy it though. We stopped for lunch at……KFC!! No kidding. The fries were great but the chicken’s just not the same. Tom had a chicken burger or whatever it’s called and said I sure wouldn’t like it. I just settled for some fries and a pop!! When we visited the hippos they were playing on the water so we went down to see them underwater. One got up close and personal to Nick and I thought he was going to jump out of his skin. It was pretty funny. There’s quite a large section with snakes, lizards and crocs and he wasn’t too keen on them either. Got home about an hour before Jenn and Gone showed up. Nick was mighty glad to see them.

Spent yesterday cleaning house after the kids of course. How come things never stay spotless when they’re around. Jenn and Gone had bought the boys remote control vehicles for their birthdays so Tom had to test them out. he wasn’t happy with Oliver’s tank so off we went today to remedy that. Gone was with us and got everything sorted out. I think we were just there for moral support because he came back home right away and we wandered around for a bit more. Trying to get a handle on all the foodstuff I want to bring back with us. I bought a new Thai cook book so want to make sure I have all the necessary ingredients that I probably can’t get back in BC.

So, there’s another week gone by. This is birthday month for us it seems (but now we’re done until November). Nick is 4 on the 14^th, Steve’s Jenn is ?? on the 15^th, Oliver is 7 on the 23^rd and Gone is ?? on the 25^th. So, Happy Birthday to all. And Happy Holidays to Nancy, Glen and Lois and Jo and Gid. Have a wonderful time on your various adventures!! And Happy Valentines Day to everyone!!

February 6, 2008

Gung Hay Fat Choy……..Chinese New Year tomorrow. This really means “wishing you prosperity”. Think we’ll head to Chinatown tomorrow morning and see what it’s all about.

When I wrote back on January 23^rd I was hoping for some rain. Well, we’ve certainly had our fair share. I almost feel like we’re back in BC. Only problem is, the rain cools nothing off. It just seems hotter and so damp. One day there actually was a chill in the air – it was only 80F. That’s when you sort of have to give your head a shake and stop complaining!!

Things seemed to let up on Friday February 1^st so we took off and had a full day of touring. Took the sky train to the river taxi and headed up river to the zoo area. There is just so much to see. We landed at the pier (Tha Thewet) and spent some time at the markets along the canal – one side was devoted to flowers, trees and shrubs and the other to food stuff.

We then headed to Wat Benchamabophit. All temples and government buildings are decorated with black and white sashes in honor of the death of the King’s sister. There are memorials for her everywhere. All government employees must wear only black and white clothing to work for 100 days. She was very respected and did a lot of good for the Thai people. Wat Benchamabophit was originally built in 1827 and then rebuilt in 1899 by Rama V as the “Marble Palace”. The whole thing is made of white Carrara marble brought in from Italy. When we entered the courtyard it dawned on me that we had been here on our first trip in 2000. There are a total of 53 Buddha images representing famous figures and styles from Thailand and other Buddhist countries all displaying a particular “attitude”. We only have pictures of 20 of them…………… but I’ll just share a few with you for now…..The temple area is beautiful of
course with all the buildings, gardens and canals. The temples are so ornate and the doors and windows and roofs all have such detail and color. I never seem to tire of seeing different temples and we’ve hardly seen any – yet!! Of course we did manage to get our “monk” pictures too.

From there we headed to Dusit Park. This is where Dusit Palace, the Throne Hall and various Royal residential halls are located. As you approach there is a huge statue of King Rama V on horseback and behind a fenced area you can see the Ananda Samakhom Throne Building. Apparently Rama V was the king who was responsible for bringing Thailand into the 19^th century and there are constant references made to him as you sight see. We had to walk quite a distance before we actually found the entrance. I had read in my “Lonely Planet” guide that because this is royal property visitors should wear long pants or long skirts and shirts with sleeves. However, I really did think that this rule may have been relaxed – but I was wrong!! So, they hand you wrap skirts to borrow while you tour the Throne Hall and the Palace. We headed to the Throne Hall first. The building is remarkable. It was built by Italian architects in the Renaissance and Neo Classic style and completed in 1915. It’s a two story marble building with a large dome in the centre surrounded by six smaller domes. On the interior of the domes are paintings depicting the history of the Chakri dynasty – Rama I – Rama V. Of course no cameras are allowed inside and you leave your shoes and purses, cameras, phones behind in a locker for a small fee. Next we headed to Vimanmek (Dusit) Palace. What a beautiful mansion. It was Rama V’s residence. Totally made of golden teak, not a nail in the place and only 72 rooms!! Loads of staircases, octagonal rooms, lattice walls. There are 2 right-angled wings that are 3 stories high and the part where the king resided was octagonal and 4 stories in the middle. This was a guided tour through 31 rooms. In the grounds there are also 7 other residential halls for the kings consort, princesses and younger sisters. We didn’t see them all because we simply ran out of time. We did visit the Royal Elephant Museum though.

It is actually two large stables built in the early 1900’s to house white elephants. These are considered very auspicious animals and automatically become crown property. One of the stables houses a sculpture of a living Royal elephant that belongs to the current king (Rama IX). We also visited two Royal Carriage buildings and the Royal Paraphernalia of High Rank hall. We did stop for a little lunch by one of the halls. I had fresh spring rolls (again not as good as the ones I got in Chiang Mai) and Tom had Shanghai noodles and chicken. It was very different looking - the noodles were sort of clear - but quite tasty. Then we finished it with Basil seed ice cream. It was very nice but of a different consistency than we’re used to………. After spending all day here and still not seeing everything we decided it was time to head home.

There was no way on earth that we were going to cook so decided to hit a “little” spot called Faces not too far from home. We knew it was Indian and Thai. Well this little spot turns out to be a very big spot with locations in Jakarta, Shanghai and Beijing. The décor was beautiful and the prices matched. We paid more here than I think we would have paid in Canada. We had some wonderful dishes though – Punjabi samosas (vegetable), tandoori murgh chaat (a cold chicken salad dish in a tomatoey sauce with green mango), tandoori lal tamater (tomato stuffed with 9 chopped vegetables), kashmiri pullao (rice with dried fruit and nuts) and garlic naan of course. I’ve decided I much prefer Indian food to Thai food.

Good thing we had such a good day because it rained off and on all weekend. We took the boys for a walk to a fish store. The apartment owners had put an aquarium in the place but we said no to fish cause we knew we’d be in and out so much. Well, the sides got pretty yucky with algae so Tom took Oliver to get 3 suckers. Nicky and I waited at Burger King for them to get back. Nick walks so slow that our wait was only a few minutes!! The kids had fries and ice cream and we came home. Well, I couldn’t believe how fast those fish got rid of the algae. We actually had to go out and buy some food for them today. It’s crazy!!

Monday February 4 – Dad and Jean flew out of Toronto for six weeks of golfing in Portugal. Hope they have a great time. Don’t think they’ll miss that rotten down east snowy weather too much. Another day of rain here and it was all day. Tom was so disappointed that he couldn’t watch the Super bowl. There was soccer, car racing, basket ball and even ladies boxing (which really pissed him off) but no football. We were supposed to meet Jennifer at the skytrain at 4:00 PM so we grabbed a taxi from the apartment. This was the only day she felt was free to go shopping for the boys birthday presents. Off we headed to Toy’s R Us. Didn’t get anything there though. It is really quite expensive here in Bangkok. We went to the department store “Zen” and managed to find a couple of items. Even bought a traveling Scrabble game for us. Had supper out at a place called “The Garage”. We’d eaten there with Jennifer before and she really likes their burgers. Besides the give free dishes of popcorn, nachos and buy 2 get 1 free beer.

Tuesday February 5 started out rainy but by noon it looked better so we decided we’d had enough of hanging around and took off. There was a place I wanted to investigate called Lingham Shrine. But guess it wasn’t meant to be. We walked all over and couldn’t find it. Apparently it is a fertility shrine with a phallus garden. Not something I needed though… We just spent the rest of the time walking around the streets, Checked out the Ratchaprasing Intersection Shrines – Hindu shrines credited for making this commercial corridor a success. Erawan Shrine has been there for about 50 years and because the Erawan Hotel is

perceived to be so successful
with the upper crust society the
businesses on the other corners decided they should erect shrines as well. Also visited the Erawan hotel lobby. It was gorgeous. I wish there was a tour here similar to the one we went on in Chicago, that exposes you to a bunch of different architecture

designs. There are so many beautiful and different old and new buildings on Bangkok. Had dinner at the Food Loft in Central World Plaza. It was similar to the Market in Toronto. You’re handed a passport as you walk in and then you wander around the various stations picking out what you want and having it charged to this passport. Again we had Indian. One of the dishes we had was Biriyani vegetable rice. It was excellent as were the samosas, butter chicken and garlic naan.

Today Jennifer and Gone wanted to get out to buy presents for the boys so we picked them up from school and brought them home. Because Jennifer had scouted stores out their trip was quick and easy. They stopped at the Great American Rib restaurant for dinner. We got a call saying “don’t eat”. They didn’t realize how big the portions of food were so brought some home for us – ribs, pulled pork, chicken and pork tenderloin. Tom and Gone did a good job of polishing the meat off. I’d already had my gourmet dinner with the boys – hotdogs ummmm!!

Well, that’s it for another week. Managed to get our hotel booked for our stay in Vietnam. We’ve decided not to spend any time in Saigon. Instead we’re being picked up by car after our cruise down the Mekong and taken to Mui Ne beach and will have a car drive us directly to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. I still have to book the flight though. Just want to wait for that hotel voucher for confirmation first. So, things are winding down. Will have to get real busy these next two weeks to get out and see all the temples, museums etc that we want to see. Hope all is well with everyone back home. We hear no Canadian news and very little US news here. I try to pick up a paper most days but nothing much in it either about the Western world. Sort of like when we’re home – nothing much about South East Asia.