Wednesday, October 24 - Thursday, November 9
Long time since I’ve written. We arrived in Bangkok on Wednesday, October 24, checked into the place we normally stay (The Atlanta), but only stayed two nights. They are doing construction and there was just too much noise, so we moved to The Federal Hotel a few blocks away. Much of my time was spent at poolside, reading or researching where we’re going next. Unfortunately, one afternoon my Kindle flew out of my hand and landed in the pool - of course it died, sadly I was in the middle of a book when it happened.
We went out a couple nights to see Mike’s friends in the bands at the Bamboo Club and Country Roads. Bangkok is a city that never sleeps - street bars take the place of street vendors around Midnight and stay open until at least 3:00 AM. Most are just small carts with beer etc., but there seems to be a trend of turning old VW buses into mini-bars, with bar stools up against a small pull down counter, they even have neon lights flashing and teckno-music blaring out of loud speakers. Some even serve noodles or other finger food cooked on the side of the street. They are great places to sit and watch the street scene.
Mike knows someone who lives outside of Bangkok, so we met him and his wife for dinner one evening. We went to what I would call a theme restaurant, it was German and really sort of cute. Small buildings with a small creek and pond, swans swimming, rabbits hopping around, like Disney World. The waitstaff were dressed in German country costumes including lederhosen. The food was all Thai and wonderful, lovely evening and we were able to eat outside with the full moon shining.
Mike and I mentioned we were going to the beach, and they suggested they join us, so on Friday, November 2 we headed for Pranburi, about 3.5 hours south of Bangkok for two nights. On the drive down we passed salt farms; shrimp farms; and pineapple fields . It appears to be the agricultural center for this part of Thailand. We took a day trip to Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park (Three Hundred Mountain Peak in english). The park is known for it’s beaches, limestone cliffs and caves. We decided to go to Tham Phraya Nakhon cave. To get there we had two choices, walk up one peak and then down, cross the beach and then another short (450 meter) walk up another peak and down to the cave, OR take a boat ride of about 10 minutes around to the beach and then just the 450 meter walk to the cave. Mike and I were in favor of walking, but the others didn’t think we had time, plus they didn’t have on proper shoes for a short hike, therefore we took the boat. It was all uphill to get to the cave, but it was well worth the trip. It looked like a movie set, the sun was shining in, there were trees growing and a small temple had been built in the center. It really was quite interesting.
On the way back to Bangkok on Sunday we took a detour and stopped at the Hua Hin Hills vineyard, owned by the same family that owns Red Bull. Pretty place and the wine wasn’t bad, but in my opinion, not as good as Virginia wines. One attraction offered, other than wine tasting, is a tour of the vineyard by elephant. Didn’t do it, but saw people on them.
Tuesday, November 6 we took the night train to Chiang Mai and arrived early on Wednesday, November 7. We shared a compartment on the train with a nice couple from Singapore, they taught us a crazy Chinese card game and Mike explained various poker game to them. I have a feeling they already knew how to play poker though. They asked us about the election, people here seem to be interested in the outcome.
Once we were settled in our new home for the week we’ll be here, we were anxious to see election results, but since we’re 12 hours ahead, we had to wait until very late in the day to see that Obama won. We celebrated his victory that evening.
Friday, November 9 - we spent the morning walking around the old part of the city, stopping at a number of Wats (temples).
