First of all, let me clarify Rob's last post. The rats were not big, they were enormous and the size of Barone's cat. I still get the heebie jeebies thinking about them. They also headed right towards us in this dark alley. I have no idea what our guide was thinking except that we were taking a short cut back to the hotel. Save ten minutes of walking or be eye to eye with my biggest fear--he did not choose wisely.
A recollection of some of the more adventurous events in Bangkok--a city on steriods. There are over 10 million people living there and I think half were on the street outside our hotel last night. The Tuk tuk ride through Bangkok was memorable and was quite the short changing experience--if you know what I mean. The traffic was whizzing by us and all I could do was hang on and hope the driver wasn't having any suicidal thoughts.
We also went to the festival honoring the water goddess and floated a beautiful bouquet of flowers after making a wish or saying a prayer. I was confused and distracted by the people--did I mention there were quite a few--so made a wish and prayed. I think we did this after the Tuk tuk ride, but I am now covered if we go again.
Every day we saw Buddhas--there are 52 different poses. Religion and the King are a huge part of Thai life and they love to talk about both with reverence.
Food is still out of this world except tonight we had a "free" night and decided to get a pizza from an Italian joint. We usually eat some kind of fish, chicken, and then a soup with all sorts of colorful things floating around in it. At the market we saw bins full of fried worms, grasshoppers, and other creepy crawling things. I don't think we have eaten anything like that yet but who knows. Our guide was telling us about eating mouse since it feeds on the rice and is very healthy for you. Let me just say hell will freeze over before that goes in my mouth.
We are now in Chaing Mai, which is in the northern region of Thailand. We drove about 4 hours to arrive here and saw much of the country side. The people are amazing--very friendly and kind. We stopped to see them harvesting a rice field where they get all their neighbors to come and help. The farmer's wife- the size of an American 10 year old boy-- was walking towards us carrying food for the workers and offered us a fried banana after I took her picture. They all act as if you are their new best friends. I love it!
Tomorrow we are off to the Golden triangle near the Burma border. Elephant riding, trekking through the jungle, and a night stay in a remote tribal village is on the agenda. I doubt we will be near an internet.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
My second day of blogging
I survived the first day of writing on this blog and now have had time to see who else blogs. So far I have found many moms writing about their children. I probably will include mine from time to time, but they aren't the cute cuddly ones I have seen on the blogs. They are now big boys and a big girl. I do miss most of those sweet enduring days and then I remember...Selective remembering is always good.
I will now move on to the traveling part of my blog. Today is a much better day in terms of the dreaded jet lag. It has been nine days since we have been back and I actually feel that I am in this time zone. What an ordeal, though. I read that it takes one day for every hour of the time difference and since there was a 12 hour time change, I am ahead of schedule.
Thailand--This was from an email sent after the first day.
After 30 hours of a travel of which 20 hours of it were in an airplane, we have arrived! About hour 8 on the first plane I was about ready to jump without a parachute, but instead watched the 3rd of the 4 movies for the night. Bleah! Now for the good news, the little woman sitting next to me only got sick in the last half hour filling up 3 bags. I hope it wasn't the swine flu. Since I do not do well with the smell of vomit, I slammed my nose into Rob's arm to avoid the use of my little bag. Success! We all recovered and the poor woman apologized--I think--no English was spoken, but her humbled look was enough to convince me that it was an apology.
We were met by Mr. T at the Bangkok airport and what a hoot he was. First he walked very slowly and with a limp but assured us that he was a fast driver. Not quite. He started telling us about the old movies that he loved and began slowing down on the freeway as he went into detail about Madame X. Traffic was whizzing by us and his car stalled right in the middle of his narration. He mumbled something about the car and the engine finally roared into life. Not missing a beat, he continued with the plot of the movie.
We were not quite at our hotel when he announced that he loved to sing and proceeded to break into some old Elvis and Frank Sinatra hits. Fortunately, his voice was closer to Susan Boyle instead of an idol wanna be. He was absolutely uninhibited and kept asking us if we wanted another song. I had no idea the hotel was about five songs from the airport. Our first glimpse of Thailand and if Mr. T was a representative of what we were to experience, we loved it already.
We ventured off to a huge market today where they had little bunnies dressed in clothes, some exotic animals, and little chipmunks and squirrels on leashes. We didn't even see the endangered animals as they hide them in the back rooms in case of raids. Peta would not be pleased.
Dinner was off the beaten path at a very local open air restaurant. Food was delicious and the total bill for the the two of us and our guide came to 15 dollars! Tomorrow we are touring Bangkok and getting a 15 dollar massage--it is one of the higher end places.
Oh, weather is 85 today and 75 tonight. Great place so far after we had a good night's sleep.
Rob added this after I was finished.
Mary neglected to mention that our guide took us on some back alleys and told us to look for wildlife. Just then two BIG rats came running by. You know how my lovely wife loves rodents...her heart is still beating fast.
Rob
I will now move on to the traveling part of my blog. Today is a much better day in terms of the dreaded jet lag. It has been nine days since we have been back and I actually feel that I am in this time zone. What an ordeal, though. I read that it takes one day for every hour of the time difference and since there was a 12 hour time change, I am ahead of schedule.
Thailand--This was from an email sent after the first day.
After 30 hours of a travel of which 20 hours of it were in an airplane, we have arrived! About hour 8 on the first plane I was about ready to jump without a parachute, but instead watched the 3rd of the 4 movies for the night. Bleah! Now for the good news, the little woman sitting next to me only got sick in the last half hour filling up 3 bags. I hope it wasn't the swine flu. Since I do not do well with the smell of vomit, I slammed my nose into Rob's arm to avoid the use of my little bag. Success! We all recovered and the poor woman apologized--I think--no English was spoken, but her humbled look was enough to convince me that it was an apology.
We were met by Mr. T at the Bangkok airport and what a hoot he was. First he walked very slowly and with a limp but assured us that he was a fast driver. Not quite. He started telling us about the old movies that he loved and began slowing down on the freeway as he went into detail about Madame X. Traffic was whizzing by us and his car stalled right in the middle of his narration. He mumbled something about the car and the engine finally roared into life. Not missing a beat, he continued with the plot of the movie.
We were not quite at our hotel when he announced that he loved to sing and proceeded to break into some old Elvis and Frank Sinatra hits. Fortunately, his voice was closer to Susan Boyle instead of an idol wanna be. He was absolutely uninhibited and kept asking us if we wanted another song. I had no idea the hotel was about five songs from the airport. Our first glimpse of Thailand and if Mr. T was a representative of what we were to experience, we loved it already.
We ventured off to a huge market today where they had little bunnies dressed in clothes, some exotic animals, and little chipmunks and squirrels on leashes. We didn't even see the endangered animals as they hide them in the back rooms in case of raids. Peta would not be pleased.
Dinner was off the beaten path at a very local open air restaurant. Food was delicious and the total bill for the the two of us and our guide came to 15 dollars! Tomorrow we are touring Bangkok and getting a 15 dollar massage--it is one of the higher end places.
Oh, weather is 85 today and 75 tonight. Great place so far after we had a good night's sleep.
Rob added this after I was finished.
Mary neglected to mention that our guide took us on some back alleys and told us to look for wildlife. Just then two BIG rats came running by. You know how my lovely wife loves rodents...her heart is still beating fast.
Rob
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
