Getting Ready to Drive (Not Swim) to Cambodia

What do you expect Cambodia to be like?

Amanda:  Can't answer because this is my third trip, but I expect Siem Reap to be much more crowded than it was when I first visited 18 years ago.

L.D.:  Scenic but less developed than Thailand

Wesley: Will be like Thailand with different stuff

Here are some shots from our successful (thankfully) border crossing

Bangkok Day 2

I Hard to believe, but it felt even more hot and more humid than it did yesterday!.  L.D. and I were already covered in sweat by the time we got on the boat to the Grand Palace in the morning.

We did our first and only touristy activity today and toured the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  Wesley was very impressed that much of the decoration on the temples was real gold leaf!

The various buildings of the Temple (dating from the late 1700s and the reign of Rama 1 through the mid 1800s) always impress me with the various styles of the architecture and the decorations (ranging from Thai, Khmer (Cambodia for us farangs (Westerners), Hindu and Chinese styles).  It would be great if you had time to truly study and contemplate it in a calm and quiet atmosphere.  Unfortunately, I have never found a time to visit when it isn't absolutely packed with people.  It's interesting because you have all of the different languages being spoken around you, different norms for behavior (or misbehavior as the case may be -- it was all that I could do not to say something to the Chinese tourists who kept ignoring the large signs not to touch the statutes and who kept touching the statutes!)., and different perspectives on the temple (some were there to honor the Buddha and the spiritual significant of the place, most were like us and there to view an interesting site/sight).  I can taken photos of yaks (giants who guard the palace and are found throughout the temple), garudas (mythical birds), nagas (representation of the god of the seas who has a snake form) and combination creatures (monkey/lion, angel/lion, etc.), but don't worry, I didn't so here are a few photos from around the temple complex, including one of the Emerald Buddha himself in his rainy season outfit (there are also outfits for summer and winter which the King (or now the Crown Prince) changes personally.(Will figure out how to rotate photos later but for now, you'll have to bend your head!)

Wesley said that the temple was okay, but that there was too much information for him to process.

From the sublime, we moved on to the ridiculousness of Bangkok traffic.  It took us over an hour to get from the palace to the US embassy where we had lunch with some of the old USIS crew.

Bangkok Day 1

I forgot how hot and humid Bangkok is!  The BTS (sky train) does make it much more pleasant to get around town.  Even with all the changes, I was surprised at how much of my part of Bangkok is still the same.   Shopping was the theme for the day, and we got caught in a Bangkok, rainy season shower and now have a couple of umbrella souvenirs.

Here are some highlights of Day 1.

Breakfast by the Chao Praya River

Spending the day with Khun Yuvanit, including lunch at the food court at the Chitlom department store, scoping out some of Bangkok's newest shopping malls and shopping for clothes for L.D. At Rajah's.   Wesley didn't believe me when I told him that we were going to buy clothes for Daddy.  Bobby found LD's measurements from 1997 when L.D. was customer number 3981.   Today he was customer 50,000 and something, and Bobby's son was giving L.D. fashion advice about his shirt collars.

Wesley got his tuk tuk ride!

Here's part of the "new and improved" Bangkok-- Asiatique, a foreigner-friendly version of the night market at Patpong.  Beautiful to look at, but not much character.

Arrival in Bangkok (for real this time)

We made it out of the airport and into the City of Angels on Monday.

Here's a look at the Chao Praya River from our balcony. 

We experienced some of Bangkok's oldest and newest modes of transportation today.  We took the MRT from the airport to the center of town and then a taxi (although it wasn't one of the candy pink taxis that Wesley had read about) to get to our hotel.  Then we took the hotel's river taxi to Satorn pier to catch the BTS (Sky train) to meet our friends for dinner (see below).  Wesley still needs his tuk tuk ride.

Dinner at Ta Ling Pling with friends from Esso.  Excellent Thai food including Yam Som-oh ( pomelo salad), one of my favorites!  Wesley did enjoy his food, even though he couldn't stay awake for the entire evening, but to be honest, L.D. and I were having a hard time keeping our eyes open as well.  Thanks to Chan for driving us back to the hotel!

As you can see, Wesley didn't quite make it through the evening, but he did impress everyone with the amount of stirs ha that he put on his omelet!  Our friends also gave us a tasty assortment of Thai snacks to try out while we are here

Plus I finally got my rambuttans!

Final scenes from the Centarra Grand Beach Resort, Krabi

Cliffs by the resort

Relaxing in the room

Beach view

Walking from our room to the restaurants

View from the breakfast table

Our monkey friends came to see us off on our last morning

A last look at the resort

Our breakfast companions for the past few days

We enjoyed having our breakfast on the patio 

. . . even if some of our other breakfast companions were a bit unusual 

Seeing Krabi in the Rain

Today was our sightseeing day.  The day started well with clear skies and sunshine, but it was just a teaser to make us think that it was okay to venture out.  The rest of the day was rain, rain and more rain, but we still had a good time.   Below are some of the highlights.

Elephant trekking

Outside the pagoda at the Temple of the Tiger Cave

Checking out the Hot Springs.

Wesley swimming in his clothes in the Emerald Pool in the rain.

Monkeys Madness!

They told us to keep our patio doors locked to keep the monkeys out and this morning we found out why.   Monkeys have been going back and forth on our balcony all morning.   Two came close to making it on our room (my screaming scared one away and L.D.'s quick door action thwarted the other attempt) and one reached out and touched me while I was reading on the porch (it was interested in the not so empty Coke can sitting beside me).   A small monkey came up almost to Wesley's leg.   A few shots below including one of a mother with her baby.

I was still sitting on the porch when this mother approached (I guess that I didn't learn my lesson the first time), so I yelled at L.D. and Wesley to open the door so that I could get into the room.  Wesley was standing up, but he had to pause his game and set his I-pad down before he came to open the door for me.  I guess that it's good to know where you stand on the priority list!

Wesley's thoughts about the monkeys: They are very persistent to get food one went in the door and grabbed a dragonfruit and went out. My mom got attacked by a monkey and The second time I didn't go to the door because my dad was closer and then yelled at me so I paused my game (a must do or you are exposed to progress loss) and set it down(if I didn't I woulden't be able to open the door and you would

 risk letting the monkey in) and if I dropped it or threw it it might break.

Rainy start to Saturday

A reminder that it is rainy season, but that doesn't stop Wesley from having a good time!

Wesley plays with Fire

Tonight we had Thai dinner featuring Thai folk dancers and fire dancers, but I'll let Wesley tell you about that . . .

The folk dancers mainly just stood there swaying and moving their arms around. The fire dancers swung around sticks and chains one let me pull the chain and spin the fire part later he tried to convince me to try to eat fire like he was luckily I shook my head no I may do weird stuff but not things that are crazy.

Unfortunately we only have video of Wesley and the fire dancer but here are a coupe of photos of the dancers.

Views from our balcony Friday morning