Category: Southeast Asia Bangkok to Singapore 01/21/2018 to 02/07/2018

01/21 – 01/23/18 We left Englewood about noon for our flight out of Miami. Dave wanted to get to the Business class lounge at the airport so he could watch the Patriots game before boarding our flight to Bangkok via Zürich. Unfortunately, as we were chatting away, Dave took River Road (out of habit to go to the Tampa airport) instead of 776 to Veterans Highway, adding a little time to our trip. Fairly uneventful trip to Miami, except I had two maps open, a general map of how to get to Miami from earlier in the day, and one for the rental car return address. Of course I opened the wrong map and it took us to downtown Miami. Dave kept saying it didn’t seem right, and I kept saying that’s where the directions are taking us. So our drive ended up being a little longer than expected. That may have been a good thing, because when we got to the airport business lounge, the Patriots were losing. Fortunately, they pulled it out, and our vacation was
back to a good start. Dave enjoying a glass of wine sitting on the plane.

The business class lounge at MIA was not very nice. It wasn’t very clean and the furniture seemed old and uncomfortable. However, the business class ride on Boeing 777-300er was very nice. Our seats folded flat into a bed, and it was the first time I actually got some sleep on a plane. Dave got some sleep, too. We landed in Zurich about 10:30 am local time, which is 4:30am Florida time. The airport is like a maze to us, maybe because we haven’t been here before. The weather in Zurich was not very nice – rainy and about 40 degrees. We went to the business class lounge to freshen up a bit, and then inquired about going into downtown Zurich as I had read there is a very fast train into the city. We had about a 7 hour layover, so plenty of time. We had brought warmer clothes in preparation of going into Zurich – older clothes so we could throw them away after Zurich. It took us awhile to get out of the airport and get tickets for the train. I think it was about 12:20 by the time we finally boarded the train and left the station. Arriving downtown Zurich, it is a huge train station and it took us awhile to figure out how to get out of the train station. We’d picked up a map when we bought our round trip tickets (about $15usd per person) and the map had a little walking tour. We walked on Cobble stones in the old town, and along the Limmat river, down to Lake Zurich. We had some very pretty long views of the mountains in the distance with snow on top, but pictures were hard because the weather was so lousy. We saw swans and ducks swimming in the very clear river water. We saw lots of fountains. There were lots of cute little boutique shops and restaurants, as well as some very high end stores (Hermès, etc.).

Picture is of pine cones surrounding door of flower shop.

You could eat outdoors at many of the restaurants, and some places had a fuzzycover on the chair to keep you warm (40 degrees, remember). We thought the food prices were pretty high, $20 for a hamburger, $5 for an iced tea, etc. we did not convert any money, so we couldn’t spend any money. Dave read where Zurich has overtaken Tokyo as the worlds most expensive city. We tried to go into a church as they had stained glass windows made by Marc Chagall. But there was a charge and they only accepted Swiss dollars or Euros. We walked around for about 90 minutes, and it started to rain harder, so we decided to head back to the airport. Before our little excursion into Zurich, I could tell Dave was dragging his feet a bit – but after we got the train tickets and got on the train, he warmed up to the idea. We had planned to walk around longer, but the weather was just too wet. Dave is great with directions and did a great job following the little walking tour, however, our map got very wet.

I was surprised that we did not see more people on our walk in Zurich. I also thought the airport didn’t seem very crowded. We got back to business lounge at Zurich airport, and I asked Dave if he was apprehensive about leaving the airport to go into downtown Zurich. He said no, it just seemed to him that I was a little unprepared, but then he found my research notes and realized I had researched taking the train from the airport into the city.

Another great flight in business class from Zurich to Bangkok. Arriving in Bangkok, where the temperature is about 90 degrees, we are surprised to see very few people in shorts. Our luggage arrived! Always good news. Interestingly, the TSA locks were gone from one of thebags. Nothing seemed to be missing – I guess they didn’t like old people’s clothes 😁 .We went to the information booth and asked a young woman there to write the address of our hotel in Thai so we could show it to the taxi driver. We got $10,000 thai baht which was about$333USD and paid about $10usd in conversion fees. But we wanted to have money to pay the taxi driver. Taxi driver was pretty good, but did not speak much English. He used google maps to find our hotel, and looked up their phone number to confirm it was the right hotel. He called the hotel, probably to ask directions, but spoke Thai, so no clue what he said. Lots and lots of traffic on the highways. I think our hotel is about 40km from the airport. We were told at the airport it would take about 40 minutes, which was probably about right. The taxi fare was under 400 baht, but Dave gave him 500 baht, apparently a generous tip from what I’ve read. We are still struggling with converting Thai baht to USD, however, the food prices seem very reasonable. Dave was checking the room service menu, and lamb curry was under $10USD.

We ate in a hotel restaurant, and had a shrimp Caesar salad sandwich (!), a Crab meat sandwich, Coke Zero and a coffee for about $17 USD. Considering it is in the hotel restaurant, I thought that was reasonable. The area surrounding our hotel is what I would call big city back streets. Lots of little, kinda dirty, shops. We ventured out and took a little walk, saw some street vendors, what looked like a school and a Buddhist Temple complex. One of the buildings was very pretty, but the picture did not come out the best. Probably because it is another dreary day and just after taking this picture, it started to rain big drops.

We headed back to the hotel, making a stop at a 7-11 (yes, a real 7-11) to pick up a few snacks, and then it really started to downpour. We held out until the rain let up. Seems like the rain is following us.

The hotel is along a river, and has a nice pool area. There is a river boat shuttle that takes you to a sky train, which you can then take to a mall. We may try that tomorrow. We checked out visiting a vineyard, and they are just too far away (3 or 4 hours). So no vineyard this trip.

It is Tuesday afternoon, about 4:00PM, which means it is Tuesday morning, about 4:00AM in Florida. We are back in the room and a young woman just brought us some fresh fruit. We spoke to a guy in the lobby earlier, and he told us about an area near the hotel that sounds like it is “vibrant” in the evenings, about 5 minutes walk away. We were actually headed that way this afternoon to check it out when it started to rain. We got within a block or so and saw a Ferris wheel close by. Maybe we we try again later.

01/24/2018 To digress a bit….back at the airport with the taxi driver….he could not fit our luggage into the trunk, so he put our two big bags in side by side at a 45 degree angle, and tied the trunk lid down with a bungee cord. As we were bouncing along the road on the way to the hotel, I commented how glad I was that we got all our luugggage. Dave said, “We’re not there yet…..”. Fortunately, all our luggage made it.

Last night, we really ran out of steam. It had quit raining, and I suggested we go walk some more so we could stay awake. Dave didn’t like that idea and suggested we go eat. Again. So we went back to the hotels casual restaurant. I was not hungry, but we both ordered appetizers – I got some chicken satay with a glass of water and Dave got calamari with ….a few glasses of wine 😳 . The chicken satay was good, came with a little salad, peanut sauce and toast points. The calamari looked more like onion rings. It was huge! There were some pieces that looked like chunks of squid. It was all very good. We walked around the hotel a bit, saw fireworks in the sky which must have been in the area by the Ferris wheel. We could see the Ferris wheel turning. Dave is a little afraid of heights, and maybe he didn’t want to go there because he knew I would want to take the Ferris wheel. Well, the week isn’t over yet…we will see. Lots of traffic on the Chao Phraya river and some of the boats are decorated with lights. Also saw some barges. I stuck my toe in the hotel swimming pool – too cold for me! We went back to the room and crashed by 8:00pm.

Wednesday – we slept in, amazing since we went to bed so early. We had breakfast bars in our room, but included breakfasts start tomorrow, as we will be on our tour.

We decided to take the riverboat shuttle and catch the sky train to the shopping area, downtown Bangkok. As we waited for the riverboat shuttle, the sky kept getting dark and darker. We felt a few drops of rain and decided we would wait out the rain and catch a later shuttle. We sat in the lobby and read for a couple of hours, and the rain passed by. We hopped on the shuttle, arrived at the sky train location that takes you downtown Bangkok, and headed towards the sky train entry. On the way, we were stopped by two different gentlemen offering to help us. Being the suspicious type that we are, we listened politely to the first guy, who later said he worked for the hotel, and kept moving. The second guy was near the ticket booth at the sky train. He warned us that a protest was going on until 2:00pm and we wouldn’t be able to go to the shopping area until after 2:00. The first guy told us that too, but not the reason why, so I was assuming it was siesta time. We told the second guy that we wanted to eat, too, and he recommended a couple of places, and noted another shopping area on our map. He recommended taking a tuktuk, but it didn’t look very far, so we walked. The man was truly being helpful and we found that many people would see us looking at our maps and would try to help us. Very friendly, nice people -so far. We found the first place he suggested,Robinson’s, pretty quickly. It was a large building with all kinds of shopping inside, similar to a Macy,s, and eating places on the outside, including a McDonalds. We went in and the basement had lots of food options including a grocery store. We checked the menus and opted for MK Restaurant, apparently a chain. We sat at a little table and they poured us a glass of liquid. Dave asked what it was and the lady told him “tea”. I have never tasted tea that tasted like this. I’m pretty easy, but I didn’t like it. We started ordering off their electronic menu. We ordered pork shumai, which we were familiar with, shrimp, and a soup with green noodles, pork and shrimp wontons. We had to cook our shrimp ourselves in the provided hotpot. We also ordered steamed wonton stuffed with pork, crab and vegetables. The waitstaff saw us fumbling with chopsticks and brought us forks. This meal was about $9 total. We visited the grocery store and were trying to compare prices. It was a bit difficult because, for instance, the meats were priced in Thai baht of course, and also in kilo’s. Our brains were just a bit too tired to do the conversion, until we got to the wine section. There, we quickly determined wines were more expensive. Columbia Crest was about $30 USD per bottle, whereas in the US you could probably get it for $12 or $13 per bottle. Then we continued walking to “Thai Center” as the second gentleman recommended. We got in a lot of walking, taking in the sights around us. We saw lots of street vendors along the streets, pretty much blocking the sidewalk, selling anything and everything you can imagine. Lots of street food vendors, but we saw them washing the dishes in wash tubs basically in the street which really turned us off. There was a lot of traffic which made crossing the streets a challenge. The wires above the streets made me wonder how I was able to get internet at all while in Thailand.

After walking a long way, and never finding the Thai Center the second gentleman told us about, we saw the sky train station, decided we’d had enough fun, and headed back to the hotel. While riding on the sky train, we did pass a nice looking shopping area, but we were hot and tired and ready for a break. The sky train took us back to the pier and we caught the hotel’s riverboat shuttle back to the hotel. The crew on the riverboat gave us cold towels and cold water on the ride back to the hotel, which was very welcome.

We went back to our room, cooled off for a bit, and I convinced Dave to head to the Ferris wheel area. It was about 1/2 mile from our hotel, also along the Chao Phraya River, and called Asiatique. It reminded me of The Dome flea market (maybe when The Dome closed, the vendors came here?), except much bigger and a little nicer. It was like old warehouses that had been converted. It was lit up beautifully. Lots of booths with vendors selling all kinds of merchandise, and several restaurants that looked pretty good. We did ride the Ferris wheel, and they let us go around 4 or 5 times! I guess I was surprised because we only went around once on the London Eye when we were in London. You could see a long way from the top, but mostly it is just tall buildings, the river and river traffic. There is a lot of construction going on in Bangkok. Even at the airport, it looked like they were either building a new airport or doubling its size. We decided we may come back here to eat one evening, but wanted to try the hotels menu for dinner tonight.

Back at the hotel, we ordered a couple of appetizers – spring rolls and fried chicken in Thai herbs, and our favorite Thai entrees – Green curry with chicken and Penang curry with chicken. The spring rolls looked like shrimp wrapped in rice paper. They provided a plum sauce. The fried chicken was pretty much what you would expect, and we had a chili sauce, like those you get in the US, sweet and hot. We were a little disappointed in the entrees. Partly because there were not as many vegetables, and also a slightly different taste. It was good, but I am beginning to believe I prefer Asian food American style ☹ . Tomorrow we meet up with our tour group.
Ferris wheel as seen from our hotel parking lot.

View from our room. Note how hazy…not sure if it’s smog or just humidity. And, a picture of some of the interesting architecture. Some of the buildings are decorated and painted colorfully.

01/25/2018 – This morning we met up with our SmarTours guide and fellow travelers. There are 19 in our group, with 10 of us going to Cambodia after Thailand and 9 going to Phuket. We later discovered that one couple who is going to Phuket is also going on the same Princess cruise as we are.
Our tour guide said there are 7 million people in Bangkok and 90% are Buddhists. There are 33,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand and 400 are in Bangkok.. The Buddhist temples can be identified as they are colorful and well decorated.

This mornings tours were all about Buddha. There is only one Buddha, but Buddha is represented in many different poses to send messages to his believers. We visited 3 different temples to see different Buddha’s. Buddhist temples are called “Wat”.

The first Buddhist temple we visited was Wat Traimit to see the golden Buddha. It weighs 5.5 tons, is over 700 years old, however, it was not discovered until 1957, when it was being moved, that it was a gold Buddha. It had been covered in plaster to protect it from invaders. During a move, the Buddha fell and plaster chipped off, revealing the gold underneath. All around this Buddha, and others we visit later in the day, are donation boxes for various charities. At this temple complex, and others we visit, there were more Buddha’s on display, but the golden Buddha is the most important one at Wat Traimit. In another building in the complex was a Buddha, and a monk. It appeared the monk was counciling someone. The monk put a white string bracelet on the gentleman when he was done talking to him. Our guide said 4 times a month, people can seek out the monk to get guidance as to what the Buddha’s teachings mean. The 4 days are determined by the moons phase, and we were “lucky” to be visiting on one of the 4 days so we could observe the monks ministering to the faithful.
The second temple we visited was at Wat Benchamabophit which houses a sitting Buddha in a “frame”. The frame is representative of an “aura”.

Again, lots of donation boxes are around the Buddha. In the temple complex are replicas of many other Buddha’s, and each had a description of what the Buddha’s message was. The ones pointed out by our guide were a skeleton Buddha and a walking Buddha. There are also bells in the temple complex that people would ring, but our guide said they were for decoration.
The last Buddha we visited was at Wat Po, and was a reclining Buddha. This complex is the largest, covering 20 acres. The reclining Buddha is 150ft. long and 50 ft. tall. The Buddha was constructed first, and then the temple built around him. This Buddha was built in 2939, and other than its size, the bottom of its feet were decorated with mother of pearl. In this temple complex are many stupa’s, which are depositories for the creamated ashes of followers of Buddha. There can be many ashes in one stupa. The person or family requests the ashes to be placed there and makes a donation. Our guide did not know the donation amount. Some of the spots were marked with pictures of the deceased, dates of birth and death. Another area in this complex had 4 much larger stupas which represented the first 4 kings of Thailand, but their ashes were not in these stupas.

After visiting the temples, we had the option to go on a canal/river ride on a long tail boat to visit the canals (Khlongs). The canals were built before there were roads to provide transportation. We elected to do this tour. Our long tail boat was a little different than some we have seen on the river. Those long boats have a car engine on the back and a very long tiller. I have not been successful in getting a picture of one of those yet. It was hard to understand our guide as the motor on our boat was very loud. We visited the Royal Barge Museum. Here, 8 of the kings 50+ barges are kept on display. Each of the barges has a special purpose, and only the king can ride on the fanciest barge. They are all hand made “masterpieces”, with beautiful designs. They are row boats, no motors. For certain celebrations, all 52 barges travel on the river in a parade, but that only happens rarely.

After the Royal Barge Museum, our boat headed down a canal, and we saw homes where the canal people live. Some of the homes look very dilapidated, but a few are very nice. In this canal are catfish which people feed for good luck. Our guide gave us loaves of bread so we could feed the fish. I will never complain about our little lizards again! We saw 5 to 6 foot river monitor lizards along the bank, in back of people’s houses on their docks, and in the bushes. They looked as big as Florida alligators. Apparently they eat fish, but I would not want to encounter one. They have sharp teeth and big claws. He may be hard to pick out in the photo, but he is there, laying on the right side of the dock. The water in the river and canals is filthy. I thought our guide said the houses have septic tanks, but when some of the houses are built totally over the water, I wonder how that is possible.

We got back to the hotel around 4:00pm. Even though our guide stopped at a street vendor to allow us to buy fried chicken, we passed. We were ok with the chicken being cooked in the hot oil, but I could only picture the chickens we saw in Mexico that had sat around for days in the heat, before being consumed. Dave and I went to the casual eating spot in the hotel and had a Chang beer and shared a crab stick sandwich. Dinner was scheduled for 6:30, so we did not want to eat too much. We went back to the room and rested for a bit before our Welcome Dinner.

Dinner was a buffet with all kinds of options – sushi, stir fries, fresh seafood, lamb stew, etc. Also some yummy desserts. Of the 19 people on our tour, another couple is from Sarasota! Another couple we met is going on the same Princess cruise to Bali that we are going on! Small world!

01/26/2018 –

This morning we did a tour of the Grand Palace. At one time, the King of Thailand lived here, but no more. I asked our guide why the king didn’t live here, and I didn’t understand her answer. It seemed like she was saying there was nothing for him to do here.

The grounds of the Grand Palace, covering 60 acres, are fully built out with several buildings, including what was once a royal residence, a coronation building, a guest residence for visiting heads of state, Buddhist temples, administrative offices, stupas,etc. All the buildings are highly decorated, some covered in gold or gold leaf, gems, ceramics, etc. While this picture doesn’t exactly show a building, it does reflect the high decoration on the outside walls of the buildings. They definitely glitter and are beautiful. The palace grounds cover 60 acres, and I could not even count how many structures there were. Each king seemed to build another building or stupa to honor something or someone. The Royal Guesthouse, where Bill Clinton and the queen of England have stayed, was originally built to house the crown prince. There is a stupa which is covered in gold and contains ashes of Buddha. Not all of his ashes, just a portion of the Buddha’s ashes. The Thai Year is 543 years ahead of our calendar year, as they started counting when Buddha died. So it is Year 2561 (2018 + 543).
One building was originally a Royal residence built by the 5th king, King Rama V in 1877 it was built by an English architect, but a Thai style roof was added. It had 3 floors. Currently the first floor is a weapons museum, the second floor is used as a reception hall and state banquets, and the 3rd floor holds ashes of Kings IV to VIII, and principal queens. There is another room on the third floor which holds the ashes of lessor queens and members of the royal family.
King 9 died in 2016 and his body laid in state for 1 year. Then he was cremated and his ashes are held on 3 different places – somewhere on the grounds of this Grand Palace, a temple where he was a monk, and another temple. The current King, #10, has not had his coronation yet, to allow for mourning of King #9. The kingship passes to first born male. If the current king does not have a son, then it passes to his brother. It is always kept within the family. King 10 is 66 years old, and his first 2 children were girls. His 3rd child is a 13 year old boy. His first daughter is 39 and has a different mother from his son. So, while I have not researched it yet, with principal queens and lessor queens, apparently the king has more than one wife!!!!!!
One of the highlights of a visit to the Grand Palace is to see the emerald Buddha. It is small, approximately 2’ x 2’ and carved out of a single piece of stone. It sits high up on a throne and is highly decorated. The emerald Buddha has 3 costumes – one for winter, summer and monsoon season. Today he was dressed in his winter costume, which will be changed in March, by the king. There are 3 doors to the temple where the emerald Buddha is housed. Regular visitors go in on the left and out on the right. Only the king can enter the center door. It is regarded as the most important Buddha in Thailand. It was probably made in the 1400’s. It was very hard to see as it sits pretty far back, with all the decoration in front including two 9 ft. Buddha images. As everywhere around the Grand Palace, there are very large crowds.
At all the temples in Thailand, there is a dress code. Men and women have to have their knees and shoulders covered. You have to take off your shoes before entering the temple building and men must remove their hats. On most of our tour, you were practically shoulder to shoulder with other people. Almost all tourists visit the Grand Palace, so it is always this crowded. Our guide said when it was first opened to the public, in the 1940’s, Men had to wear business suits, and women had to dress up, too.
The emerald Buddha cannot be photographed from inside the building, but you can take photos through the open doors before entering. The image is so small since it sits so far back, the pictures just aren’t that great.

Photo of Emerald Buddha in winter costume
After visiting the Grand Palace, we took our wonderfully air conditioned bus back to the hotel. It was very hot today, The bus driver’s assistance gave us cold towels and cold water to cool off. We arrived back at the hotel around lunchtime, and our guide recommended a close by restaurant for lunch. Dave and I decided to try it. We each had a very large bottle of beer. Dave had pad Thai with prawns, and I had hot and spicy soup with prawns. We could have had it with chicken, but I told Dave I’d rather deal with tearing the heads off prawns than wondering what part of a chicken I was eating (reference China – chicken heads and feet!). I told them I wanted it spicy, and Dave reiterated that I liked my food spicy. Well, mine was spicy! Not too spicy that I couldn’t eat it, but close. It was very good, none the less. I tasted Dave’s pad thai, and it was very good. I normally don’t like pad Thai, but his had good flavor that was not all nuts. Unfortunately we forgot our cameras, so no pictures of lunch.

Photo of street scene with sidewalk vendors.
In the evening we went to dinner and a show, inclusive. The traffic getting there was horrendous. At one point we were literally stopped for 15 minutes or so. It took over an hour to drive from the hotel to the show.The show is basically the history and diversity of Thailand. The dinner was a buffet, and had a lot of choices. After dinner we visited an outdoor area next to the theatre. Some of the performers were dancing, two elephants were on display, and there were mock ups of homes in different parts of Thailand from 100 years ago. The name of the show is Siam Niramit. We moved into the theatre, and saw a film about the king that died in 2016. The Thai people really love their kings. After the memorial to the king, we all stood for the national anthem. Then the show began. The stage is suppose to be one of the highest in the world, with over 100 performers and 500 costumes. We were pretty impressed with the show – quite an extravaganza. One scene showed a person living on a canal. In the morning, he rolled out of bed and into the canal for his morning bath. There was actually water running along the front of the stage to mimic the canals. There were “boats” moving in the canal., it rained and stormed with lightening. Other scenes had people flying in the air. The elephants were on stage. It was quite the show, and very entertaining. Cameras were not allowed in the theatre, as they have a CD they want you to buy. Going home, traffic was much better -9:30pm. We were back at the hotel in about 20 minutes.

01/27/2018

We had a very early start this morning.our wake up call was at 5:30am, and we had to be ready to start our tour at 7:00am. The hotel has a very tasty breakfast with lots of choices. For Asians, lots of noodle choices. But, they also have an American breakfast. Most days, Dave and I have a ham and cheese omelette, sometimes adding additional ham on top. Also, dollar size pancakes, bacon, sausages, French toast, danish, fruits, etc. obviously, we don’t eat all of that, but we do have a good selection. !We get on the bus for a little over an hour ride to the train market. Vendors are set up on both sides of the railroad tracks, but trains come thru 8 times a day. This morning we were there for the 8:30am train. Just before the train comes, the vendors pull up their stuff to get it out of the way of the train. People are all over the place. The walkways are very broken up cement, and there are some lines which you can sort of make out which I assumed were to indicate where the train passes. We could hear the train coming as it blows its horn. Everyone kinda squeees back against the buildings as the train passes. I would guess there was 6 inches between me and the train! I took a video as the train passed. Dave surprised me because he is a very cautious person, and although he had an escape route planned, he stood right next to me as the train passes. The train moves slow, but probably not as slow as you would expect with all the people and activity on and next to the tracks. As soon as the train passes, it is back to business as usual, and vendors are pulling their goods back out to the tracks.!

I had heard of this market, so it was exciting to actually see it.!Back on the bus, and our next stop is a place to show how coconut sugar, which our guide also calls brown sugar, is made. It is the sap of coconut tree flowers boiled down. We tasted a sample and it is very sweet. Our guide said it is too sweet to be used in coffee, but it is used in cooking. The coconut sugar stop also gave us a chance to use the bathrooms, which our guide calls the happy room. We drive some more to a boat dock for a ride on a long tail boat. Each boat holds 8 people, but our guide arranged it so we only had 4 people in the boat. The guide also calls them speed boats. As I described earlier from seeing them on the river by our hotel, these boats are pretty narrow. There is a big engine sitting on the back, exposed. I thought it was a car engine but the guide said it was a truck engine. Then there is a long pole out the back which is used for steering the boat. The driver is in the back of the boat gondola style, using this big engine and rudder. We rode for about 30 minutes, and while we saw one water monitor, it was not as many as the Bangkok canals. The water is filthy, and the canal is narrow. There are houses and shops along the sides of the canal. Some are very nice houses, and others are not so nice – rich and poor. However, we did not see as many dilapidated houses as we saw on the Bangkok canals. Our destination is the Damnoensaduak floating market. At the floating market, there are two sections. One where we depart the long tail boat which has the usual trinkets and some beautifully carved teak furniture. Dave and I loved one piece that was a bar. It cost $2,100 USD (after some negotiation) including shipment to US. We did not but it, but it was definitely a work of art and beautiful. From there, we walked down a pathway that had vendors on both sides. Some of these vendors were a bit aggressive. They were selling all kinds of trinkets and clothing. One vendor had python snakes and you could have your picture taken with the snakes. No, thank you! Many vendors were selling food, too. At the end of the walkway was a road, and on the other side of the road were more vendors, many of them in boats lining a canal. Dave and I steered clear of the food, but Dave bought a hat for about $5USD, and I bought two pairs of pants. One pair is what I would call wrap pans and they cost about $6.75USD and the other pair is kinda like capris, but with elastic at the waist and bottom. The second pair cost $4.25USD. We negotiated the prices down considerably. I wanted the pants to wear when we visit temples and I need to have my knees covered. We saw one gentleman who is part of our group and he was eating noodle soup that he bought from one of the floating vendors. Later, he threw up on the bus. We’ll have to see what happens to him, and if he is still on our tour tomorrow….! Our guide bought some food for us from the markets to sample, so hopefully it is all safe. She gave us some grapefruit which is much more “bland” than our grapefruit – nowhere near as acidic. She also gave us little silver dollar size coconut pancakes, “one-bite” bananas which are tiny bananas, and crunchy crepe-type snacks. !After the floating markets, we drove to the largest Stupa in Thailand. Our guide has also been calling the stupas pagodas. This stupa is located in the Thai province where Buddhism started. The guide said it is 350 feet tall, and contains relics of Buddha, including some of his ashes.

There previously was a white stupa there, but it started to deteriorate. One of the Thai kings built this bigger stupa encapsulating the earlier stupa. Buddhists are suppose to walk around the stupa 3 times, clockwise, to reach heaven. We only walked around it once. The guide said you walk counterclockwise for a funeral. We drove outside Bangkok today, almost what I would call suburbs, and then into further environs. We didn’t stop, but we saw tree farms. Trees would be planted on long islands with ditches on each side for irrigation. We also saw fish farms where it would be large sea water ponds with machines that would put oxygen into the water. We also saw sea salt farms. The salt is harvested from sea water and sent to processing plants, I assume to better clean it. Other tidbits of information we heard from our guide today – – – unemployment rate is .5% – lowest paid job is gas station attendant that pumps gas. They would be paid the equivalent of $10 USD for 8 hours of work. You cannot live on that, so you would seek out other addition jobs, or be supported by Family. – life expectancy for women is 75 and men is 70. We got back to our hotel about 2:30pm. There was an optional dinner tonight which Dave and I decided not to participate. It was a cruise on the river with an Asian dinner. We are leaving Bangkok tomorrow morning at 7:30 am and we want to be organized. We can have a very good Asian dinner at our hotel 😁� . !This is the best picture of a long tail boat that I have:

01/28/18

Last night we had dinner at the hotel. It was a beautiful evening and we sat outside. We had some music and a duet singing oldies and doing a good job of it. Dave and I both had pineapple fried rice – mine was with shrimp, Dave’s was with shrimp, crab meat and pork! They were both very good. We also had chicken satay for an appetizer which we decided was their best appetizer. 

This morning after breakfast we left Bangkok. We have a few stops before we get to our hotel tonight in Phitsanulok, Thailand, which is a one night stopover on our way to Chiang Rai. We  have another one night stopover before we get to Chiang Rai. Our tour stops at sights along the way.

Driving this morning, we saw more rice fields. The rice cycle is 4 months. A lot of the work is done by hand. Rice is the biggest export item from Thailand. 

We visit Ayutthaya which was the second capital of Thailand (the first capital was Sukhothai which we visit tomorrow). Ayutthaya was the capital for over 400 years, and during the Ayutthaya period, there were 34 kings. Bangkok is the current capital and the 10th king is the current king. Ayutthaya was invaded by Burma, and in 1767 Burma burned the capital city and melted down their golden Buddha. Our first stop was the ruins in Ayutthaya of the Royal Palace. The royal palace grounds had stupas as does the royal palace in Bangkok. We wandered around looking at the ruins. As in many European cities, the structure was first made from bricks and then covered with plaster. There are many stupas, and many are leaning precariously. There is restoration work currently going on, and we were not able to visit the sitting Buddha which is in one of the buildings due to the restoration work. There are 3 big stupas which are believed to hold the ashes of a couple of kings from the Ayutthaya period, as well as Buddha relics. Thai people visit and leave offerings on the ruins walls because they believe the ashes are in the stupas.

Next we visit a Buddha head in a tree. This is on the sight of another temple that was burned in Ayutthaya when conquered by Burma in1767. This is pretty much what it sounds like. The head  was made of sandstone, probably in the 1600’s. One theory is that looters were taking the Buddha and the head fell off. Eventually the tree grew up around the head. It looks like a banyon tree, but I’m not sure. We could walk around the grounds of this temple, also in ruins. We could see where at one time there were many Buddha images (statues) along the walls.

We drove further, and our next stop is what is known as the monkey temple. Again, this temple is in ruins, but there are hundreds of monkeys on this site which is probably no more than 1/4 square mile. There are 3 towers here, called prangs in the Cambodian style instead of stupas. They look more like bullets. There are carvings In the prangs that look like monkeys. We went inside one structure, and there were two Buddha statues missing their heads, draped in orange cloth. The whole area smells like monkey droppings because they are so thick. These are long tail monkeys, which are native to the area. Apparently visitors to the temple, and now tourists, feed them, so they stay in the temple confines. They can be aggressive if you have something that attracts them. I saw a monkey jump on a girl’s back, I think because he was attracted to a button on her top. One man with our group had three monkeys jump on him and he thought it was because they were attracted to his water bottle. I am happy to say Dave and I were not jumped by monkeys. 

Our guide then had the bus driver drive an hour to a beautiful, if remote location for lunch. There were other buses there, but it seemed remote. The grounds were beautiful with fountains, flowers, orchids in the trees.  The Lunch was buffet style with a soup, rice and various stir frys to put on the rice. My drink was pineapple juice. For dessert we had fingerling bananas with coconut, fresh pineapple and a coconut cream little pot. One of our tour members is having a birthday today, and the guide brought a birthday cake. Needless to say, I was stuffed. The meal was 200 Thai Baht which is about $6.70 USD per person. Drinks were additional.

On the bus, out guide gave us some tablets which reminded ,e of tums. One of the kings lived where he had more fresh milk than he could use. He did not want to waste the fresh milk, so he had the milk made into these tablets. They do taste like milk, but have maybe a slightly more sweet taste to them.

While we were riding on the bus, the driver makes a sudden stop where a vendor on the side of the rode is selling food. It turns out that he is selling fried rice rat. Thai’s eat these rice rats. Our guide is holding a fried rice rat in tongs.

We arrive in Phitsanulok which looks like a decent sized city. Our hotel looks like it was very nice in years past, but now seems a little dated and old. We check in and then quickly meet our guide in the lobby. She is going to take us to see the most beautiful sitting Buddha in Thailand it is also the last day of a temple festival, so there are vendors selling all sorts of stuff all over the place. This Buddha is made of gold and has an aura like the Buddha in Bangkok. Apparently one of the Bangkok kings wanted to bring this Buddha to Bangkok, but the local people were very displeased. So the sitting Buddha with aura in Bangkok is just a replica of this Buddha. 

In order to take a picture, you must be sitting with your feet not pointed at the Buddha. This . Buddha’s fingers are same length which is sign of exceptional person.  This Buddha looks peaceful and beautiful.Painting in back is of angels so Buddha looks like he’s in heaven. 

After visiting the sitting Buddha, we walked around a bit, visited the mall which is adjacent to our hotel, and then finally ate dinner in our hotel restaurant. Dave has fried pineapple rice with seafood (again) and I had stir fried noodles with shrimp. Dave’s pineapple fried rice was good, but last nights was better. My stir fried noodles reminded me of mall food. It was good, but had the same taste as Chinese food in the mall.

01/29/18 Happy Birthday, Ray!

Breakfast this morning was a little bit of a challenge. Dave was able to get an omelet – ham but no cheese 😁. I actually had fried rice because there are eggs in fried rice. I also had some fruit. The coffee has been very good so far.

Our first stop is a Buddha factory to see how Buddha’s are made. The large ones can take 3 months. The Buddha’s are not purchased,but rented. Big ones are donated to temples. Only small ones are kept in houses. Small ones only take 3 days to make. The procedure is make a mold, cast, and then polish. There was an interesting old Mercedes parked in the Buddha factory lot.

Heading to Sukhothai, the first capital of Thailand, and10 kings. Most important is King #3  because he invented Thai alphabet in 1283. There are 44 letters in the Thai alphabet and 21 tones or vowels. The capital complex covers 70 square kilometers. At one time, 1 million people lived here. King #3 was the king of happiness. He has a bell, and if people needed to see the king, they would ring the bell. The king would try to solve their problem to make them happy. The name of this capital city is Sukhothai which means rising happiness. The capital in Ayutthaya became more powerful, so Sukhothai was eventually deserted. King #3 also did away with taxes. Later today, we visit a ceramic kiln and King #3 was responsible for bringing the ceramic industry to Northern Thailand.

I am learning more about Buddha’s than I thought there was to know. Four basic body styles: standing, sitting, walking and reclining. The long ears represents long life, which 2500 years ago was 80 years. The point on his head represents enlightenment. The curly hair represents wisdom. The Buddha’s with the fat round tummy are Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. it is still the same religion, but different slant like Catholics and Protestants. Thai buddhaism is more conservative where the Dali lama is more flexible. Different artists from different periods give Buddha’s different facial features.

We stopped for lunch in Sukhothai at a local restsurant, Kira Lom Fon. It was very nice and clean, but still outdoors. We were served more food than 10 people could eat. The picture is what was served family style  for 4 people. We had a coconut milk soup with chicken and lemongrass, chicken red curry, stir fried sweet and sour  with fish, stir fried chicken with nuts, stir fried glass noodle with egg,  and rice. For dessert we had bananas, watermelon and papaya. The price was 250 baht which is a little over $8 per person. 

We are traveling north, and our guide said there are differences between people in the north and south of Thailand. Food in the north is not as hot and spicy as food in the south. People in the north move slower than people in the south.Yesterday we traveled about 230 miles, today we traveled about 150 miles, and tomorrow we will travel another 140 miles to get to Chiang  Rai. The roads are two lanes – no interstate highways. We traveled into the mountains today, so windy roads. There are lots of motor bikes on the roads and the driver honks at them and then passes, but does not go entirely into the other lane. A lot of the motor bikes travel on the paved shoulder. When passing other vehicles, the bus kinda goes down the middle of the road, and if he meets another car, that car moves onto the shoulder. Also, traffic in Thailand drives on the “wrong side” of the road.

So something must be going around the bus. Everyday we have more sick people. Today, there are 4 people that are sick. Something we are not loooking forward to…..our guide keeps stopping at pharmacies to get medicine. 

Our last stop before Lampang is a visit to an ancient kiln. The 3rd king of Sukhothai sent people to China to learn how to make ceramics in the 13th century. The area where the soil had enough clay was about 40 kilometers north of Sukhothai and the 3rd king sent his son the crown prince to govern this area. The kilns are along the Yon river. The Yon River was used to transport the finished products. Over 200 kilns have been found. About the 16th century, production terminated due to dominance of Chinese ceramics, politics and wars.

We drove a little further to a private museum. The owner was from Laos and was very poor when he immigrated to Thailand. He eventually became involved with textiles, which is where he earned his fortune. His most famous item is a  more than 100 year old sarong, contains gold strands, he bought from Cambodia for $5,000 usd. In 1998 he recreated a copy of the sarong for his daughter to wear at her wedding. The recreation cost over $13,000usd to make. Attached to the museum was his store where he sold clothes including sarongs. 

Other interesting tidbits we learned on the long bus ride:

-The Thai word for pumpkin is fuck.

-The Laotians and Thai languages are similar and they can understand each other. There is about 80% overlap of words.

– The national flower is “Golden Rain”

-Teachers are not well paid as they work for the government, but they have good benefits. They cannot live on their teaching salary, so they also work as tutors, and tutors are well paid.

-School age 7 to 19:  6 years in primary, 6 years in secondary which is provided by the government.  There is a dress code.

-you must pay for college

This area in Northern Thailand (Lampang) produces a lot of teak. The hotel we are staying in tonight is made of teak wood and has a lot of teak carved decoration.

01/30/18

Today we are traveling to Chiang Rai. We drive for about 2 hours and our guide discusses Thai politics and tells us a little more about the king. Sounds like the politicians are corrupt, just like everywhere else. King 10 has been married 5 times. His second wife, daughter and 4 sons live in the USA. The son from the 3rd wife, a commoner, is the crown prince. They are divorced, too, and it sounds like she is not suppose to see her son. The guide does not know why the firstborn son of the 2nd wife is not the crown prince. Maybe because the mother of King 10 did not like wife 2. King 9 was very loved and only had 1 wife. He was king for over 70 years. King 10 has not had his coronation yet because the country has been mourning King 9, but I think king 10 has big shoes to fill.

After about 2 hours drive, we stop for a coffee break at the largest lake in Thailand. I think the name of the town is Phayao, as it is in Phayao province. But, I think the main reason for the stop is coffee and potty break. The lake is fairly shallow, only about 5 feet deep. The coffee shop makes interesting designs with milk foam on the coffee. Our guide offers us a sample of dried bamboo worms. No, thank you! Several try them and they are crunchy. But Dave and I pass.

While riding on the bus, our guide asks questions about what she has previously discussed, and then awards beers at lunch. I’ve won two beers! She does it for fun – it is not serious. One day she asked one of our bunch if she could remember everyone’s name. I’m glad she did’t ask me!

One of her tidbits – Thailand has a color for everyday:

Monday yellow

Tuesday pink

Wednesday green

Thursday orange

Friday Blue

Saturday purple

Sunday red

We ate lunch at another outdoor restaurant that was out in the middle of nowhere, but in Chiangrai province. We had Chicken curry, stir fried fish with chili pepper, stir fried mixed vegetables, fried chicken (which our guide calls KFC chicken), stir fried yellow noodle with kale, cabbage and carrot, vegetable soup, and rice. The food was very good and as usual, I ate too much. The name of the restaurant was Yung Kaow restaurant in Chiangrai.

We went to the Golden Triangle which is the meeting point of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

Laos and Thailand are divided by the Mekong River, the 10th longest river in the world, Laos is  also separated from Myanmar by the Mekong River. Thailand is separated from Myanmar by the Ruak River. The Golden Triangle is like a “Y” with Myanmar at the top, Thailand on the left and Laos on the right. Golden because opium trading. Opium smokers used gold to buy the opium, thus the golden triangle. The wife of King 9 opened an opium museum to try to teach the people the dangers of using opium. Opium use is illegal. Ruak river joins the Mekong river here. The name of the town is Chiang Saen. We took a boat ride on the Mekong River and from the river we saw casinos in Myanmar and Laos. 

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On the boat are pictures of US Servicemen who caught a huge catfish in the Mekong River. It looks like the fish is about 10’ long. These giant catfish are close to being endangered, now. We went to a market in Laos where they sold all kinds of knock off purses – Michael Kors, Prada, and Coach. The also sold really weird bottles of whiskey which contained cobras, scorpions, and all kinds of other bugs and obnoxious specimens. They offered free samples of some kind of alcohol with snakes and bugs. 

One gentleman from our group took a shot of one of these bottles that had a lizard in it. He said it tasted like cheap whiskey. It was the same man that ate at the floating market and threw up on the bus. I guess he will eat anything. Our guide could take us to this market even though it was in Laos because it is considered a special economic zone. The vendors in Laos were more aggressive and there were children begging. It was obvious that Laos is a very poor country. We did not have to go through immigration, and I don’t think our passports were stamped, however, we had to give up our passports before the boat ride and we got them back when we returned from the boat ride.

We ride on the bus some more to get to Mae Sai which is the northernmost point in Thailand. Again, all kinds of vendors all over the place. Many are selling what they are portraying as jade, but who knows. At this point, there is a narrow river (stream) separating  Myanmar from Thailand. It is a border crossing town.

Back on the bus, it is about an hour to our hotel in Chiang Rai. Our guide is giving us food samples again. The first sample is banana chips with Thai apple inside. The Thai apple is jellied. It is very good. The second sample is a broad bean. It is not as sweet as the banana chip with Thai apple. Seems like the broad bean would be a good snack when drinking beer.

No one sick on the bus today – hopefully the bug has ran its course. We are in Chiang Rai tonight. One thing I have found interesting is our hotel in Bangkok, and the one we are in tonight, have windows into the bathroom. I have no desire to watch Dave as he sits on the throne, and less desire to have him watch me as I sit on the throne. Fortunately, both hotels have blinds that can be drawn over the opening. Dave is having Chardonnay withdrawal as what wine we have found is only drinkable (not good) and not cheap. Also, haven’t found Absolute vodka. So, looking forward to the cruises for the booze …..😁.

01/31/18 Happy Birthday, Timbo!!!!!

This morning we took pickup trucks to go visit the villages of Thailand hill people. These people are refugees from China, Tibet and Myanmar. The pickup trucks are similar to the ones in the Caribbean that are fitted out with benches in the bed of the pickup truck. it was quite cool this morning and the pick up trucks are open in the back.

Our first stop is at a Village with long neck people, Long Neck Karen. The women wear brass rings on their necks. The are not actually stretching their necks, but pushing down their shoulder blades. They start putting the rings on at 5 years of age and keep adding rings until the women are 25 years old. I think it is a total of 24 or 25 rings, weighing around 13 pounds.. The rings are very heavy, and some women have to wear cloth underneath the rings to protect their skin from the brass. They wear the rings until they die. They cannot remove the rings or their necks would collapse and they would die, as they do not have the muscles in their necks to hold up their heads. These women used to wear gold, but gold is too expensive, so now  they wear brass. The men work as farmers and the women work with textiles, selling their products to tourists. We had to pay about $3 to get into their village. We saw a little school with about 4 or 5 kids age 4 and 5. They knew the English alphabet and Thai alphabet. They could also count to 10. When the women go to town, they wear scarves on their necks to cover the rings so they don’t look different. There were a total of about 50 people in this village. Most are Buddhists, but some have converted to Catholicism and there was a Catholic Church nearby. The reason they wear the rings is for beauty. Some of the women also wear the rings on their legs. The women wear the rings until they die and they are buried with the rings.

The houses are all very simple wooden structures with grass roofs.

At the entrance to the Long Neck Karen village was another group of people, the Akha. They wear decorated headdresses, adorned now with aluminum but used to be silver. These woman also sold handicrafts to the tourists. They originally came from Tibet.

We got back in the pickup trucks and drove to another village, Yao people. It has warmed up, so now riding in the back of the pickup is much more comfortable. This village was bigger with about 200 people. These people wear embroidered hats and skirts, with a red scarf. One woman was smoking something, probably tobacco using a piece of bamboo. It was a very interesting contraption. We were able to enter her home and see the bedroom and kitchen,  which were the only two rooms. The floor is dirt. Most of the houses here are simple houses  made of wood with grass roofs, but at the entrance to this village, someone was building a cement block house. These people originally came from central China.

We got back on the pickup trucks again, and drove to a tea plantation for a tea tasting. The plantation was on a hilll, with beautiful long views. It felt very peaceful. The tasting room was modern and clean, as were the bathrooms (we have experienced several squattiie potties so it is always nice to see western toilets). We tasted 3 different teas, but they all tasted like tea to me! However you could buy tea drinks, ice cream and desserts. I has a Thai Tea Frappe. It was essentially sweetened tea blended with ice and topped with whipped cream. It was good – Dave tasted it and he thought it was good, too! 

Then we headed back to the hotel for a buffet lunch. There was lots of choice for about $6. It looked like the same dishes that were out this morning for breakfast! Asians eat the same food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Some people from our group are going to the night market tonight, but we are just going to hang out. The night markets have the same trinkets, and we have no intention of buying anything. Besides, our hotel in the next town, Chiang Mai, is suppose to be very close to their night market. It sounds like tomorrow will be a lot of shopping and not much touring as we leave Chiang Rai and drive to Chiang Mai.

02/01/18

We had a bonus last night that was a surprise! We saw a full lunar eclipse of the full moon!

Breakfasts the last few days have been a little more challenging. Not that I am missing out on food…Dave is still managing to get ham omelets (no cheese). I am eating some kind of white fruit which our guide says is yam.

Our first stop is at the White Temple in Chiang Rai. This is a private temple, and definitely the product of the owners imagination. Most temples are colorful and highly decorated. The White Temple would be brilliant in the sun. It is all white and decorated with pieces of mirror. He has depicted what he views as evil, which is mostly western symbolism. Inside the temple are  murals, one of which is the twin towers in the midst of attack. I did not see it but our guide said there were two evil eyes – George Bush and Osama Bin Lafen. But there are many other symbols of the West with Superman, Spider-Man, even Jack Sparrow, Michael Jackson, Elvis, Angry Birds, Minions, etc. the message that super powers cannot rescue you from evil. The floors were gold colored mosaic tiles. At the very entrance to the temple were sculptures of hands reaching up representing greed. Then you cross a bridge representing crossing into heaven. We had to pay 50 baht to visit, which is about $1.67. The bathroom (happy room) was in a yellow building, the only non-white building in the complex. It was beautiful and clean with  western toilets, and mosaics on the floors and walls. 

At all the Buddha temples, you must cover your shoulders and knees. You have to take off your shoes and hats. Another tidbit is that Buddha was born in 623 B.C.

Back on the road we made a potty stop at “Cabbages & Condoms”. They give away condoms  for free. All profits are donated to charity. They sell food, coffee, snacks, etc., and when you pay your bill you get a free condom.

Our guide entertains us on the road by discussing monks, funerals and weddings. Every man has to be a monk for some period of time. The normal time is 3 months, but if cercimstances don’t allow 3 months, it can be arranged for a shorter time. Monks have to be men. “Lady-boys ( guides terminology)  cannot be monks or serve in the military. Monks have to be 20 years old to be mature enough to obey all 227 commandments. Boys aged 7 to 19 can be novices. Novices and monks shave all their hair. Monks walk from 6:00am to 7:30am and collect food from people who want to feed them. They eat whatever they have been given. They eat twice a day, at 8:00am and at 11:00am, but some only eat once a day at 8:00am.

Funerals are 3 to 7 days. Then the body is cremated. Half the ashes are thrown into the river and the other half are put into a stupa at the temple. The mourners walk counter clockwise around the temple 3 times.

The weddings used to be arranged, but no more. The groom pays a dowry and pays for the wedding. The monk reads the bride and groom palms to tell them when they can get married. They have an official ceremony with monks in the morning. In the evening they party and the bride wears a gown and the groom wears a suit.

I won another beer for lunch today. I have done very well, winning a beer almost every day. I feel guilty 😳.

The lunch was a buffet again. Lunches have been plentiful and very reasonable. Today the price wea about $7.00 per person. I feel stuffed. They actually had French fries on the buffet today, but the rest was Thai food. To be honest, I’m beginning to crave a McDonalds hamburger. However, some people ordered American food from the menu at the restaurant last night, and they said it was raw….

Our first shopping stop was at an umbrella making factory. They showed us how they make the umbrella starting with paper made from the bark on the tree to the finished product. Princess Diana visited here in 1998 and they made a huge red umbrella in her honor (6 meters in diameter).

The next shopping stop is for Celadon ceramics. First we visit the factory and then the showroom. This is dangerous because I love dishes and ceramics, but we did not buy anything.

Next we stop at “The Biggest Jewelry Store” in the world. Rubies are a big export item for Thailand. First we looked at the factory, and then the showroom. There is tons of beautiful jewelry, but out of my price range. The largest amount of tourists that come to Thailand is from China, and I think the store is set up for the Chinese. 

Our last shopping stop is a silk factory. First they show you how silk is made, from the cocoon to the thread. Then you go into the store where there are clothes, scarfs, etc. Dave and I bought silk pillows when we were in China a few years ago and we would love to find new ones, but they did not have them at this silk store.

Chiang Mai is the “rose of the north”. 2000 sq feet condo would cost 2 million baht, or about $70,000 usd. Most expensive city in Thailand is Phuket. 

Only 600,000 America tourists come to Thailand, which is way down on the list out of 29 million tourists in total. China sends the most tourists and India is second.

I can only send a maximum of 5 photos in the emails. Today, I barely took 5 photos! Most days, it is hard to pick just 5.

02/02/18

Last night we walked to the Chiang Mai night market. It is just like all the other night markets we have visited! Except, it did not seem like they were willing to negotiate. I inquired about the price of something and then walked away. They did not come after me as they did in other markets. We ate at the hotel. Thai food again! It’s good, but I am looking forward to western food…..In a few days, we leave for Cambodia, and I bet it is the same Asian food as we have been eating the last 10 days.

Our guide told us we dodged a bullet – they had several hours of rain in Bangkok resulting in flooding. We have been lucky so far. After the first few days of rain, it has been partly sunny, and no rain. There is lots of smog, or what I think is smog, so we do not see bright sun often. 

I have managed to pick up some chest congestion, but I am not feeling sick….yet. Just coughing ☹️. I worry about Dave because he gets sick easily. So far he’s good.

I was having some issues with a private tour I scheduled in Pattaya. There were 8 in my group, and one couple cancelled – due to lung cancer. The tour operator cancelled two couples instead of just the one. I think there is some confusion because there are two people named “John” in the group. After several emails, I think it’s resolved.

We have had the same bus, same bus driver, and same bus attendant since day one. Apparently, the bus driver and bus attendant sleep on the bus. Our guide gets a hotel room. I’m not sure where the driver and attendant shower or bathe. We also heard that the bus attendant had a small child. At the end of our tour, they will drive the bus back to Bangkok.

Today we visit the last two temples. I am a bit tired of temples and Buddhas. But here is another buddha tidbit. The Buddha was born and died under a sala tree, but he was enlightened under a boda tree, which looks very much like our banyan tree, except it doesn’t have hanging roots.

The first temple is the most sacred temple in Thailand, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. It is 3000 ft above sea level. The 6th King of the Lan Na province, which includes Chiang Mai, put ashes of the Buddha on a white elephant and where elephant stopped is where he built a stupa to hold the Buddha’s ashes. Under this statue of the elephant, are ashes of people who have died. They make a donation to the temple, and then the family can put their ashes at the bottom of the monument.

 It is on top of a mountain, with beautiful views. Our guide said it was heaven on earth. We took a funicular to the top of mountain, but could have walked up the steps (ha). The stupa was built in 1376. The stupa is 33 feet in height. Buddhists Walk clockwise around the Buddha 3 times. The first time is for the Buddha, the second time is for the Buddha’s scriptures and the third time is for the disciples. 3 is an important number for Thai Buddhists and they do things in 3’s. 

After the temple, we visit a Jade factory. They show us a video about the two types of jade, and take us into the factory wher people are working, carving the jade. They have a lot of jade carvings in their showroom as well as a lot of jade jewelry all for sale, of course.

The second temple we visited, Wat Suandok, was built in 1371, originally on a flower garden. It is called the flower garden temple. It is on the campus of a university and there are lots of monks around.

It is very rare for a monk to attend university. This temple was built by the same King as the first temple we visited today. He had a daughter who became a concubine of the 5th King of the Bangkok Province when she was 13 years old, and then Queen consort when she was 27, but the king died 3 years later. The 5th king of Bangkok was called the European king because he visited Europe and brought a lot of European ideas back to Thailand.  After the King died, the Queen Consort retuned to Chiang Mai sand brought some of those European ideas to Chiang Mai. The Wat Suandok is considered the royal graveyard because there royal family ashes are in stupas here. 

All the temples, except the White Temple, are decorated very colorfully. They use little mirror tiles and tiles made of colored glass, so it catches the light and is shiny and glittery. The white temple just used little mirror tiles, so the temple looked white and silvery, but it would also catch and reflect the light beautifully.We drove through the Chiang Mai old city. It was a capital in 1296 and was surrounded by a moat. There are some brick ruins that are still standing, and the moat still runs around the old city. But our guide says there isn’t much to do in the old city. They are preparing for a flower festival which starts tomorrow, and there are lots of flowers out already. We have seen some beautiful orchids, and there was a section of about 1 block that was lined with all sorts of orchids, apparently for a contest. But Thailand must be a great place to grow orchids as we see them all over.

Our guide talks about the Thai New Year, which is April 13. They celebrate for 3 days (3 again). They also celebrate our New Years on January 1.

She has a recommended place for lunch, which is close to our hotel, but everyone says they would rather just go back to the hotel. Dave and I are ready for “anything but Thai food”. So we walked to McDonalds and had a Big Mac. Actually there are two McDonalds within walking distance. Apparently the closest one only sold French fries and drinks! So we had to walk to the further one to get our American Food fix. 

We have some free time this afternoon. Our guide says if we want to go to the old city to see the Flower Festival, we should take a red pick up truck. There are no buses, but these red pick up trucks serve the purpose. I’m not sure how far the go, but there is a sign on the outside that says 40 baht, which is about $1usd. We also see motor cycle driven Taxis.

This evening we went to a Kantoke dinner and show. The dinner is served in bowls on a tray, and each tray is shared between 4 people. They come back several times with additional food to refill the bowls. 

After dinner we have a show os dances performed by the hill tribes. They dress in the costumes of their tribes. Some dances are performed by younger women, some by mature women, and some by men.  

All the costumes are traditional. Our guide tells us that when she was in school, she had compulsory dancing classes. They train their hands so they can bend their fingers back. In watching the dances, their hand and hand movements are very beautiful one dance was called the fingernail dance, obviously emphasizing the hands.

02/03/18

Only 13 of 19 on our tour this morning. 2 ladies have been gone for a couple of days and our guide sent them to the hospital this morning – apparently diarrhea that won’t stop ☹️. Another couple, the wife was not feeling well, and another couple opted to go to the flower festival instead. I have developed a cough, but feel ok.

We visited the Marsa elephant camp this morning. Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants – about 4 tons compared to 5 tons. First, we fed some elephants sugar cane and bananas. . Each elephant has a mahout, or trainer. One mahout told us his elephant was 93 years old, and didn’t have any teeth. The mahout didn’t have many teeth, either. Then we saw them take some elephants into a stream for a bath. The elephants came over to where we were sitting and sprayed water (mud) on us! Then our guide heard a knocking and said it was time for the elephant show. Our group of 13 were the only observers at the show! Our guide said it was because it was the first show. I noticed later when we walked by that for later shows every seat was filled and the theater was packed. I call it a theater, but it was all outside. The elephants moved logs, gave a mahout a Thai massage (😁), and other tasks. They played soccer, threw darts, and painted. The elephants that painted paint the same picture each time. We watched an elephant paint a tree. After the show, I asked how much they wanted for the  paining -$100. Later in the day, after our group leaves,  i am sure it will be $50 or less, as they had lots of paintings hanging in the store that cost less than $50. Next we rode an elephant. Dave was very hesitant, but did it because I asked him to. The ride was actually pretty exciting, more so for 2 couples in our group. It is suppose to be a 40 to 45 minute ride. There were 10 people from our group that elected to ride the elephants, with 2 people on each elephant. At one point on the ride, the elephant stops, the mahout gets off the elephant and takes pictures using your camera. The last two couples were getting their picture taken when one of the elephants got spooked. A male elephant was spinning and knocked down another female elephant’s mahout, who ended up bloody. The female elephant took off, and did not have a mahout. The male elephant mahout took his elephant a different route than the rest of us, I assume because his elephant was not playing well with the other elephants in our group. Our mahout looked back and saw the mahout-less elephant, who was moving along, getting in the mud, and gave its riders a mud bath. After several minutes,the bloody mahout came running to catch up with his elephant. The mahout did not look so good, and I hope he is ok. The one couple lost their camera in the scuffle, but eventually got it back. Our mahout seemed to take charge during the event. He was calling out to the injured mahout, and was on his cell phone. Our mahout told us he was from Myanmar and had been a mahout for 8 years. Our elephant was a male with very long tusks, 36 years old. After all the action, the elephants walked into the water and get drinks from the stream while we were riding them. Dave said at the end that he was glad he took the ride. Me, too. All our couples got back safe, but I do wonder about the injured mahout. 

Our next stop was an orchid farm. There were actually lots of plants there, and butterflies, but  their big attraction is orchids. They showed us how they propagate orchids, and showed us rows and rows of orchids. I’m sure Ted would have known what all the orchids were, but we just looked at them for their beauty. We also walked through the butterfly enclosure and saw several butterflies up close! I looked around but didn’t see any cocoons…but I probably just didn’t look hard enough. They had a shop and jewelry made from orchids.

We had lunch at a small restaurant near our hotel. Dave and I both tried something different – mine was an appetizer, something like minced chicken wth garlic on toast. He had chicken with crab meat and vegetables. He could not find any meat in his dish. Neither was something we would order again. So I got a dessert – mango and sticky rice. It is served with a sweet coconut flavored syrup, and was very good.

This evening we had a Thai cooking class. First we met the chef at a market.  

The Chef said this was the last wooden market in Chiang Mai. This market had a wood roof. The newer markets are all cement.

It was very interesting to learn how to choose vegetables and eggs. He showed us the difference between coconut cream and coconut milk. They gave us a few minutes to shop, but I wanted to try bubble tea, so I spent my time buying bubble tea. It was very good, but also very filling. It is Thai tea, milk, ice and tapioca – but not like our white tapioca. It was black and gummy.

We are a group of 16 – 3 people are still sick, one husband stayed with his sick wife, and one of the sick ladies is joining us tonight. I really feel bad for them because you come all this way and end up spending your time in bed at the hotel. I am wondering how they will deal with traveling tomorrow. 1 sick lady and her husband are flying to Phuket. 2 sick ladies are flying with us to Siem Reap. Hopefully we are not seated next to them.

Anyway, after visiting the market, we go to the cooking school. It is out a distance – probably 30 minutes drive- from Chiang Mai. When we get close, we leave the bus and travel in vans the last ten minutes. It is really in a remote location and the road is pretty much one lane. Once we get to the cooking school, it is set up nicely. It is open air, but covered by a roof.

 We each have one burner and a work area, as well as pots and pans and cooking utensils. The first thing the chef demonstrates is sticky rice. We don’t cook it, but he tells us how. It is a long  process – first you soak it at least 4 hours. Then steam it for 1/2 hour. Add flavoring if desired and let sit an hour to allow the rice to absorb the flavoring. This sticky rice will be part of our mango and sticky rice dessert. If I would have known, I wouldn’t have had mango and sticky rice at lunch today. We move on to the first course which is Tom Yum soup. The soup I made in the cooking school was much better than the Tom Yum soup I had at the hotel in Chiang Rai. The next course was Penang curry with chicken, to which we added pumpkin. The next course was chicken and cashews with onions. Then our dessert of mango and sticky rice. All the food was delicious, even though I cooked my own! I was stuffed! Our chef was the owner of the cooking school, and he gave us his cookbook. Everyone had a good time, except the one sick lady who tried to tough it out. She ended up laying down in the chefs house, and throwing up on the bus ride home 😳. Our guide and bus attendant have had their hands full with sick people this trip. I’m hoping Dave and I can hold out. We are using hand sanitizer like crazy, and washing our hands every chance we get.

Tomorrow we get to sleep in. We don’t leave the hotel until 11:30 for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, via Bangkok.

02/04/18

Travel day….we left the hotel in Chiang Mai at 11:30am and got to our SmarTours guide in Cambodia at 7:30pm. Only 10 from our original group of 19 is going to Siem Reap. The other 9 are going to Phuket. Getting from the plane to the SmarTours bus in Cambodia took a long time. First we flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and then Bangkok to Siem Reap. Our Chiang Mai to Bangkok flight was delayed, otherwise we would have access to the airline lounge in Chiang Mai and Bangkok. We had to fill out visa forms, landing cards and immigration forms on our 35 minute flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap. In those 35 minutes, we were also served a meal. After landing in Siem Reap, we had to take a bus to the terminal in Siem Reap, we had to walk down stairs outside and then into the terminal. First we have to stand in a line to present our completed forms, passport, and money to get our Cambodian visa on arrival. Then our passport is passed through about 10 gentlemen’s hands, while we wait, all bunched up, for our passport. Then we stand in line at passport control, which takes forever. Finally, we get past there and grab our bags, and give our completed customs form to a man collecting them. Finally, we are outside the terminal. The whole process took at least an hour, maybe more. You will appreciate the speed at American Airports once you have traveled to Southeast Asia.

Our guides name is “De”, spelled Dy. We have a small bus with seats for about 20 people (our group is down to 10 with the other 9 going to Phuket).

Dy informs us our tour tomorrow morning will start at 8:00am. 

2/05/18

There are many Chinese tourists in Cambodia. Our guide tells us it is partially because of Chinese New Year, but apparently they have a lot of Chinese tourists year around. Dy does not seem to like the Chinese tourists very much. He arranges our day so we visit temples when there are the fewest Chinese tourists. 

I was always under the impression that Angkor Wat was in the middle of the Cambodian jungle, somewhat remote. That is not true. You visit Angkor Wat and other temples with hundreds if not thousands of other tourists. There are over 1000 temple ruins. Most temples in the Siem Reap region are 800 to 1000 years old.

In order to visit the temple, you have to get a ticket with your picture. They do check your ticket at each temple. Our tickets are good for 3 days and cost $62. US dollars are used extensively in Cambodia and the ATM machines, at least in Siem Reap, give you USDollars. Items in grocery stores are priced in USDollars. However, if you buy something and need cahage, the bills willl be US dollars, but coins will be Cambodian.

Our guide has told us there are still land mines along the Thailand border, left over from the war.

The first temple we visit is Ta Prohm which has trees growing on top of it and the roots of trees intertwined with the ruins. Ta Prohm is the modern name for this temple. It was originally called Rajavihara. The temples were really never lost, but discovered by Europeans, specifically the French. Prohm is a family name and Ta is old person, so it was probably where “old man Prohm” lived. This temple is famous as Tomb Raider was filmed here in 2000. The trees and roots are otherworldly. The king at the time, Jayavarman VII, ruled 1281 to 1320, and built this temple for his mother. The trees growing out of the ruins are spung trees, which have long roots. There are also some iron trees, so called because the wood is so hard. This temple was a Buddhist temple, but abandoned in 1600’s due to war with Burma. Cambodia lost this territory to Burma. All the temples were ransacked and anything of value was taken. The temple covers 1 square kilometer and 30,000 people would have lived within the walls of this temple. There are carvings of something that looks like dinosaurs (!) and also Apsara, which are dancing girls. The dancing girls were carved in all the temples we visited today.

The  2nd temple complex is Angkor Thom. Anchor Thom means big city, and accommodated 50,000 people. It was built by the same king and is his Royal place as well. Angkor Thom had 5 gates:  2 on the east, 1 each west, south, and north. There is a bridge to cross over into Anchor Thom with guard heads on the left and demons heads on right. There is a long terrace wall with carved elephant images. The temple in Anchor Thom is Bayon, which is 800 years old. It originally had 54 spires with 4 smiling Buddha faces on each side of the spire. 

There are only 37 spires remaining. Anchor Thom was built by the same king, Jayavarman VII. He as 54 when he ascended to the throne, thus the 54 spires. Ashes of the king were put in the spires. The temple is guarded by a mythical figure resembling a lion, Singha, and the king of snakes, a cobra, called Naja. The royal palace in Angkor Thom had two swimming pools – one for men and one for women. The king only had one queen, but hundreds of concubines. The guide said this king was originally Hindu, but his queen was Buddhist, and he converted to Buddhism.

As we drive, we see lots of termite hills. Dave saw a bunch of monkeys, and I guess there are many monkeys, but I was too slow to see them. 

We stop for lunch, and at this point, all the Asian food looks the same. Dave and I shared an Anchor beer, which is a Cambodian beer. At lunch, he asked Dy to check the score of the super bowl, and got the bad news. He seems to be taking it pretty well.

Our last temple. Is Angkor Wat, the biggest Hindu temple in the world. It covers 3/4 square miles and was built 900 years ago. It used to be one of the 7 wonders of the world, but not now. It was built 1113 to1150 from stone 40 miles away. 400,000 people built temple with 3000 to 4,000 elephants. 

People had to support the king to build the temple. The king, Suryavarmin II, that built Angkor Wat was a young but smart king. He was only 15 years old when he ascended the throne, but was very powerful. It was built for a Hindu god, Vishnu. There is a moat that surrounds Anchor Wat which is symbolism for the ocean. Our guide said the water in the moat actually protects the foundation of the temple. There are carvings depicting heaven, earth and hell. Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma, so your life’s deeds are weighed and if bad outweighs good, you are sent to hell. When reincarnated from here, you are generally an animal. If you were a liar, you would have your tongue cut out and be reincarnated as a mute. If you killed chickens, you’d come back as a chicken. All of this was in the carving around the temple. Dave and I hiked up to the corridor surrounding the central spire. There are about 45 very steep steps. This is after you have walked up several levels already. They only allow so many people up top at one time, but our guides timing was good, and we had a very short wait before our climb. Up top we were able to enjoy some long views. 

At some point, the Angkor Wat temple had been converted to a Buddhist temple, and we saw a standing Buddha statue and a reclining Buddha statue up top in the upper corridor. It was a large space, and you walk around the outside. 

Our guide told us at some point in the future, you would only be able to walk around the temples, not climb through them like we did today.

Back at our hotel about 4:0pm. Dave is checking out a replay of the Super Bowl to figure out why the Patriots lost ☹️.

02/06/18

The plan is more temple ruins today. Renovations are being done in many of the temples. Not total restoration, but more stabilizing
The first temple we visit is small and old. The name is Preah Ko and it was built around 880. It is a Hindu temple. There are many statues of bulls around this temple. There are six spires,
three in front which are taller than the three in the back. Of the three in the front, the center one is to honor the king, one is to honor the kings father and one is to honor the kings father in law. Of the back three, the one in the center is to honor the queen, one is to honor the kings mother and one is to honor the queens mother. There is a statue of a bull in front and I asked why the bull was facing the temples. It is because the bull was bowing to worship the gods.
While driving to the next temple, our guide discusses the government. Cambodia is a monarchy/parliament. The king is figurehead. The real ruler is a prime minister. The prime minister has no term limit and the current prime minister has served for 33 years. There is an election every 5 years. While there is freedom of speech, if you speak badly about the government, you will be arrested. The capital of Cambodia is Phnom Penh and you see a lot of

nice cars there because of corrupt government officials. The tax on shop owners is 10% of income. There is no tax on people who make less than $300 per month.
The Doctors in Cambodia are not very good. People go to Thailand or Viet nam for healthcare. Average life expectancy is 62 – 65. People don’t smoke, because they know the dangers of smoking, but they drink. Phnom Penh is 200 miles from Siem Reap. School is free thru high school, and kids go to school only 4 hours per day, Monday through Saturday. There are no restrictions on the internet, but don’t write anything bad about government. There are 3 neighboring countries – No issues with Thailand and Laos, but Viet nam has disputes particularly about borders and immigrants from Viet nam. Many of the immigrants from Viet Nam are illegal.
Cambodia grows 8 million tons of rice, of which they consume 6 million tons and export 2 million tons. In a year, they can grow two or more crops, but usually just one crop because rice needs a lot of water. Agriculture is main industry, 2nd is textile or garment factories. Items such as Keene sandals are made in Cambodia or Viet Nam, but only for export. Cambodians cannot buy these items unless they order from US and pay shipping. Many factories in Cambodia are owned by China. China supports Cambodia government and military. Cambodia owes China 7 billion dollars. China is mining the gold out of Cambodian mines.
Our guide talks about the weddings in Cambodia. The groom pays for everything, including a dowry to the brides mother. Weddings last 2 days, and there is a big wedding party, often 1000 guests. After the wedding, the newlyweds often live with the brides parents until they have enough money to buy a house of their own.
We see Water buffalos and our guide tells us they are for working and eating. Dave is thinking about that Big Mac we had – was it really all beef or all water buffalo?
The next temple we visit is Bakong which is much bigger than Preah Ko. It was built in 881. It is also a Hindu temple, with phallic symbols statues. There is a moat and wall around the temple. The moat represents the oceans and the wall represents mountains. There are statues of 12 elephants – 3 levels of elephants, one in each corner.

Even thought this was originally a Hindu temple, it is in ruins. About 100 years ago, a Buddhist monastary was built on the grounds and is in existence today. We climbed tall, steep stairs to the top of this temple.
After visiting the second temple, we went to a Cambodian handicraft school. The government is training students in the arts of ceramic, silverworking, wood carving, etc. We saw the school workrooms and then had an opportunity to support the students in the showroom.
After our visit to Angkor Artisans, we had a break for lunch and a little rest. Our guide dropped us off at a restaurant that must cater to tourists, based on the way it was set up. 6 out of the 10 of us opted for lunch. We were the only ones in the restaurant at first, and then at least two more large tour groups came in later. The food was good. I had red chicken curry and Dave had chicken pad Thai, which he said was the best he has had on the trip. After lunch, our bus took us to the hotel for a one hour siesta.
The bus picks us up again, we have about a one hour drive to the most beautiful temple. It is 1050 years old and called the lady temple, or Banteay srei temple. This temple is not large, but has incredible carvings. All the statues and valuable items have been carted off by invaders,

thieves, etc., but many of the carvings remain. It was not built by a king, but by a counselor. It is called the jewel of Khmer art. The carvings here are exquisite.
Leaving this last temple, Dave spotted a huge, black scorpion. At first he thought it was rubber, but after pestering it enough, it moved so he knew it was real.

Our last stop was at the temple Prerup for sunset. The temple is in ruins,like the rest. The sun was not very bright because of the pollution, and obscured because of trees.

Nonetheless, Dave and I gave it the benefit of doubt and found a decent viewing spot. As the sun descended, it faded out more and more. So well before sunset, we gave up and headed back to the bus. Much to our surprise, everyone gave up well before us and they were sitting on the bus waiting for us! We are definitely spoiled with our beautiful Florida sunsets.
The road driving to and from the temples are terrible. Lots of bumps.
One thing I wanted to mention is that at each temple, sometimes at each entrance, is a band made up of land mine survivors. They play for donations. Their music sounds “Cambodian” but is very moving. Glancing at them you can spot those with missing limbs. Dave always carries the money, and I was glad to see him make a donation.
For dinner tonight, we walked a treacherous path to a restaurant, “Madamn butterfly”. It was an outside setting, but very elegant and the food was very good. Unfortunately, neither of us brought our camera,
We are templed out. All the temples today were Hindu. They are all in ruins. Kudos to our guide, he took us at less busy times. As we sit in a restaurant, or in the hotel, we see tour buses like crazy. They just come one after the other. I thought snow birds in Florida were bad – this place is worse. It is not remote, and there are visitors like crazy.

02/07/2018

This morning’s itinerary was to go on a boat ride on the biggest lake in Cambodia and Southeast Asia, Tenle Sap lake located in the center of the country.
As we drive, our guide talks about the Khmer Rouge and Civil war in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. He is too young to have lived during that time, but his parents did. His parents were forced to work hard to grow rice, they could not complain. They were given very little food to sustain them and many died of starvation. Polpoi and the communists evacuated people from cities to country to work. The Khmer Rouge regime killed 1.7 million people. The killed the educated and the wealthy. China supported Khmer Rouge. When it was over, the Khmer Rouge military changed uniforms to Cambodian military. The current prime minister has been in office 33 years, and was part of the Khmer Rouge regime. His party is still in power.
We stopped at a village where houses are on stilts, up in the air, maybe 15 feet.
In the monsoon season, the water will be up to floor, or nearly. These families use large nets to catch fish, then put them on frames or skewers to dry in the sun for a couple of hours. Then the

fish are smoked for long term storage. Some of the fish are sold and some are consumed. The
fish are a small type of catfish.
Saw small children scrambling up and down the stairs – no railings. The people were very friendly and the children would wave and smile at us. Our guide told us to bring these people any clothing that we were planning to throw away as they are very poor. However, these people are very small and Americans are very big comparitively – maybe they will remake the clothing getting two pairs of shorts out of one of our shorts.
Then we got to the port and got on boats that sit in a long canal, and rode through the canal. It is a long way through the canal to the lake. There are many more stilt homes along the canal. These people are fishermen and we see their nets and fish traps.

Just before the lake, we see a floating village where the people live in houseboats. This village is comprised of about 1000 families which are 60% Cambodian and 40% Vietnamese. The Vietnamese are illegal immigrants. They live on the water because they don’t have to pay taxes. They have immigrated because there is no room in Viet Nam. Viet Nam population is over 70 million people. The floating villagers have TV’s, and cell phones. They use solar power or batteries for electricity, but have no bills. They are fishermen. They move their homes with the water, going where the water goes, as the level of the water changes dramatically with the seasons.
We pass a spirit house, which is a small building very high up on stilts. It is for the spirits to reside in, and for people to go to the spirit house to pay their respects.

Some people grow green beans along the canal. We see irrigation machinery. These people live in stick houses built close to shore. They build the houses before planting season and then tear them down at harvest, rebuilding each season.
We saw one building out in the middle of a big field with no other houses around. There were a lot of motorcycles there and our guide said it was the local Starbucks.
We have not seen many 7 11’s in Cambodia. We see a lot of little markets along side the road. One thing we see is various bottles filled with a yellow liquid on stands being displayed. Our guide told us this was gasoline for the motorbikes.
Once we enter the lake, the boat captain shuts off the engine and our guide tells us a little more about the lake. The lake is 40 feet deep now but 60 ft deep in monsoon, in the center. In the dry season, it gets even more shallow. The most common fish is giant snakehead fish but there are also catfish, carp and other fish. There are many fish traps on the water. The fishermen build a trap, use a plastic bottle to make it float, and then put sticks or vegetation on top to identify trap. Sometimes the traps have flags on them.
The children of every age seem to be very used to the water. They are born on the water and live on the water. They run all over the place, up and down ramps on the stilt houses, where there are no rails. There are schools on boats in the canal leading to the lake, and children row
their boats to and from school.

While on the boat, there is a driver and a young boy, about 10 years old. He helps the driver docking, loading and unloading the boat. While we were cruising along, the young boy came around and was giving us neck massages.
After we get back on land we went to an outdoor restaurant. It seemed very nice and clean. We did have a few red ants on the table which we flicked away. There were areas with hammocks set up in areas covered with a roof, and large comfy chairs lined up, too. Our guide said they were there so you could rest after eating. The food was very good, again. Most of us ate Asian, but one guy in our group had spaghetti with garlic bread. Dave and I had chicken in Khmer spices, ordering the same thing. It took a long time for Dave to get his food – everyone else had been served. My chicken with Khmer spices had a red sauce, but Dave had a green sauce. We don’t know why!
After lunch we went to a memorial for the killing fields, which is a reference to all the people killed by the Khmer Rouge. It was a former jail, but a Buddhist temple now. The Buddhist

monks picked up all the skulls and bones the found and put them in a stupa with glass walls. There are placards telling about the many people killed all over Cambodia. This is just one of the places where bodies were found in pits. Our guide told us a few gruesome stories about how people were killed. Visiting this site was a sad way to finish our tour of Cambodia.
We are flying to Singapore, on a two hour flight, but we lose an hour because Singapore is one hour ahead of Thailand and Cambodia.
Getting into Singapore was much easier than Cambodia. The immigration official asked us if the governor of Florida was a republican or Democrat. Interesting!
We checked into our hotel, and Singapore is much pricier than Thailand or Cambodia. Dave got a glass of wine and I got a Singapore Sling for about $23usd.

02/08/2018