A.S.I.A. (Ann and Sue in Asia)

**Disclaimer: These are stories from over a year ago, but still fresh in my mind.  I will make a real effort to catch this blog up...***

Bangkok, Thailand

April 23, 2010

So let's bear in mind (bare in mind?) that these next few tales of travel occurred over a year ago, but nevertheless they remain a huge part of my experience over here in Thailand and I'm really looking forward to finally catching up and completing my journey...not to mention I still have a huge amount of recent posts to put up too. Well it's better late than never, so let's begin from the first day that Mom and Sue woke up in BKK.

I made my way into the city after having made sure that Mom and Sue got to the Century Park hotel alright the night before (I was crossing my fingers that they weren't aware of the red shirt bombs that targeted the BTS as their plane was landing!) It was surreal to have them visiting me and it took a few minutes to realize that they were actually here! After dropping my stuff off in the room and about 10349803298 hugs we made our way down to a glorious breakfast buffet filled with all the luxuries of western eating that I hadn't had in months--needless to say I ate myself sick.

Fresh off the 20+ hour trek I was impressed that they were so excited to hit the ground running. We decided on a day of Bangkok sightseeing and had the hotel arrange us a car to take us to the Chao Praya river for a longboat tour of the canals. I'd been on rides like this before, but never in BKK and it was really eye opening to hit the backwaters and motor our way through the watery neighborhoods where people literally live off the river (swimming, bathing, washing, cooking, fishing, boating, etc.) We got dropped off at the pier near to the Grand Palace and realized how unbelievably hot it was when the river's breeze wasn't blowing in our faces.

As we were making our way to the entrance to the Grand Palace, we were approached by a tuk tuk who told us that the palace was closed until later in the afternoon due to a Buddhist holiday. He said that he would take us around to see some sites and then bring us back when the processions were over. When he said the price of the tour (60 baht) I had a really bad feeling about it as I wasn't aware of a holiday and when I asked him which holiday it was he couldn't give me an actual name--I was a bit wary since being cheated in the Great Cambodian border incident of March 2010. We debated for a bit, but in the end I decided it would be better for us to see for ourselves if the palace was actually closed! Good thing we did, because it was definitely not closed and the tuk tuk was definitely a tout (I read later in the Lonely Planet guide that that exact tout is very common and tourists usually end up at some gem store where they are more or less forced to buy jewelry) Thailand-0 and Minnesota-1

It was literally the one of the hottest days I'd been through in Thailand, but there the 3 of us were traipsing around the non-air conditioned grounds of the Grand Palace. Having been there before I tried to draw on some memories of what the different temples/buildings/paintings represented, but it was difficult to process thought through the incessant pouring of sweat. Still, it is a really really impressive and beautiful place to visit with each wat covered in shimmering squares of glass and porcelain and each individual painting and sculpture telling a piece of the very intricate history and lore of Thailand and Buddhism. After Mom and Sue almost passed out in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha it was a unanimous decision to take a cab back to the hotel. Thailand-1 and Minnesota-1

After a shower and a much needed leg up, we felt refreshed. We decided to make our way to the lobby for a nice happy hour and some snacks. I can't describe how great it is to have visitors and just sit and talk (in English) about familiar topics and get totally caught up on everything that's been going on at home (hint hint to any of you who haven't come over here yet!) We made our way to Ajarn Place for dinner, a hole in the wall Thai restaurant our friends at the hotel desk recommended to us, and indulged on some pretty good food before hitting the hay. Day 1: Success.