Thursday, January 26, 2012

Why Buddhism Made This Trip Better (and safer!)

Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos are countries with many Buddhists. This seems to have a wonderful effect on the people and many everyday attitudes in these countries.
Buddhism seems to emphasize trying to be a peaceful and better person. Not just as a lofty ideal, but in continual practice throughout the day.
As Greg pointed put, it seems to encourage cooperation rather than competition and conflict under crowded conditions--people work together trying to get through traffic on sidewalks or in the street. No horns, no passive aggressive behavior. No getting irritated at the things that can't be changed. People were always happy to spend time helping tourists, without worrying that we were slowing down their work.
As we left a hotel in Northern Thailand, the young lady at the front desk wished us good luck and happy travels as we continued our trip. She tied a good fortune bracelet on Joy and me. We both found that we had kept them on for the remainder of the trip because it have us a connection to the Buddhist practice of outgoing kindness.

Thanks for sharing our adventure!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

20 hours: on the way home

Modern technology! We're in Houston, Texas waiting for our last flight ( to Boston). Already did about 6 hours Bangkok to Tokyo and about 11 hours Tokyo to Houston-- watched four movies to pass the time and read half a book. Joy read an entire book and asked me to remind everyone that she reads faster and sleeps less :)

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Chinese New Year and our Farewell To Thailand

Our last day here landed on Chinese New Year so we spent the first day of the year of the dragon in China Town.
Every imaginable kind of food, dancing dragons everywhere, and a competition between dragon teams dancing and jumping between small pedistals eight feet in the air. All this along with mobs of people made for a fascinating afternoon. We saw some men smashing peanuts with wooden hammers then rolling it into delicious candy that tastes just like the inside of a butterfinger candy bar!
Thais like to breathe menthol to ease the heat so they were passing out free strips of paper scented with menthol. Guess who the strange fellow with the paper stuck up his nose might be. No one we know for sure!
We finished up the day at a deck top restaurant over looking the river and with a view of Wat Arun. We say a
sad farewell to Asia and our wonderful kids.
Plane leaves 7 AM tomorrow.

Now This is a High Class Place

So for our second to last night, we went to a famous restaurant called The Blue Elephant. There are Blue Elephant Thai restaurants all over the world except the U. S..
We will let the pictures tell the story but let's just say that there is nothing like this in Portsmouth!

Monday, January 23, 2012

A Different Kind of Cultural Museum

Today we started out planning to visit the large cultural museum in Bangkok. Of course it was closed on Monday!
The museum happens to be located right next to a seven story mall next to an athletic field so we decided to experience Tai culture in a modern day setting.
The athletic field was covered with a huge tent and inside was a market selling everything from food to clothes. Chinese New Year is Tuesday and the food stalls were gearing up for some major celebration! It smelled so delicious! They were selling every thing from fried grubs, crickets, and beetles to delicious looking soups, fried everything and fresh fruits. Every stall was artistically arranged.
We went into the mall and resisted buying knock off Versace leather and Dolce and Gabana t-shirts while a group of new years celebraters paraded a long dragon down the escalator. As we were leaving a group was performing Chinese New Years dances in front of the entrance to the mall. Very fun to watch.
We met Bonnye at a rooftop bar to watch a beautiful sunset and returned home to get ready for dinner. The dinner deserves its own blog.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Restaurant magic with Greg and Bonnye again!

We arrived back from Kanchanaburi in Bangkok rush hour traffic. Our nerves frazzled from watching our van driver maneuver, we walked in to Bonnye and Greg's and found they had cold Martinis ready!
After a relaxing cocktail hour, they said, "the third best restaurant in Bangkok is in our neighborhood. Want to go there?"
It was a beautiful place. Though approaching 9pm, it appeared full. Yes the staff knew Greg and Bonnye. Yes, Greg spoke to someone and (I'm not making this up) they immediately found one empty table on their rooftop dining room.
The food was amazing! We also had wonderful creative cocktails--mine was a fig and ginger martini! We stayed for dessert. We couldn't believe it was midnight when we left!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

WWII least we forget

Kanchanuburi is most famous for the Bridge Over the River Kwai which was the title of a WWII movie. During the last few days we have visited several museums and war memorials and we feel that they deserve a blog dedicated to the subject.
When the Japanese conquered Malay they acquired 100,000 allied prisoners of war- mostly Australian, Dutch, and British. The POWs were marched here and along with 200,000 basically conscripted Asian workers they were forced to build a supply railway through the mountains to Burma. In 2 years, 80%, yes 80% of the prisoners and workers died from injury, starvation, torture, and disease.
We visited Hellfire Pass and hiked a short distance of the now destroyed railway and it gave a real perspective of the heat and misery they suffered. The pass was built with only handtools to break the rock as men were pushed to work day and night 18 hours a day with no shoes, little food, clothing, and minimal medical care. The Australian government and Thai government have built a beautiful visitors center and a perpetual care cemetery in the center of town where 6,000 men are laid to rest. The American victims were all sent home for burial.
If there is one lasting thought we bring away from this trip is man's everlasting capacity for cruelty and hate towards one another. No ethnic group or country on earth is innocent- is it.

Westerners worry about monkeys and fish and electrical workers

During our two days here in Kanchanuburi we became aware that us Westerners worry too much. The fact that the feet nibbling fish you swim with at the waterfalls are huge and the aggressive monkeys jumped on the face of a French tourist are nothing to be concerned about. Here is a picture of Gary just putting his feet in with the fish and just before he discovered he had "ants in his pants". By. The way, they were red. He actually can dance quite well!
When the power company workers place a handmade bamboo ladder against the wires to work on them- it's. Ok because someone is holding the ladder so it won't fall onto the busy street filled with a crowd of vendors and tourists!
All during the first half of our day long tour. All said and done Erawan park was a beautiful national park and we had a wonderful hike to 8 different waterfalls.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

If only we could speak or read Thai..

Today we traveled to Kanchanaburi the town where The Bridge on the River Kwai is located. Up at 5AM to get a taxi to to the bus station at the far end of town. Can't pronounce the name well but the concierge at Gregs apartment helps us so-No problem. Nice lady at bus station asks our destination can't pronounce that either but we work it out- bus 81- no problem. BUT, we don't get on the 2 hour bus, we are on the 31/2 hour bus that stops a million times. No problem except also no bathroom. Yeah, that last hour was very long. The bus ends in in the middle of a city- huh? We thought we were going to a rural area. Found a tuk tuk driver but couldn't read English or understand the name of our inn. Yea for the tuk tuk passenger who spoke enough English to help us out!!
All part of the fun. Full day planned for tomorrow with hiking and sightseeing.

No Camera No Phone No Shoes No Bags

Tuesday we went to a park complex called Dusit Park and Zoo. We skipped the zoo and spent the day visiting this park and the fascinating buildings within the park.
First, we visited a textile museum that explained all of the traditional cotton and silk weaving patterns and the Thai ethnic groups that weave them. We also visited a museum that demonstrated and described the use of elephants for royal ceremony- especially the rare and sacred white elephants. Really neat.
We visited a huge teak wood house that was built in the early 1900's after the king visited Europe. It was built with only wooden nails and was decorated with european furnishings. Good news was that there was a torrential downpour while we were inside-very rare in the dry season.
The absolute highlight was the visit to the national treasures which are housed in a throne hall. You have never seen so much gold, so many diamonds, such intricate carving and embroidery in your life! Many of the items were made in 2006 or 2007 for the Kings birthday and ascension to the throne. Many items took hundreds of craftsmen several years to build.
So, why only a few outdoors photo's? Every building required us to place our shoes,cameras, phones and, bags in a locker. We also had to go through a security screen in several buildings. No to mention the fact that even though I wore long pants they required me to purchase an ugly sari for $1.60 because women are required to wear long skirts. Humph!
We finished off the day by visiting a Wat and temple build entirely out of marble which is very unusual on Asia. It was a great day. VERY hot and tired at the end:-)

Monday, January 16, 2012

Late Breaking News

We had adventures, but didn't blog :(

Every market has piles of silk fabric and products (no label needed on this picture).

Now back in Bangkok, we had forgotten what a congested bustling city it is. When Greg took us across the river to an agricultural village and national park for some bicycling, the real amazement was how quiet and serene it was! He and Bonnye have raised city exploring to a new art form.

Speaking of which, they said we really should check out a new mall called "terminal 21". It is a wondrous mall of about 7 floors. Each floor is themed for a different country or geographic area. The boutiques are each very small, so each only has their best and most interesting fashion items-most are New York City ready! Guess which floor pictured is Japan?

By the way, we haven't been showing enough of the great food, so here is a picture of my $4 shrimp fried rice. Note the strong beans tied around asparagus stalks!!!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Back to Bangkok

Yesterday was a travel day-- from Phnom Penh back to Bangkok and Greg and Bonnye's place.

Portsmouth, NH folks guess where we went for dinner? No joke: Molly Malone's!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Not every day is National Geographic

6 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh--through the rice growing plains of Cambodia.
We strolled down to the waterfront on the Mekong River and settled down to a relaxing evening at the Foreign Correspondents Club.
Two drinks each, panini, French fries, and pizza. No pictures. (Some days a person has to do what a person has to do.)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Bare Feet and Twisty Fingers

Tonight we attended a traditional Cambodian dinner and dance show. Originally these dances were only seen by the King. The tradition was almost completely lost during the era of the Khmer Rouge but enough knowledge survived to bring the dance form back to life. The music sounds similar to that of other Asian countries- a lot of minor tones. There was a live band of six instruments that was very good.
The dancing was very professional. It was fascinating to see the hand and finger movements of the dancers during these very slowly performed dances. Also, the amount of strength and balance it takes to stand on one food for minutes at a time was pretty impressive.
Of course we have to talk about the food! The buffet was enormous and delicious. We could not begin to sample all of the types of traditional foods.
A great evening.