Bangkok
Since arriving in China, I’ve been having trouble with the
sciatic nerve. During the night, it got
really bad. Painful to be in bed, sit on
the side of the bed, forget about leaning over.
I wondered if I would even be able to continue the tour. The first thing on the agenda for the morning
is a boat ride on the river and canals to a Buddhist temple and then return to
the hotel to fly to Chiang Rai. If I’m
going to do anything about this, like see an acupuncture person or massage,
this morning is the time to do it. I
talk with Rio in the morning and he discouraged me from doing either of those
things. I do some stretches that I found
on the internet and load up with ibuprofen.
Hoping for the best.
The boat picks us up at a dock right outside of our
hotel It’s a long wooden boat with
benches for 2 people on each side and a nice covering to keep off the sun. This will work. We ride a ways up the river and then turn
into a little canal. It’s interesting to
see the houses along the canal and glimpses of life.
Rio says that up to about 10 years ago, you
would see kids swimming in the canals and women washing clothes. He says that it is due to a big typhoon that
came through and many gators escaped into the canals and were never found. I must admit that I have trouble believing
this is the reason as I think we would see some gator evidence if they were
really still there. The water looked
muddy and that is more the reason I wouldn’t want to get into it. At one point, we did see a small gator
looking animal that maybe could have taken on a small cat but certainly not a
human.
We stop at one point and feed the fish bread. It was quite the feeding frenzy.
We stop at a temple that is built in the Cambodian
style. It is white stucco with pieces of
broken pottery stuck in the plaster for decoration. Quite beautiful! Melodie and I climb the steps to the first
level and find that is as far as we’re allowed to go. People warn us of the step steps. Oh, these aren’t anything compared to what we
climb on the ruins in Yucatan. We’re
pros!
Back to the boat and a short ride to the hotel where we got
back on the bus and go through the horrendous traffic to the Jim Thompson
house. I must admit that I hadn’t heard
of Jim Thompson before but now want to go and read about him. He was an architect and bought several
traditional Thai houses next to each other.
He made changes in the houses to make them work as one big, beautiful,
comfortable house. He also made his
fortune through marketing and designing silk batiks. He tried to protect
ancient artifacts from looters and many were displayed in his home. A fortune teller told him to be careful
during his 61st year. A few
weeks before his birthday, he was vacationing in a jungle, took a walk and
never returned. There are conjectures on
what happened to him but no one really knows.
His body was never recovered.
Back to the bus to the airport to fly to Chiang Rai in the
Northern hills of Thailand. The airport
in Chiang Rai is the most cheerful airport I’ve ever experienced. Flowers in
the center of the baggage claim area, grass green carpet, smiling women bowing
and giving polite gestures as to which way to go.
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