Thursday, September 21, 2017 – Bangkok and Chiang Rai

I’m up before dawn, so I get to watch the river come alive!!  So many different kinds of boats plying the water.  The barges are carrying rice, which is the largest export.

We bring down our luggage and it is stowed in the bus while we head to the pier at the back of the hotel.  There we board a larger boat than the long-tails and take a cruise down the river and into a canal.  Along the way it is noteworthy that the rich have lovely homes on the water and the extremely poor might live right next door.

But everyone has beautiful plants and flowers.

These catfish live near the Buddhist temple and are safe.  They go into a feeding frenzy when bread is tossed into the water.

The Thais hate the tuk kae because they eat chickens and cats and babies!

We arrive at Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn.  It is built in the Cambodian style with mosaics created from ceramic fragments that were used as ballast when the ships returned from taking silk to the rest of the world.  The large golden Buddha is not Thai, but Chinese.  The slender, elegant Buddha is how the Thai portray him.

Back to the boat and the return trip is so much faster!  This is not the sightseeing route!  

Back at the hotel we make a pit stop and board the bus to go see the Jim Thompson House.  We ride the bus, but the road is too narrow for him to drop us off in front, so we walk very carefully down the road, trying not to get run over!  I’m an obedient little doobie, so I take right off and have to keep checking behind me, because the others aren’t coming very quickly.  Rio catches up and I’m relieved to not be leading the parade any more!  He asks if I like to walk (I do) and how old I am.  He’s amazed by the answer and says that Thai people don’t like to walk because it is hot and smelly and that Thais don’t live much past 65 or 70!  Old ladies don’t get out and do anything;  they just stay home and cook for the kids.  I tell him that I kicked my kids out!  (giggle!!)

Thompson was a rich American businessman and architecture student who fell in love with Thailand and Thai silk.  He bought six adjacent houses and connected them all together to create what is viewed as the most beautiful Thai house in the country!  He filled it with antiques and invited his friends from all over the world to come and experience his adopted country.

We wander around the garden until our group is called.  We remove our shoes and follow our lovely little Thai guide through several rooms of the house, being awed and amazed at how lovely and really old some of the antiques are. 

Thompson was a believer in astrology and there are two charts on display.  One told him the most auspicious date for moving into his new house.  The other told him to be careful around his sixty-first birthday.  As that birthday approached, he was in the jungle and disappeared!  No trace of him was ever found.

We spend a little time in the “art center” which is a shop that sells lovely and expensive silk products with the Jim Thompson label.  Apparently it is very well known in circles that are too rich for my blood!

We head back to the main road to meet the bus and have to cross over the road instead of trying to fight the traffic.

Now it’s time to head to the airport for our flight to Chiang Rai.  Rio is coming with us, so that’s very helpful, but we still have to check in individually and Rio suggests that we find something to eat for dinner, since it will probably be ten o’clock before we get to our hotel and get settled in.  Ginger and I cruise the third floor and finally decide on just a couple of sandwiches and a Moon Cake each.  We eventually find a display board with our gate on it, and head that way.

Helen has just checked out the gate and the food court and we all settle down to await our silver bird.  Quite some time passes without any of the rest of our group showing up and an airport employee breezes through to tell us that our gate has been changed.  Luckily it’s just next door and the rest of the troops are there already.

Rio is in a chatty mood.  He shows us photos of his two cats, one of which is a Scottish fold.  The other is a gray shorthair and they are both beautiful.  We discuss our families and jewelry and in general shoot the breeze. 

Our flight is delayed by twenty minutes;  but even so it is odd that no one is at the counter yet.  We do manage to board and find our seats;  many couples have been split up and some shuffling ensues.  It’s all good.  We take off and after fifteen or twenty minutes there is a snack!  It is a small sandwich with black bread. I don’t mean brown bread.  There is even a card explaining the health benefits of charcoal!  It tastes like regular bread and I don’t know what the two fillings are.  One might be cream cheese with little cut up vegetables and the other might be some sort of meat salad with a tomato slice.  There is also a small bottle of water and another cart follows behind with other choices.

Without much further ado we land in Chiang Rai International Airport.  There are flowers everywhere, including the middle of the luggage carousel!  Our bags begin appearing and everyone but Helen has his or her belongings.  Just as we begin to worry on her behalf, her suitcase appears and we all go off in search of our new home on wheels for the next four days.  Rio is waving his purple flag at the head of our parade and it doesn’t take long to get settled in and on the road.

We are staying at the Dusit Island Resort, the nicest in the province.  Rio collects our keys from the desk and distributes them so we can all disperse with instructions to be ready to leave at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.

We have a real key, not a key card, and wonder what to put in the slot that turns on the lights!  Well of course it’s the plastic dangle on the key chain.  The room is lovely with two double beds, and a sitting area with a large coffee table, on which a plate holds two pieces of citrus fruit, wrapped in plastic wrap.  There is both a tub and a shower and more than the usual soap and shampoo.  We also have ear buds, dental supplies and shower caps!  Mostly, though, we have lots of floor space an a gorgeous view of the Kok River.  We’re truly beat and Ginger is smart enough to go straight to bed.  I try to stay up an write a while;  but I can’t maintain it for long!  Tomorrow is another day.  I can’t figure out how to turn of the automatic lights without turning off the charging station, so I just unplug them and bring a degree of darkness to our surroundings.  It probably doesn’t matter at all;  we’re that tired!!