We made it....Suzanne and I are in Thailand for a one month visit. It only took 25 hours of traveling to get here, including rerouting the last of three planes in order to avoid a typhoon in the making near Twaiwan. After some much needed sleep, we headed out to enjoy our first day in Bangkok. In Thailand, there are four things you are guaranteed to do during your first day: 1. Eat some Thai food. 2. Sweat a lot. 3. Eat more Thai food. 4. Sweat a lot more. We did those four as well as a few more fun things. We visited two wats, (temples) including the only remaining Loha Prasat in the world (there have only been three, the first of which included the Lord Buddha among its occupants). We toured the Grand Palace complex including a visit to the wat which houses the Emerald Buddha. I got started at by a group of school kids on a tour of the palace grounds. Falang staring is a common pastime in rural Thailand but less common in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. (Falang is the Thai equivalent of a gringo).
We were fortunate to finish off our hectic first day with Thai massages. Thai massages involve kneading and moving your body parts in a manner that would make the average midwest chiropractor swoon. Afterwards, you enjoy a couple of hours of almost euphoric physical relaxation and well being. We got to make some new friends whose names we will be challenged to remember and sampled some new foods we'll probably never be able to pronounce. We also came to the conclusion that the Thai alphabet was secretly developed by a cadre of hyperactive kindergardeners during a bizarre fingerpainting class. Fortunately, there's a lot of bilingual signage here.
There are also wonderful things to experience, enjoy and explore in this beautiful and exoctic country. Once again, we feel blessed to be "juntos en el camino de la vida".
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