Cambodia & Thailand Day 6
Cambodia & Thailand
DAY 6 - December 1, 2003 - Bangkok
As we flew in from Cambodia last night, Gennie looked out the window of our turbo prop ART 72 and saw an aircraft with its company name on the side. PHUKET Airlines. She turned to me and said “Can you imagine telling people that you flew PHUKET AIRLINES?” I had not even thought of the phonetic spelling! And this from my wonderful wife of 30 years - I will always be surprised by her.
We were up a little early than we needed to be (7 AM) as we wanted to use the internet in the hotel. By 7:35 we were at the business center and it was expensive and a dial up. Horribly slow. I sent a few things off but could not get much work done.
Mickey and Jim were waiting for us for breakfast so at 8 AM we went in to the buffet and it was quite good. We met some people who had just finished the last leg of the Thailand trip and they raved about all aspects. So we are looking forward to the remainder of the days.
After breakfast, 8:45 we met with Anya and she went through the ground rules with us. She also mentioned that in most places we could get Thai Bhat (money) and use the internet - but there might be one or two places that might be primitive. We met the 8 new people, making our group the 16 maximum that OAT advertises.
We left the hotel at 10 AM, traveling along the main street, heavily congested even at this time of day. Anya gave us a brief description of each neighborhood we passed as well as explaining many of the local customs.
She pointed out the huge hotel complex where President Bush stayed for 2 days last summer, closing down streets and tying up the already busy traffic. Bangkok had 400 temples and over 3200 in the whole country.
Thailand is the only country in SE Asia that was never colonized. Everywhere on the streets and on the stores there are pictures of the King who will celebrate his 76 birthday on December 5. It will be a national holiday with special events.
She explained to us that even though he is 76 and is well loved and respected but he is not in good health and has to live outside the capital city due to the pollution. There are yellow flowers, flags, and gold bunting decorating the city as that is the color of the day he was born.
We got off the bus and carefully wound our way through the busy city streets to wholesale flower market. We saw blocks upon blocks of fresh flowers, young people working on flower arrangements.
Anya bought all the ladies a welcome garland, a circle of flowers, strung on a thread of palm leaf. The bus met us at the end of the market and we drove to the King’s palace that was built in the 17th century.
We were very lucky that the palace was open because when the King is in the city, it is closed to the public. He will be here in two days for his birthday celebration. So all of the government workers were very busy preparing for his arrival.
In order to go into the palace complex, everyone must pass a strict dress code. No shorts, one cannot have exposed shoulders nor open heeled shoes. Anya gave us a briefing on the whole area, explaining the architecture, and decorations of gold leaf, tiny mirrors, carved broken china, many statues, and vivid colors in the paint.
The elephants in Thailand are very special and symbols of the power of the King. Many of the statues and decorations were gifts from foreign heads of state to the monarch.
It was very interesting to learn that some of the most beautiful statues came from China on the way back from the trade ships and had been previously used as ballast and are now worth millions of dollars.
When we got to the temple of the Jade Buddha, we had to take off our shoes and hats and leave them outside if we wanted to enter. Once inside there was no talking, no photography, and no pointing of our feet at the Buddha.
We were also able to go into the Official Reception Room where the King’s gold thrown is being readied for the birthday reception. We saw men bringing in huge urns of golden flowers into the palace complex.
At 1 PM we were back on the bus and we had buffet lunch on river boat on Chau Phray River. There was a very good selection of Thai food but generally pretty mild.
We tried many different things and have found our favorites that we look for every time we eat. As we left we had to once again run the gauntlet of vendors selling everything from postcards, guidebooks, hats, and umbrellas.
After lunch the bus picked us up again and we traveled through the city having to use many detours because the military was practicing for the parades for the King. Traffic is usually congested but this week it will be a real mess.
Our next stop was one of my “favorite” places, a gem gallery, where they manufacture jewelry, specializing in sapphires and rubies that are mined in Thailand. Many people in our group bought rings and other objects.
From there we went back to the hotel but many of our group went on to a tailor to be fitted for suits, jackets, dresses and ties - specially made and be finalized tomorrow afternoon.
Once we were at the Impala, we chose to go across the street to a huge shopping center, the Emporium. We quickly found an internet café with over 30 machines that were much faster and cheaper than the hotel.
We made our way back to the hotel, had time for a shower, edited the day’s pictures before meeting everyone for dinner at 6:30. Even though we were a little late, we were the first there, so we were able to talk to Anya, people on the staff about Thai food and just converse.
Our dinner was at the Hot and Spicy Restaurant where we had one of the best meals in our stay so far. One of the things I really like about Thai food is their spicy and hot sauces. At 8:45 we returned to our rooms to finish the day’s log and get ready for an early start tomorrow.
Accommodations: Imperial Impala Hotel - Internet - Laundry
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