Bangkok, home of the ancient soul of Thailand and the sleek new Western Thailand. Charles and I were here 15 years ago. Things have changed as they always do, for the good and for the bad. For the good, they now have a subway system and a skytrain. These alternative forms of transportaion have opened traffic some but Bangkok is still one of the hardest cities to get around I have ever seen. It is gridlock most of the time. Their rush hour lasts 3 hours! There are Tuk-Tuks, 3-wheelers taxis that zoom in and out of lanes, making the center of the road hard to distinguish. There are also motorcycle taxis. The guys that wear orange vests on motorcycles are taxis for hire. It only costs a dollar or so to go across town on a motorcycle or a Tuk-Tuk. Many of you will be relieved to find out that we toured in a van. We did not want to be a casuality in Bangkok! We passed a coffin "store". They sell coffins to those that can afford them and give them away to people that die in "accidents" and they do not know who they are! The poorest people are put in coffins with no decorations on them. The more money you have the more decorations you have on your coffin. All this goes waste, as the coffins are put in a large oven for roasting, as most Thai people are Buddist and they are creamated! We were approached by what looked like a ladies auxiliary of sorts that were asking for donations for their cause in giving free coffins away to those unknown people. They were happy to show us photographs of some of the dead people they had helped in the past. They had large binders of photos that we could glance through at our leisure! That didn't take long! Bangkok, is a city that has some of the most beautiful temples and shrines in the world located right next to a 7-11 or used car lot! By the way 7-11 stores are all the rage in Thailand! In the same way that Wal-Mart has put local businesses out of business in the US, 7-11 stores put the floating markets out of business in Bangkok! You have to travel 2 hours outside of Bangkok to see floating markets now. When we were here 15 years ago, we went to floating markets in Bangkok City. There are over 3,000 7-11 stores in Thailand. They have learned to love the convenience here!! Sometimes there are 7-11's that are right across the street from each other. Since the roads are so congested, you can't walk across the street to the store, as nobody slows down, so they put them on both sides! We visited in the hottest time of the year. It was like August in Alabama! They say April is there hottest month, I'm sure they give a lot of coffins away in April! We had the opportunity to stay overnight at The Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok. It was lovely. We also had the good fortune of having a friend there. Nadia, our guide in China, is from Bangkok and called an old high school friend of hers that works at the hotel and told him to be on the lookout for a family of 4. His name was Jesse Ballesteros. Jesse not only found us on our arrival, he booked foot massages for us and told us where to go in the city. Many thanks to Jesse and to Nadia for still taking care of us even though we are not in China any longer! It never hurts to make friends !! Bangkok has over 9 million people. The people are very pretty. I tried to get a picture of a 3 year old girl up close but she was very shy. I did the best I could. Not speaking Thai, we tried to get her to smile by smiling really big ourselves and pointing at our teeth!! Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia that has never been occupied. They have always been free. They have had 9 kings. Their current king is celebrating his 60th year on the throne and is 80th birthday all this year. The city is littered with his picture on EVERYTHING and they have made a special flag that flies next to their country flag in his honor. I am sure you will see them in the pictures. Both the king and queen were educated in the US. We had one hot afternoon, one fun night and one HOT day in Bangkok. I hope you enjoy our fun adventure into the mystic of Thailand! I am breaking the trip up into seperate posting for pictures. Enjoy!!
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