Day 1: Bangkok

We arrived at our wonderful hotel at 2:00 a.m. Bangkok time after traveling for over 24 hours via Seattle and Seoul, Korea.  Our last flight was full of Koreans who seemed very happy to be escaping their frozen tundra as they headed to the warmth of Thailand for a few days or weeks.  Dan slept the entire last flight, but because it was early morning west coast time, my sleep sensor wasn't activated so I watched a John Lennon documentary instead.

This morning we went in to Bangkok and Dan bird watched and we both watched monitor lizards and groups of chanting, clapping people (Amway salesmen?) at Luphini Park, then were picked up by Tip and her driver, Sang.  Tip is on crutches due to a fall down her stairs and a badly sprained ankle, but she was determined to not let that interfere with our outing.  We stopped a beautiful historic site that commemorates the king's mother, known as the princess mother.  She was a commoner who happened to marry a member of the royal family and circumstances led to both of their sons becoming kings of Thailand.  The current king, Rama IX, who is 84 years old,  is her second son, their first son was king for a short while before he died mysteriously at age 19......

Tip led us to a wonderful riverside restaurant for our first real Thai meal.  Soft shell crab, green chicken curry, spicy shrimp soup, amazing crunchy noodles and great Thai iced tea.  We couldn't ask for more.

Tomorrow we fly down to Koh Samui, still in Thailand, where the weather report is thunderstorms, clouds and a good chance of rain.  Oh well, at least it will be 80 degrees!  We can take yoga classes, read Thai novels and get Thai massages instead of lying on the beach all day.