Liz and Richard's 2007 Adventures

Bangkok!

Arrived in Bangkok...we're a few countries behind in the blog.  Apologies.

Took 500 pictures at Angkor Wat et al.....need to edit!

Staying in a wonderful small hotel in Bangkok (only 5 rooms - we're on the top floor).  Our room has a large balcony that overlooks the river and Wat Arun on the other side - here's a picture from our balcony with Wat Arun in the background.

Of course that cup has tea in it!!

The river is a maze of traffic - tour boats, huge lumbering barges, ferries, tugs, etc.  We could sit for hours and literally watch the world go by....but the hotel has a highly recommended dining room so our evening is planned....then we must edit photos.

Best from Liz and Richard

The night view of Wat Arun from our Balcony

We are loving our riverside balcony.  The changing light on the Wat is more subtle than Hong Kong's skyscraper light shows, but fascinating.

Falling in love with Thai food.  It's like going to Italy and finding out they make more than spaghetti and pizza.  Last night a wonderful meal at our hotel.....first dish was four individual appetizers - spicy, crispy chicken wings, orange salad, cucumber julienne, and chicken satay.

Had to have more chicken wings

Then, grilled eggplants marinated with fish sauce, lime, chilies, shallots and dried shrimp - a totally different flavour profile - sour and hot

Closed with 2 fishes dishes - sauteed sea bass with celery, ginger and soy; and stir fried vermicelli with chilies, tiger prawns, kale and mushrooms.

All for $30 US in a restaurant with table cloths, candles and wonderful staff.

Because it is so hot the world here starts up in the cool of sunrise.  We've been getting up at first light - 5:30am/6:00am.....but then we have little choice since the rooster appears to be southeast Asia's favourite animal!

Now off to breakfast, wandering the city and - most importantly - finding a hard to find restaurant recommended in the NY Times.

(sorry about the Haiku like spacing on the text versus the pix - have to figure out what I'm doing wrong - also I've scaled the pix way down due to speed so they might be pixellating)

Some Run with Bulls....Others Walk with Tigers

Having much fun - blog continuity out of control though.

January 24th update - Bangkok - did all the tacky, wonderfully satisfying touristy things with our wonderful guide Tong - she's lots of fun and knowledgeable.

1)  Floating Market - here's the secret - ignore the souvenirs and concentrate on the food.  Eating hot soup in a rolling canoe is the definition of madness

2)  Walk with Tigers - keep chanting to selves "Seigfried and Roy", "Seigfried and Roy".  Here are a few early pictures (of hundreds)....

Dickie looks stern because the cub has just tried to remove his right ear.  Fortunately blood doesn't show in photo.

Liz cannot stop giggling as she does "the daftest thing in her life".

3)  Had a spectacular very late lunch at a floating restaurant under the actual "Bridge on the River Kwai" - drive home with our adorable guide singing along to her collection of old rock and roll.

It was a good day - we'll get the photos up and under control but here are a few from the Tiger Temple

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

One of the things we love about traveling is signs; some well intentioned but semantically mangled, others just symptoms of cultural differences.  Here are a few to date.

Hong Kong is very clean - not much litter, no cigarette butts on the streets, etc.  Below are two reasons why ...... and they aren't kidding.  Perhaps we should consider such draconian measures in an increasingly littered Toronto:

The following sign on a beach in the Hong Kong harbour may be our all time favourite sign.....depending on how you define "Inconvenience":

One of those charming verbal juxtapositions:

This sign brings new meaning to the threat of PMS:

Just in case you didn't know, carrying a gun when you come to visit the Thai King is discouraged.  The NRA must be appalled.

The following is self explanatory ......... sort of:

One is expected to remove one's shoes on entering a Thai temple.  They provide racks at the larger sites.  The Thais are incredibly polite, so we were perplexed to find separate Thai and Foreigner shoe racks.   Our guide explained that the intent was to make clear that any thefts of Foreigner shoes was due to other foreigners, and not the Thais:

We're always on the look out for more - will add them as we collect them!

A "Long Tail: Digression

Southeast Asia employs a small boat configuration that they universally call a "long tail".  Because the rivers and estuaries are very shallow they can't use an inboard shaft, a stern drive or an outboard - nix on anything that extends below the bottom of the boat.  The solution is the "long tail" - a 10 - 16 foot drive shaft that extends behind the boat, putting the prop is clear, shallow water.  The motors (and we've seen everything from chain saw engines to 6 cylinder Toyotas - although 4 cylinders are more popular) are mounted on gimbals.  The whole mechanism floats (generally with exposed water pump and generator belts) at the end of a control rod that your driver takes great delight in using to do the nautical equivalent of wheelies.  They are wonderful craft and we had much fun riding them everywhere in Cambodia, Lao and Thailand.  Georgian Bay might have fun with long tails!  Following are some shots from various locales:

Bangkok and the Floating Market

We've now been through the Bangkok airport twice  before (en route to Siem Reap) but this time we get to have our passports stamped.

The perfection of our visit to Bangkok was primarily the result of two factors

1)  Liz searched out an exceptional room with a wonderful patio and view over the River
2)  We had a great guide - Tong - who took us outside Bangkok to experiences many tourists never see.  Tong is intensely cute, articulate, knowledgeable, charming and drives like Michael Schumacher when he's late for an important meeting.  We loved her.

The wonders of the view from our Bangkok patio have appeared previously in our blog, so some of the following are repeats.  Adding to the virtues of a National Geographic calibre view, our hotel was on top of a wonderful restaurant, across the street from Wat Pho with its reclining Buddha and a 5 minute walk from the open air food market and the flower market.

Richard took the following 2 photos of Wat Arun from our patio, using a tripod and our new Sony camera - the definition is remarkable!

The Tong Experience:

We're off - at Formula One speeds.  The car is rolling, the conversation is rolling, it's clearly going to be an experience saturation day!

Firstly a quick stop at a favourite rural temple.  Exquisite wood carvings and sublime calmness

Then, on to the King's potters - where they make some of the most beautiful dinnerware we've ever seen and have an enviable collection of orchids in the cloisters.  We plan to order some plates

Next a Tourist Trap sublime - the Floating Market - but Tong has a plan.  We board our long tail and Tong advises that since we don't want to buy souvenirs, we'll buy what we really like.....food.  While others are haggling over carved elephants, we're working through some of the best Thai food we've ever had.  It was much fun and we learned that eating hot soup on your lap in a rolling boat is the definition of madness!

Photos follow - starting with a hauntingly beautiful vendor and closing with a market overview

This is the lady making our soup - this is our favourite kind of food.  Big chunks of stuff, a generous dollop of spices and a broth only a mother could make.  Put it in a can and we'd buy it by the case

We're now on our way to the Tiger Cubs; have to be there by 12:15.  Flying at barely sub light speeds, suddenly a stop.  Our instructions:  This is the best carving shop in Thailand - run it, look around, take pictures - you have 10 minutes.  We do.

The carvings are exquisite, particularly the table tops.  But Tong drags us out!

It's Tiger Time!

Liz and Dick have always loved cats and these are the largest cats in the world; the males tip the scales at 450 pounds plus. Tong promises that we'll get to touch a tiger.  We envisage reaching our finger through cage bars to touch Tony.  The experience is considerably more intense!

First, the cubs.  Somehow Tong has convinced the keepers that Liz and Dick are the ambassadors from another planet and must touch this world's wildlife.  Other tourists may reach out and possibly pet the cubs......Liz and Dick get to hold them (this phenomena, which we describe as "being Tonged", will appear again later in our tour).  There are few times in our lives that we have been so happy as when we held these female cubs, even though one sliced a small chunk of Richard's ear.  If possible, hold a tiger before you die!

Then the cubs do a "meet and greet" with the assembled minions.  They are of such perfect size and cuteness that we considered stuffing one into our back pack and making a run for the car park.  Monks can't run in robes.

Then they bring out Mom and Dad (well, actually 7 tigers in total) - the keepers and the monks walk the tigers about 3/4 of a kilometre from their cages down into a canyon.  The following photo should make it clear that they are very large and very functional.  There are rumours of drugging, but we don't think so.  They are clearly well fed, but they don't allow small children near them.....apparently even a well fed Tony can't resist a really tender morsel (where was Tony the last time you had to fly with a screaming kid?)

Tong, of course, had arranged that we would be first to walk with the tigers (the Keepers had been "Tonged") as they make their way to the canyon.  Our instructions are

1)  Touch firmly, don't move around
2) stay behind the head (since that is the eating end, this particularly makes sense to us)
3) stay calm (we repeat our mantra - "Seigried and Roy, Siegfried and Roy"

Then, like wusses, we walk with tigers - it was wonderful - especially when Richard's tiger decided to brush him off on a convenient tree - points to Tony

Now we've all arrived at the canyon - 7 tigers and about 30 utterly insane people.  Then, in case we haven't had enough, we have an orgy of petting and photographing with tigers.  Tong, naturally,  has arranged we'll be first to pet the tigers ("Tonged" again) - you give your camera to one of the keepers and another keeper takes you around to each of the tigers.  We were regrettably cautious - but some participants got right into it.  The day someone genetically alters a tiger not to tear your head off, we'll be first in line to acquire one.  Petting one is like handling a loaded Uzi.  There's an elegance and deadliness about them that is intoxicating.  Following are more photos of the Beebys with Tigers!

The Tigers were a real life experience.  But the Tiger Temple is not an amusement park - it really is a Buddhist Temple with 4 monks living there and other animals.  The origination was a baby tiger whose mother had been killed by poachers.  There are numerous other "saved" animals in the enclosure - deer who had been wounded by poachers seeking their antlers, water buffalo too old to work saved from the slaughterhouse, wild pigs, a sun bear called Bam Bam and numerous birds.  The other animals are relaxed, but not stupid - they all go to the other end of the compound when the tigers come out!  The monks are building a large new facility for the tigers and plan to release as many back to the wild as they can.

Following are shots of the other animals - our favourite is the deer with its hoof just touching the lowest step of the temple - his personal "get out of jail free" card!

The Death Railroad/Bridge on the River Kwai

It's not just a movie, it's really there.  The details of the actual story are somewhat different, but the fact of a railroad built by Japanese POWs at a brutal cost of life and horrible cruelty is true.

The picture below is Liz and Dick standing on the railway - it still runs for tourists.  To Richard's right is a large cave that served as a hospital for the sick and dying POWs.  Many died there.  After the war a Buddhist monk, visiting the cave, felt that there were many souls in need of comfort.  Of all the temples we have seen, it may be both the sparsest and the most moving.  We're becoming quite fond of Buddhist ethos.

Then on to a wonderful late lunch at a Floating restaurant under the Bridge on the River Kwai

We had a wonderful soup built around a whole fish, fish and eggplant with raw peppercorns (an amazingly wonderful dish.....why can we not buy raw peppercorns in Canada?), shrimps and hot peppers, chopped shrimp fritters (North America's next bar food craze?) and a searingly spicy soup that Tong personally ordered to put us off our game....following are photos plus one of Liz and Tong and Tong eating their neat version of dessert - just grab a banana.  Overall a wonderful meal.  And the Johnnie Walker Black box on the table?  Thailand is a very civilized country.  You can buy a bottle in a restaurant for the cost of 2 drinks in Toronto....we bought the bottle

Tong dropped us off at Residence Arun at 8:00pm - she had picked us up at 6:30am and we had travelled over 425 kilometres! 

Next - Day 2 with Tong

Day 2 with Tong - It keeps getting better

We go to a real downtown temple (City of Pillar Shrine) where the tourist don't go.  Have to learn the Buddhist basics.  But first, the guard gets "Tonged"....and photographed.  Traffic and parking in Bangkok are definitely pro level sports.  Try to park and numerous con men will "sell' you the spot (or scratch your car if you don't pay them).  Tong does not play.  She accosts a guard at a nearby government ministry (remember, we're still under martial law) and demands he move a car in the government lot so she can park right at the door of the Shrine.  Amazingly he moves the car and then agrees to a photo.  Liz and Dick try to looked like the deposed King and Queen of Bulgaria

The temple is very pretty and very participatory.  The nearby shops sell offering packages.  We don't fully understand all the nuances, but were fascinated by the options.

You offer flowers and light a candle and then "shake dice" in some form to find the answer to your question.  The "dice" give you a number from 1-25 and you get your answer from the rack of answers (pic below).  They are very specific - for instance - "if you are a pregnant woman your baby will be a girl".  Your offering kit also includes fabric which you wind around a pillar and oil which you pour into the lamp for the day of your birth.  You can also take a cup of holy water home in a plastic bag. We're not religious but this seemed to be a very participatory experience which lots of options beyond just lighting a candle.....

Then off to the Grand Palace.  It is incredibly beautiful and ornate.  We know nothing about it.  We know more about the long abandoned Egyptian temple at Abu Simbel.  But this place is still alive today - the King still lives here.  People still pray here.  The gardeners still prune the incredible topiary and bonsai that grace the grounds.  We are reminded how narrow our focus has been. 

We won't try to structure a visit - but just share with you a lot of photos of this amazing place - will probably break it into two posts

See the next posting for more photos of the Grand Palace!

Day 2 with Tong - more photos of the Grand Palace

More photos of the hundreds we took at the Grand Palace - it's so beautiful!

Well - that probably looks like a full day but it's just 12 noon - Tong has many more plans up her sleeve - miles to go before we sleep.  See next posting for our trip to the "Secret Fishing Village"!