We have moved on to Phuket – Karon Beach – from Bangkok, but I will talk more about that in another post.  For now I need to just wallow for a bit in a topic that is near and dear to my heart – massage!

I became quite enamored with the joy of a good massage last year when I was here with my brother and my parents.  I was a little cautious at first as the thought of a strange person touching me was out of my normal comfort zone, but I was convinced to give it a try – well after the first time it was like being addicted to crack, and became part of my daily ritual.  And at 300B (about $8 US) for an hour, who could refuse.

Well I would be lying if I did not admit that appeal of returning to Thailand for some of that oh so splendid self indulgence was not part of my motivation to return here, and now that I am back by the beach it was time to dive back in.

For those that have never experienced Thai massage, it shares very little with what we would think of when we get a massage at the Gene Juarez, or even those saucy moves you used back in college when trying to impress the ladies.  Thai massage can only be described as a woman half your size trying to teach you body how to become a pretzel.  The first time you experience it, you get part way in and think that you are really a punching bag at a Thai kick-boxing school, and wonder what on earth have you committed yourself to.  But by the time the massage is complete you fall into this gelatinous state of nirvana and wonder a) why it has taken you so long to find such a wonderful thing, and b) when can you sneak away for your next one.

As you lay there in your tiki-style hut and just let yourself relax while the masseuse works you over you very quickly tune out the world around you and let the gentle breeze just soothe and relax you.  My words here don’t do it justice, but if you ever get the chance to get a decent massage on a beach it is an experience you will not soon forget.

So 2 days in at our spot in Phuket, I am a couple of massages to the plus column, and getting down into a very zen-like spot.  Even the Great Adventurer herself tried one out yesterday and she is quickly realizing why I like it so much.  Oh yes, and much to my delight I find that the off-season has caused some contraction in the local economy, and the price for my 1 hour session has dropped to 200B (about $6) – ahh the life…

For our 2nd day in Bangkok we decided to take a day trip out to see some one of the many historic sites. We wanted to go out to Ayutthaya to see the ruins there, so between our trip to the Palace and our river tour yesterday we stopped at a Tourism Authority to see what our options were.  There were several pre-packaged options, but after haggling the price a bit and evaluating the options we decided to hire a private van and driver for the day.   For 2000 Baht (about $60 US) we got an air-conditioned van and english speaking driver and could go anywhere we wanted as long as we were back by 6pm.

Our driver picked us up at 8:30 and we headed out for Ayutthaya.  The drive from Bangkok is about 1.5 hours and we settled in for our trip.  Bangkok seemed to spread out for about the first half of the trip, but once we cleared the city the smog started to thin and it was a beautifully clear day.  You don’t really realize how dirty the air is in the city until you leave and have some point of comparison, but Bangkok seemed to be fully engulfed by a reddish-brown haze as we looked behind us.

Summer Palace Bang Pa-in

Our first stop was about 1 hour outside of the city at one of the many summer palaces – this one in Bang Pa-in.  Construction at the Summer Palace was started in 1872 by King Rama V and is about 20 acres of manicured grounds, water features, residences and ceremonial buildings.  The Palace is used by the current royal family only for special occasions, so is open to tourists and visitors most of the time.

While the weather the day before seemed hot, it was only an introduction to real heat – without the protective smog layer and clear skies it felt like we were having a brief tour of the sun.  Luckily for Laurie the guards at the gate loaned her a special shirt to cover her shoulders, with the added side benefit of being able to soak up an extra gallon or so of sweat.

The Palace grounds however were so inspiring that there were times when we forgot the heat and just soaked up the beauty and tranquility of the place.  After seeing both the palace in Bangkok and the palace here we came to two conclusions: 1) it is definitely good to be the king, 2) with the palace at Bang Pa-in why would you ever want to go back to the palace in Bangkok.

Ayutthaya

Next it was off to Ayutthaya.  There are more than a dozen different temples and ruins throughout the area, and the modern city has grown up in and around the historic sites.  We clearly don’t have time to see them all (and likely not the perseverance as the small people are getting a little temple weary) but our driver takes us to the highlights.  We end up seeing 3 of the more famous spots, including the temple of the Reclining Buddha, the ‘Face Buddha’, and the ruins of the old palace.

We did stop briefly for lunch, where we had a great meal on a floating barge on the river, and then also at a little ‘safari park’ as the one thing Jackie wanted to do on here birthday was ride an elephant.  So the kids took a short ride on the elephants while I stayed back to take some photos of Mrs. Columbus (the Great Adventurer) taming a fierce jungle cat!!

The temple of the Reclining Buddha is a regular stop on many tours because the image of the Buddha in a reclining position is not very common – from what I can gather there are only a handful in all of Thailand, and coupled with the fact that the main temple here is almost completely intact, it brings a lot of people to worship as well as tourists to see the grounds.

The ‘Face Buddha’ is at the Ayutthaya heritage park, and is part of the original temple / palace complexes here that were built in the late 1300s.  The entire complex was damaged during one of the may conflicts with the neighboring regions, and the city was mostly leveled in 1767 by the Burmese army.  As part of the temple razing, the Burmese Army defaced the Buddha images, mostly by removing the Buddha’s head as sort of an Asian ‘in your face’.   At this set of ruins, one of the Buddha head statues was engulfed by the roots of a tree and has grown ‘into’ the tree over the 100s of years that it sat there.

It was a bit daunting to walk through the grounds and realize that 500+ years ago people were building these great monuments and we were able to still see today some of their efforts.  In looking at many of the ruins it seems that time will not be on their side, and even though there are ongoing restoration efforts being taken on all of these sites, the sheer forces of nature are slowly wearing things down.  I am glad we took the time to come and see it while we can, as I’m sure that it was different 10 years ago, and will be changed again 10 years from now.

After a long hot day of touring all of these sites we re-hydrated ourselves with what seemed like gallons of water and climbed back into our air-conditioned van for the trip back to Bangkok. We got in an hour or so at the hotel pool (very refreshing) and then out for dinner and into bed.  While out for dinner we encountered our first round of rainy-season weather – while searching for a place to eat, the skies literally opened up in a torrential downpour that lasted for about an hour or so before clearing off.  We did get caught in the front part of the storm while dashing for a restaurant, but even though we did not have to go far, we were well soaked by the time we got about 2 blocks – it is a good thing the rain here is warm.

Our Internet connectivity was a little limited in Bangkok, so I find myself a little behind on blogging our activities so far.  I also wanted to start getting some of the photos online so I focused there first, so now I can connect some of this narrative to actual photos.  It seems so ironic to me that the smaller hotels with the lower rates and often equal amenities are the ones with the free or included Internet access, and the big resorts continue to chisel an extra few $$ out of their guests to get online.

Anyway, on with the show…..

Our original plan included a couple of days in Bangkok at the start of the trip (and also a couple at the end).  I am no fan of the big cities and had no real desire to spend any time there, but Laurie and the kids had not been there and we figured a few days would be enough to see and experience it without inflicting too much pain.  Although I am glad we went, I feel like my initial impressions were confirmed, and there is just far too many people there for my tastes.  If you are ‘city people’ it would certainly be a great spot as I think that if you cannot see it or buy it in Bangkok, it is purely because it does not exist.

We planned to cram a bunch of activities into our initial days, partly to cross them off our list, but partly to be able see some of the culture (vs just the beach) while Russill was with us.  We had planned to see the Grand Palace and perhaps a river tour, so we decided to spend our first day doing just that.

The Grand Palace

The Grand Place was built by King Rama I and was started when the King moved the capital of Thailand to Bangkok in 1782.  The grounds consist of a series of buildings including the Palace itself, the Kings Temple – where the Emerald Buddha is kept, and various ‘official’ buildings used for ceremonies and hosting foreign dignitaries.  Only parts of the complex are open to the public, and like most Thai museums and historic sites there is a small admission charge for foreigners which I assume goes to cover the cost to maintain these sites.  When you see first-hand the sheer size of these places coupled with the level of craftsmanship that was used during their construction, it is staggering to think about the amount of work involved in keeping them in the immaculate condition they are in.

The current King does not actually live in the Grand Palace, but rather lives in another palace complex in Bangkok, and the Grand Palace is used only for public and government ceremonies. I guess it truly is ‘good to be the king’!

We took the sound advice of travelers that were here before us and decided to hire an English speaking guide to tour us through the grounds.  The price seemed a little steep, but after listening to him explain details of the complex and the many artifacts located inside it was apparent that the money was well spent, and we would have gotten far less out of the site if we had tried to just wander through on our own.

One of the highlights of the grounds is the Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  The temple was built to provide a home to a rare Buddha image made completely of Jade – the deep green emerald color of the stone giving the statue it’s name.  Legend has it that the Emerald Buddha is over 2000 years old and has made it’s home in several SE Asia countries until settling in Thailand in the 1400s.  As with all the other buildings on the palace grounds the Temple is an amazing construction of minute detail – and even more amazing when you consider that it was all done 300+ years ago with crude hand tools and manual labor.

Chao Phraya River

We made our way back from the Palace grounds towards our hotel and then hired a long-tail boat to take us for a tour of the Chao Phraya River that runs through Bangkok and the many canals (klongs) that branch off the main river.  For 100s of years the river and the klongs were the primary means of moving goods and people around, and even with all the modern infrastructure that is part of the city today, the river still is a central part of their transportation network.

The klongs are like side-streets to the river and traveling up them reveals a part of the Bangkok ‘underbelly’ that while visible from the streets, is much more in your face.  We saw the whole spectrum of the people here – nice new canal-side homes and apartments built right next to what can only be called squatter’s shacks, and burned out old factories.  It is amazing to see the stark contrast between the haves and the have-nots so closely together.  What is even more amazing however is that regardless of how rich or poor the people we saw were, they all seemed so happy, and as our boat passed by they would all wave and smile like they had not a care in the world.

If the only lasting impression we get from here is that life can be as simple as you allow it to be, then it will have been time well spent.

As an aside, did I mention that it was damn hot – while we were at the palace it must have been in the high 90s and between the humidity and the sweat, we were all drenched by the time the tour was over.  The odd shop or indoor exhibit that was air-conditioned probably received much more attention than it normally would have 🙂  Hopefully as we acclimatize a bit we will notice it less, but for the moment we are drinking a lot of cold drinks.

I have uploaded a bunch of the photos we have taken and will continue to do so throughout the trip (when Internet connectivity allows) and the can bee seen on the CasaRoberts Gallery

Well, after about 16h or so on the plane we made it 🙂  We arrived in Bangkok at about 9:30pm tomorrow!!  Given the trip across the International Date Line our arrival date was actually Thursday night (vs our Wednesday morning departure) and the kids were very excited to declare that they had solved the time travel problem.

The plane to Tokyo flew the polar route, and one of the options on the seat-back screen was to watch the location of the plane, so there was lots of questions about why we were going north in order to get to Japan, and what would happen when we crossed the date line, etc.  They diligently watched as we crossed, and …… nothing – except we were in tomorrow.  I guess fun to see that the small things can be so fascinating when you are not old and jaded 🙂

Thanks to some good legwork and shopping around by Laurie, and a bunch of American Express reward points we were able to fly business class – this of course made for a much more comfortable travel experience for the old guy, and the kids now believe they are all high-rollers.  I feel only marginally bad for spoiling them for their future travel companions.

We managed to find Russill with no problem (our flights connected in Tokyo) and after making our way through Thai customs, getting some local currency, and then checked-in to our hotel room we were all well beaten down and ready for a good night of sleep.

Today, our goal is to get ourselves oriented a bit, and then try and take in the Palace and hopefully a tour of the river and the Klongs that people live and travel by.  The weather outlook is for about 90F and 50% humidity, so we shall see how the Great Adventurer herself adapts 😉

Special shout out to my parents for all of their help in getting ready and to the actual flight on time.  We had so much last minute stuff to do and people to see that we definitely would not have been ready without their last-minute help – thank you.

Well here it is a couple of days before we go and there is so much I wanted to get done, including a couple of blog entries, but it looks like this will be the final one before we leave.  It always seems like there is so much to do in the final days – getting ready, getting in last minute visits with the people we will miss while we are gone, projects cleaned up at home and at the office, etc. but the next thing you know you are out of time.

We spent last weekend doing what everyone should do before they go on vacation – the pre-vacation!!  Thanks to my brother and his wife, who found an opportunity we could not refuse, the 4 of us drove up to Whistler, BC to spend the weekend sans-kids for a couple days of relaxation.  We spent the weekend just doing some leisurely sightseeing, going up the gondolas to take in the views, walking around the village, and just generally taking in the serenity.  If you have never been there, it is well worth the trip – I had not been since the mid 80s, and I was amazed to see how much it had grown, but was still able to retain it’s European village style charm, and for those that like to ski, it boasts the largest ski area in North America.  Some photos are available in the gallery.

The kids were busy getting the final days of school taken care of, and the weather here has been kind enough to give them a few days to enjoy the pool and a few chances to see their friends before we go.  We won’t be here to get their report cards, but they all ensure us their grades are ‘fantastic’ 🙂

My parents came to town for the weekend so they can get their top-up of grandchild time before they leave for their summer on the boat, and we head off for our adventure.  It was nice for them to be here for Father’s Day and we all popped out to George’s Place in Kirkland for a family breakfast – kudos to Derek (one of our neighbors) and his staff for a great meal, and a nice start to the day.  We finished up the day by watching a big rain storm blow through and sadly spoil my plans to do some yard work with my Dad, we were of course very disappointed 😉

I think that is all I have left for now, a couple of days left to get work in order before I am offline for a few days, and then away we go.  My next post will be from Thailand – we hope you all have a fun and enjoyable summer, we will be thinking of you all while we are gone, and look forward to seeing you all when we get home.