By Alex Moore

After 20 hours in the air and 38 hours traveling, we arrived in Bangkok! We flew on Asiana airlines, who knows presentation.  The flight attendant uniform was lovely, and they even had matching silk aprons while they were serving!  The food was wonderful. Ironically, as we looked around, it was we Americans trying to eat with the provided chop sticks while most of the Koreans around us were using the silverware!  

In the Guest House, I awoke early (my internal clock will not be readjusted for a while) and walked around the market with my camera.  There are food stands anywhere you go.  Thais are known for small meals often, very clear looking at this city.  A food stand can never be too far, and though you may not be sure what it is that you will be eating, you can be fairly certain that it will be delicious.

I found myself some Thai tea: a delicious, thick orange drink full of spices and condensed milk.  Then leaving the street and entering the market, I was surrounded by meat.  I wouldn’t want to know what kinds.  But absolutely as fresh as can be, to be sure.  There even were a few skins hanging, I guess in case anyone has need for fresh flesh with fur attached.  Then came the fish–fish in all stages. Alive, in line to be be-headed and dead.  Eels, catfish, squid, toads, turtles, squid and just about anything else that swims or hops around Thailand.  Oh, the smells!  All with their own personal aroma, it was an experience to embrace.  Then there were stands  with women crushing fresh hot pepper mixes as I passed… and I’ve found the use for my left over Thai Baht when we come back through Bangkok! 

 I tried looking for cooking lessons last night…but I settled on a Thai massage, instead.  One hour for 220 Baht…more or less seven dollars.  It was extremely relaxing (except for the Thai massuses chatting back and forth, interupting the meditation of silence) except that my massuse worked all of the toxins from my body from the bottom up.  But when she reached my head, she spent about thirty seconds and said she was finished, so they all got stuck there. For the past day, I’ve felt a head full of toxins. 

We spent the afternoon out as a group:  we went to the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha and Wat Arun with a nailbitingly steep climb to the top to see over the city.  They were all magnificent.  They put most Western Cathedrals to shame.  The colors are extraordinary, and the details are so intricate.  Gold is everywhere, with bright rich blues, reds, greens, purples galour.  The Grand Palace was established in 1782 and houses the royal residence, government offices, and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  His Majesty the King and Queen of Thailand have a status incomparable to those of most other countries.  Their pictures are all over, their seal is on the shirt of just about every tenth Thai to be seen, and criticizing them is absolutely out of the question.  Each of the Wats ( Thai place of worship) was just as colorful on the inside:  we left our shoes outside of the door and sat on the floor.  In a Wat, or almost anywhere for that matter, you must take off your shoes before entering as a sign of respect.  Feet are a touchy issue and you must be careful:  to point with your feet–intentionally or unintentionally–would be a huge offense.

We traveled place to place in boat:  this is, after all, the Venice of the East.  It was a glorious day and we couldn’t have been luckier.  The sky was blue and the clouds were billowing.  In the evening, after our Thai massages, we had our own little yoga session with our newly relaxed muscles (we have both a trained yoga instructor in our group and a very practiced meditator who are only enhancing our experience) and then we went out to eat.

After our $3 meal in a restaurant with a fabulous ambience, we met with some artists right outside of our guest house and played music and danced until hostel guests began to complain.  It was wonderful!  It was a mix of bongos, digeridoos, guitar and tambourines (and my dancing, of course.)

Thais and Americans making music together in the sidewalk having a gay time…who’s to say the people of this world can’t live at peace?