Hawaii

So here's a quick overview of our Hawaii trip. We landed in the morning, went to Susan's friend's house for showers and laundry then took off on a driving tour of the southern part of the island. We stopped at the blowhole for some pics, then went to find me a new swim suit. We went to the Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific located in a crater called the Punchbowl. We had dinner ironically at Susan's favorite Thai restaurant, then checked into the hotel. My ankles were so swollen that I stayed in the room and iced them down while Susan and Jason went hot tubbing.
All we did today was hang out at the beach. I swam out to the barrier rocks and stocked up on vitamin D. Now we're getting ready to head to the airport. I can't wait to see my family again!

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Bangkok Thursday

Today started with a morning of shopping at the Jim Thompson store. Wow! I certainly couldn't afford a lot of the stuff in the store but I did get some fabric for a dress and did some Christmas shopping, because hey, I'm never going to find that kind of stuff for even remotely comparable prices anywhere else. We stopped at O'Reilly's Irish pub for lunch on the way back to the room to drop off our goodies.
The river is down about three feet from yesterday, but it's very choppy today and it looks like it's running faster than previous days.
We finished up some last minute shopping this afternoon and came back to the hotel for an end of the visit facial and massage. That was so nice. Now I'm refreshed and ready for Hawaii. :-)

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Bangkok Wednesday part 2

There has been major flooding in the areas north of Bangkok, and this morning's paper was warning that the river through Bangkok might overflow its banks. That didn't happen because apparently the dams upriver were able to release little enough water to keep the river from getting too high. But it was several feet higher today than it was yesterday. Hopefully it will continue to stay in the banks.

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Bangkok Wednesday

Today started with a trip to the Jim Thompson house. He is an American who almost single-handedly brought the Thai silk trade to the world. Needless to say, I had a terrific time. The house is now a museum and tomorrow we're going to visit the main store. :-) We took a cab to see the Victory Monument which we just looked at from the walkway to the sky train. We walked for a bit and found the Thai equivalent of a shopping mall. That was totally crazy. The shops are basically a small area (maybe 5'X10') stuffed with whatever they're trying to sell. Clothes, jewelry, electronics, souvenirs... So we made a few purchases and took the sky train and river shuttle back to the hotel for another fun event.
Marriott hotels worldwide were trying to set a world record today by having the most people eating a Thai meal at the same time. We had dinner then were entertained by some beautiful Thai dancers. It was a gorgeous event out on the patio by the river and was only slightly marred by a huge downpour. But since it really hasn't rained too much since we got here, it wasn't too bad.
After riding in taxis all week, I have yet to see a posted speed limit sign. So I'm guessing that much like the lanes, a speed limit would just be a suggestion. :-)

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Bangkok Tuesday

Today we went to see Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) and Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). And since we didn't get a real early start, we came back to the hotel for lunch and hit the swimming pool. Completely boring post, even though the day was pretty fun. Pic is of Wat Arun.

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Bangkok

Today we took a tuktuk around town. I'm so glad I don't have to drive here. It's crazy! The lanes are most definitely a suggestion and if you're on a motorbike or in a tuktuk, you get to drive between the cars. At first they took us to interesting places but then they started taking us to random shops. Took a while to get them to just take us where we wanted to go, but for 25 cents for a two hour drive, it was fine. We saw the royal palace and the temple of the emerald Buddha and a really huge Buddha statue. After we walked around the emerald Buddha church grounds for a while we took a water shuttle down the river (don't fall in, it's gross) back to our hotel. We had dinner at one of the restaurants in our cute little shopping area, then finished off with frozen yogurt and wifi access.

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Bangkok trip

We had some fun landing in Japan. As we were flying in, the terrain from the coast inward looks like Idaho with the road structure of Atlanta. Lots of twisting roads that don't really go anywhere.
As we were approaching the airport, we were less than a mile from the end of the runway (which in airplane terms is really close ) when the pilot suddenly guns the engines and starts climbing. I'm thinking "Uh oh, what's going on?" and so is Susan. Then the pilot comes over the intercom and says the airplane that landed in front of us was having landing gear problems and was still on the runway and that we were just going to circle around and try again. So that was my first aborted landing. Interesting.
The flight to Bangkok was less eventful. We landed and got a cab to the hotel. Wow! Nice hotel. There's a little shopping are in front of the hotel that has a Starbucks where I am currently siting. (Starbucks didn't work out so well, but the frozen yogurt place is awesome.) There are also several bakeries, beauty salons, and silk shops. :-) Much shopping will be done.

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