Flight and our time in Bangkok

Water taxi on the river
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After a VERY long trip, about 31 hours door to door, we arrived safe

and sound in Bangkok.  We are truly on the other side of the world - when it's noon back home it's midnight here.  Our bodies are adjusting slowly to the change.

At that point we had incredible Thai massages...both of us...for one hour...just what we needed to cure our jet lag.

Our flight was mostly uneventful.  The coolest part of the flight was when we flew over the Hudson Bay--near the Arctic Circle--ice, snow and huge cracks in the ice where water could be seen.  Another highlight was taking a shower in the Tokyo airport!  After 20+ hours of traveling, it felt great!  On our last flight Annie scoped out two adjoinging 5-seat rows that we were able to snag after the seat-belt sign went off.  This allowed us to stretch out and sleep in great comfort.

Chinatown in Bangkok
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Only snag in the flight was that Annie checked bag did not make it to Bangkok with us!  No sign of it at the airport; we filled out a report and took a taxi to our hotel.  Fortunately Annie's call the next day resulted in a report that the bag was found and would be taken to our hotel that night.  So other than having to wear her airplane clothes for the first day, it worked out okay.  It's now Wednesday morning and I just brought her bag up to our room.

Yesterday ( Tuesday, our first day in Bangkok ) we toured around with our friends Randy and Charlie, who arrived a day ahead of us.  We took a water taxi on the river and then toured Chinatown.  This was really amazing, with a seemingly endless maze of narrow streets and alleys packed full of vendors selling everything imaginable.  We also visited some Buddhist temples which were beautiful with so much detail and it was almost overwhelming.  In the afternoon our bodies were telling it was 3 am, so our energy was waning.  At that point we had incredible Thai massages...both of us...for one hour...just what we needed to cure our jet lag. In the evening we had a great Thai dinner.  A huge wonderful meal.  All four of us ate for around $30 total, drinks included.

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho
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Today ( Wednesday ) we plan to tour the Royal Palace and another temple across the river.  And of course another massage ( these cost about $10, by the way, since I'm braggin' on bargains! )

I'll add some photos when I figure out how to do that, now that we have the right cable which was in Annie's suit case.

Hope you're all well on the other side of the planet!

Added after our return home:

A chedi ( stupa ) at Wat Pho. A chedi holds sacred Buddhist artifacts.
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On Wednesday we toured Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace, which are adjoining.  The Wat was unbelievable, with many incredibly ornate temples and other buildings.  Lots of buddha statues.  Next door, the Grand Palace was equally impressive.  The King, well loved in Thailand, does not actually live in the Grand Palace, but rather lives in a private residence.  The Grand Palace is only used, other than as a tourist site, when there are visiting dignitaries - they get to stay in the palace ( and the tourist are not allowed in during their visits ).

Chedi detail - beautiful tile work
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Our tour guide was "Sonny" who spoke reasonably good English, and we were feeling comfortable with him by tour's end.  This explains why we foolishly allowed ourselves to be conned into a trip to the gem shop - a standard Bangkok scam.  Sonny told us that our ticket include a tour at an off-site attraction, the Teak Palace...and we'd stop first for some shopping.  After being herded into the air-conditioned van ( part of the lure - it was a hot day ) we started to realize what was going on.  When we arrived at the gem shop, we refused to take the "tour" and we asked to be taken to the river pier.  Once at the pier we took a water taxi ( bus is probably a better word ), Tom heading back to the hotel, Annie heading for the flower market, and Charlie and Randy heading for massages.

Wat Phra Kaew
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In the early evening Annie and I got reflexology ( foot/leg massages ) at a place near the hotel.  Afterwards we headed to the Grand Sheraton Hotel, where we were to meet David Bagett ( who Annie knows from work ) and Dick.  It took us one and a half hours to travel the 6 or 7 miles to their hotel during rush hour traffic - a good reason to stick to river transport whenever possible!  We had drinks in the swank hotel bar before taking the Sky Train to Patpong area where we had dinner at the Mango Tree restaurant.  Charlie and Randy met us at the restaurant.  Had a great meal, and afterwards walked around the Patpong red-light district...which I will simply describe as "very wild".  A taxi ride took the four of us back to our hotel.

Wat Rakhang, across the river from central Bangkok
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Thursday was travel day: a flight to Chiang Mai.  We had breakfast at what had become our "usual place", an open-air restaurant around the corner from our hotel.  After some final Bangkok shopping, we took a taxi to the airport.  We had lunch in the airport restaurant, which was actually pretty decent.  Our one-hour Thai Air flight was uneventful.