Bangkok, flower market, a boat trip, and cooking demonstration (May 16)

We got up early, cleaned up, and headed to the breakfast.  Both the hotel in Hong Kong and the one here had excellent and huge breakfasts!  We met three members of our tour as we ate, and met all of them at our orientation meeting at 8:30.  We have lawyers, engineers, veterinarians, teachers, and physicians in our group.  I think its good to be a good group -- 12 of us in all.

Dan Frey, Cheryl Lamm, Oren Lamm, Hal and Jeanette Coons, Elyse Litvak, Julie, Anna (tour leader), Harold, Remi (Linda Volz) and Gary Shilling, Margaret Snoeren, Greg Zell.  (This picture was actually taken at our final farewell dinner.)

our name tags, written in English Thai, Lao, Cambodian, and Vietnamese.
Also, behind the name tag we had two other sheets, one full of names and phone number of our guides in each country, and the other a conversion sheet for all the different kinds of money (very handy).

Our first excursion consisted of jumping on a bus and then walking through the flower market section of Bangkok.  What a delight for the senses, both in viewing and smelling.  There tons of flowers, all different kinds, including marigolds which were everywhere, bags and bags and bags of them.  We learned that one of the kings imported marigolds from Holland because of the gold color, and because of the color, they are in abundance and one of the favorite flowers.   All of the religious shrines have gold gilding or coloring, and it is also an important color for the royalty of the country.

We also learned how to fold a lotus flower, and we will be doing something special with our lotus flowers later in the day.  We took our flowers to the home we visited (where we learned to cook and had lunch), and after the meal we honored their ancestors by placing our flowers on their "spirit house," something that the Thai people do daily.  Often food and beverages are placed on the spirit house as well to assure the ancestors are well fed and happy.

                                        

After the Pak Khlong Flower Market, we jumped (well, not exactly "jumped") into a water taxi and cruised around the canals and water ways of the Chao Phraya River, named "The River of Kings" by Rama I.  Water is as important here as a passageway as in Venice.  Bangkok is actually called "the Venice of the East."  Houses and religious shrines covered every square inch of property next to the water ways, some quite deluxe and some quite -- well, no-so-deluxe.  It was a delight to see the other water taxis, all brightly colored and having several draped strands of fresh flowers hanging from their bows.  The water itself wasn't too clean.  Happily, no one fell in.  One of the highlights was to see a huge Monitor lizard (they look like small crocodiles) sunbathing on the ledge next to one of the houses.  Residents don't like these lizards because, although they are not a danger to people or kids, they do eat chickens and other small animals, especially at night.

The water taxi took us to someone's home, and the owners provided with a cooking demonstration.  We learned how to make authentic red curry powder and a "chicken with bamboo shoots" meal.  We then feasted on our endeavor, and it was all delicious.  After the meal, we took our lotus flower and placed it on one of the two shrines in the house -- one to a goddess and one to the ancestors of the owners.  Several houses have these shrines, visible from the waterway, and several had multi-layers of platform shrines.  The highest level was always devoted to the goddess, and the shorter ones to their ancestors.  Also in abundance were pictures of relatives, some past and some current.  There also was always a picture of the King Rama IX.  Rama X is now in office, but he is quite new, so his picture hasn't yet made the rounds in people's houses.  It's against the law for citizens OR FOREIGNERS to say anything negative about the King or the royal family. Be careful what you say!

the water taxis all had strings of flowers hanging from the front of the boats 

we fed carp along the way 

the home we visited 

we learned to make both red and green curry and also chicken with bamboo shoots

our red curry

Harold went on an orientation walk of this area in Bangkok, and then we went to a talk about "freedom of speech" in Thailand.  The individual was an online journalist and he had to be very careful about what he said and what he printed.

After the talk, we went out for a special night-time boat ride and dinner on the Chao Phraya River.  The scenes were beautiful, especially the night time views of the lit-up Grand Palace which we will visit tomorrow.

We are certainly now all primed to actually go to the Grand Palace tomorrow.