Ayutthaya, Khao Yai, Songkran
Hi! Sitting here in late afternoon, overlooking the Chao Praya River and all of Bangkok and enjoying this city greatly. My last blog left off with only a hint at my dive trip. More now.... I was for 4 days and nights on a live-a-board boat, the Explorer, with West Coast Divers going to the 9 main Similan Islands up to Koh Bon and Richeleiu Rock. I had a great cabin (front top deck) and an excellent roommate, Rachele from Canada who teaches English in Japan. 3-4 dives per day, currents and not, but always pretty calm top side. Most dives 60-90 feet and more sea life than I thought could ever exist in one place. Most folks were excited to see the big stuff, but for me, it was the tiny stuff that was most captivating. Open a book about the sea and reef life of SE Asia and you will see what I saw. My favorites were the large orange with reddish spotted clown fish (relative of Nemo) that were so territorial. They would come out of thier anemone andattach you. One got a hold of my watch and it was unpleasantly surprised by its hardness. It was a bit fearful of me after that. We had wild thunderstorms and rain 3/4 nights, but always clear and beautiful at daybreak. There are 2 isalnds that you can camp on as it is in a Nat. Park. It is a true get-away from it all, and will go there for a vacation sometime! A few great adventures on Phuket with Rachele and the "Hazard" family (yes it is thier name) from Canada. What a wild , fun bunch they are. If in Canada, a visit with them is a must!!!!! Back to Bangkok via Asia Airlines (about $60 round trip for 1 1/2 hour flights) where I hung at Dieter's nice condo and palled around with him mom who was visiting from Germany. She spoke no English, so my shabby German got a workout!!! It was interesting shopping with her in the markets where I would try to make us understood in English and then back to German with her and Thai word or two slipping out. I have not learned Thai yet. I was doing well for awhile, then just started to be around people who all speak English, so need to get back at it! Worked on some job descriptions for the project for Mandara Spa company that I will be working for. Dieter has aacontract with them to upgrade internal training and knowledge and start an academy for international massage teaching, Mandara just got two spa contracts in Tanzania and Zanzibar besides some other countries, and the 2 African ones open in July, so we are under the gun to get the massage therapists ready for there. So, our short term focus has changed and now my job description has changed slightly, although after the budget gets final approval (should be today) I will hopefully be doing curriculum development and teaching as planned, just on a different project. Maybe a blog will be written from the spas in Africa! So, after the paperwork of 5 days in Bangkok, I decided to head North via train to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. On the train, gave up my seat to an older lady and she took me under her wing when we arrived at Ayutthaya. Got me into a tuk tuk (small, noisy 3 wheel vehicle thing) with her and a friend ahd took me to my guesthouse. She insited on paying for me. It happens all the time here!!! I love these people. I stayed at Tony's Place for about $2 a night for a clean, screaned room with shared shower/toilet. Cool old wood place that is a maze with frienly people and Tony is a great guy. Rented a bike and biked all around the old city of ruins, went to the museum ( the one in the old palace, no other tourists there!) and got caught on a street corner under a big tent like thing with 2 barbers, their customers, another pedestrain, 2 motorcycle taxi drivers and thier riders and a great gal from Whales named Carly. Only one other Carly I know and I thought of you on Kauai! So, we were trapped by a huge and I mean huge thunder and rainstorm that came out of nowhere. It was the first rain in like 6 months or something. Am I a rainmaker or what?!!! We all spent about 1 1/2 hours there, getting drenched as the rain blew in sideways and the roof leaked. Quite funny and this nice man gave us his umbrella and they gave us chairs andI shared the watermellon with everyone. Finally, the rain let up and Carly and I walked home and changed and I jumped on the bike again and went out to see the ruins lit up at night. Now, I cannot even begin to tell you how cool this whole city is. FILLED with ruins everywhere, and some quite intact.They are made of bricks and stucco covering with stone buddas and stuff all over. The lights are like on the pyramids at night with the soft gold glow. Oh, I forgot about earlier in the day when I met another nice lady by some out of the way temples. She took me inside a beautiful typical Buddhist temple where a monk was sitting and blessing people. We sat ( I just did what she did as there is a strict protocol for this interaction) and he blessed me ( i guess that's what he was doing-maybe he was saying i needed to get my grey hairs dyed) and shook water off a wooden whisk thing onto me. We then did our Wais, and knee walked over to the buddah image and said some prayers and put money in a couple of the boxes-for food, water, etc. Lit candles, the usual temple stuff. Pretty cool. Not a tourist in sight. So , later in the eve, as I was sitting at a restaurant, having a Singha beer, waiting for the Wats to be lit, the restaurant owner told me about the parade, etc, that eve for the founding of Ayutthaya. What a nice coincidence. I was nearby, so hopped onto my bike and headed out to see the parade. Oh my. Amazing costumes, elephants all dooded up, beauty queens that I told how "sawai" (beautiful) they were to, old Siam warriers with poles and it was all so amazing!!!!!!! A huge concert had just ended and there was great music on the tape to dance to in the middle of this grassy ampitheater and everyone was gone off to the carnival/market area. Walking through the carnival, market withall kinds of fun stuff-commercial 99 cent type junk to beautiful pictures of the king and buddah. Fianlly rode back to Tony's where he was sitting at a table talking to 2 visitors. I was so excited to tell them about the parade and all. They laughed a bit at my excitement, but it was just sooo perfect! Then, I made an interesting move.... I sat with them and offered my festival popcorn and askerd their names. Alex I remember, but what was the Swedish man's name? Many beers later at the club next door, Full Moon Cafe or some such thing, we had a great time. The other guy was leaving next am, but I had a new buddy, Alex. Alex and I hung out together for the next 2 days, visiting his friends, ruins, riding bikes that were way too small, shopping for clothes for me as all of mine were wet except shorts and you dont' wear shorts here, and feeling like we had known each other a long time. He is so full of knowledge (does he have an off switch?) and helped to get my brain thinking again. We met Sunday night, and he had to leave back to Germany on Tuesday night after about 4 years of traveling. SO, saw my buddy off at the train station and hired a motrorcycle taxi to drive me around the city for an hour ($2.50). I looked at lit ruins, saw new parts of town and let my tears dry for missing my new good friend. His plans are to return to start a business here at the end of the year! :) Ayutthaya was not the same afterhe left, Tony was a bit sad too as they have know each other for years now, and so I hopped on a train to the East to Pack Chong, the gateway to Khao Yai National Park. Stayed at Greenleaf Guesthouse in a sweet, plain, CLEAN room with screne window and door for $5 and as soon as I dropped my bag in my room, A couple from Holland, Seieberen and Marrlet, a guide and our driver took off for the bat caves at sunset. Now this is truely one of those awesome moments in one's life that will always be with them. There are 2 million bats coming out from this cave hole in the wall of this hill about 200 feet up above us. We had a spotting scope and watched as the bats came out in what I can only describe as a swirling, spiraling, smokelike column of bats moving off toward the north into fields to eat insects. This lasts for about 45 minutes. Then we watch the sunset and the cold spots on it through the scope and walk through the fields to another place where we stand about 8' apart. Then another bat group leaves their cave, but in single file through the tree branches and at us narrowly missing us in their "Star War" like flight. This is accompanied by symphonies of cicadas, also in perfect orchestration with each other to start and stop. This evening's events are inmprinted in ever fiber of every sense organ of my body. That is evening one of 1 1/2 days at Khao Yai National Park. The next day my two new friends, Marrlet and Sieberen, and 2 other couples ( I was wishing Alex to be there!), guide (Tun) and deriver/scope carrier (Boyle) and I headed off in safari like vehicle to the park itself. I will just tell you that it was amazing. They give you leach socks to wear although it is dry, the little bastards live in the leaf litter and try and climb up. I got bitten under the arm by one as I held treee leaves out of the way to view the gibbons by scope. So, we rode, we hiked and we saw. Gibbon family resting and grooming in tree, 9'reticulated python on rode at night, pocupine, male elephant scratching himself on boulders and trees at the stream-watched him for half and hour at 50' away, monitor lizard and baby at stream, dragon lizard in tree, many hornbills of different types, baby marten, huge squirrel, butterflies and so much more. It was overwhelming with beauty. And the air so clean and quiet. I went for a run the next morning as I did in Ayutthaya after Alex left. It feels good to have my ankle back in shape, and my body feeling pretty good to run and play. Back to Bangkok via AC bus and who should `i meet? Marlett and Sieberen! We passed the time chatting about life and how there are no coincidences. We must just listen to our intuition. They also gifted me with my first EURO. -one from Italy with Leonardo's Man on it. I was surrounded by interesting and intelligent Europeans, and it was great to talk geography, politics, and religion. Just now here in Bangkok, the evening prayers are being sung from an Islamic mosque-such sad sounds. Back in Bangkok, I have been hanging with Dieter, doing some work getting ready for the spa openings, and playing too. The other day we went to the kick off parade, etc. for the Songkran festival. `it is the biggest holiday in Thailand. It starts on Wed. The 13th and goes through the 17th. Full -on 4 days of partying!!! It is the beginning of their New Year, and the theme is water throwing. Apparently is something to do with rainmaking in history, so now, the street vendors are stocked with water guns and no place is safe from getting splashed, squirted or doused. I have been instructed to put all things in plastic bag, and carry extra dry clothes in a plastic bag also, starting Wed. We got a taste of it at the parade on Sat. The elephants (from Ayutthaya!!!) were there all painted and robed in red, and they had barrels of water on carts and would reachin with their trunks and spray the audience as they traveled along. Dieter, his Thia friend, Chai, and I just happened to be at he turn around for the route, and so the elephants stayed there. We got sprayed quite a bit, and then, this elephant walks up to me with a trunk full and I just put my hands over my face, and for about 15 seconds he terrorized me! I was laughing and then I peeked out and he swung to my right and blew all over the crowd behind me. Somewhere there are some great pictures of that!!! Chai and Dieter did get some photos, and I will try and get them to put them on here for your enjoyment. Well, that leaves me to now. I am witing for budget approval and full job description to be able to get my own apt,. etc here. Then I will be more settled. I am welcome to stay at Dieter's until things are defined, so I will. So, bye for now. Hope you have enjoyed catching up!!!! Thinking of you all!
posted by Monica @ 4:55 PM
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