More pictures from Alhambra.

A view of the beautiful gardens in Generalife.

One of the courtyards in the Nasrid palaces in Alhambra.

Another room in the Nasrid palaces in Alhambra.

More carving in the Nasid palaces.

The facade of the Alcabaza, the fortress of Alhambra.

More random pictures from Barcelona.

A cool pile of corroded swords from the Barcelona Archaeology Museum.

A view of distant Sagrada Familia.

The big, famous La Boqueria market in Barcelona. This market was really fun.

The back of Barcelona cathedral.

A view of the facade of Casa Batllo.

The room of the advisors in the Nasrid Palaces, Alhambra.

This is the room in which the Nasrid Sultan met with his advisors.

Kids having fun.

I've never seen this kind of 'suds canon' before, but the kids were certainly having a blast.

A view of Barcelona from Park Guell.

The geese at Barcelona catherdal.

Here is a video of the geese that live in the cloister at Barcelona's cathedral.

Video

A video of Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

More pictures of Alhambra

More of the amazing stone carving in the Nasrid Palaces.

A view of the Albacin neighborhood from the Alhambra.

The main tower of Alcabaza.

This is the Gate of Wine. Merchants entered here and paid the taxes on all of the goods they were importing for sale.

Cool ceremonial axe in the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art.

A piece in a special exhibit on Roman art in the Catalonia Archaeology Museum.

A view of La Rambla. I didn't care a lot for La Rambla, actually. It was mostly a lot of people and tourist crap.

Our hotels in Spain.

Now that we are home, I'll talk about our hotels. The hotel in Madrid was called Suites 33. It was a great hotel, in a great location. Here is the link to the tripadvisor page on the hotel:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187514-d644639-Reviews-Suites_33-Madrid.html

My review of the hotel is on the site. My username is patzeric.

Here is the hotel's website:

http://www.suites33.com/

We both liked this hotel. The rooms were huge and clean, and the location was great.

In Barcelona we stayed at a place called L'Antic Espai, which translates as "antique space."

It was a nice hotel, but it really wasn't to my taste. The rooms were filled with antiques, and the common areas were filed with antiques and tchokies. I was always scared I was going to break something. That said, it was a nice place, and the location was great.

The tripadvisor page (my review will be up in a day or two)

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187497-d619946-Reviews-Hostal_L_Antic_Espai-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

Here is the hotel's website.

http://www.anticespai.com/

In Granada we stayed in a place called Roommate Shalma. This was a fantastic hotel-our favorite of the trip. The location was great, and the room was large, clean and stylish. I can't say enough nice things about this place, and we will be looking for Roommate brand hotels in all of our future trips to Europe.

Here is the tripadvisor page:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187441-d1052677-Reviews-Room_Mate_Shalma-Granada_Granada_Province_Andalusia.html

And here is the hotel's website:

http://www.room-matehotels.com/eng/granadahotel/shalmahotel/shalmadescubre.php

More pictures coming.

Pictures of Barcelona

Cool bull sculpture on the upper part of La Rambla.

Stained glass window in the Barcelona cathedral in Barri Gotic.

Buildings in Barcelona.

Lower part of Casa Batllo.

The view from the balcony of our hotel in Barcelona.

More pictures from Spain

This is a picture of Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

This is a closeup of the statue of Phillip III that is in Plaza Mayor.

Madrid street view.

This is a strange looking bird we saw in the botanical gardens in Madrid. I don't know what kind of bird it is. If anyone does, please post it in the comments.

Another Madrid street view.

Home again

Well, after 13 hours on airplanes, we made it home. It's good to be back. I'll post some more pics and final thoughts on Spain over the weekend.

Let's try some big pics

Those of you who know me in real life (and I am guessing that is everyone that is reading this [Hi Mom]) may or may not know that I am faciniated by city walls. Whenever I go to a city that has them, I always seek them out. Here is a shot of the old city wall for Granada going up a hill in the distance.

And here is a shot of the walls close up. Here we were going on the 'wall walk' which went between the inner and outer walls for a while.
Here is the interior of Alcazaba, the fortress.
Here is a closeup of the decorations on Charles V's palace.
And here is the facade of Charles V's palace.
I'll post some more large pics when I get home in a couple of days.

Why Spain is awesome

Do you want to know why Spain is awesome?

This is why Spain is awesome. One reason, anyway.

Future updates

There may not be many updates for a couple of days. Tomorrow we check out of this great hotel, and the day after we fly home. When I get home I will post some more pictures, as well as a wrap up of the trip overall. If you want to save some time, here is the wrap up; Spain is awesome and everyone should come here.

More random pictures from Granada

Granada Cathedral

Granada, of course, has a very impressive cathedral. Here are some pictures of it.

Very cool illustrated manuscript chior books.

Granada archaeological museum

We visited the Archaeological Museum of Granada today. Here are a few pics from it.

Some pottery.

A view of the courtyard (the museum is in a former palace, of course.)

An ancient astrolabe.

Some very cool lithics.

More Alhambra and Generalife pictures

More of the amazing stone carving at Alhambra.

This is the entrance to Charles V's palace.

Alhambra and Generalife

This is the bell that used to ring to announce good or bad happenings in the city.
A view of Alhambra from Generalife. Generalife is the large garden complex that is next to Alhambra. It was beautiful.

More Alhambra pictures

This is the courtyard of Charles V's palace, which he had built in the middle of Alhambra.

A view of the Albacin district from Alhambra.
There are so many stone carvings like this in Alhambra it's incredible.

Alhambra

Here are some pictures of Alhambra. Words really can't do it justice, so I am just going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

This is the facade of the Alcazaba, which is the actual fortress part of the complex.

More pics of Albacin

Albacin

The first day in Granada we walked around the Albacin district, which is the old Arabic quarter below Alhambra. Here is a wondow with some nice flowers.

We stopped at this bar for a couple of drinks. The nice thing about Granada, and Andalucia in general, I think, is that they continue the tradation of giving you a free tapas with every drink. Pretty cool.
There was a very cool spice store behind the cathedral.
We had a great lunch, at which I had some delicious bull's tails. Yummy!
Here is a general view of what the streets in Albacin look like. Bery atmospheric and cool.
Today we saw Alhambra, which was amazing. I'll post pics of that when we get back from dinner.

This was, sadly, our last day in Barcelona. We slept in, checked out of the hotel at around noon, and then went to walk around the old quarter one last time. We ended up wandering down to the port. Those ships you see on the right were part of some big race.

A random old quarter street.
We also went through the Museum of Pre Columbian art. It was a small museum, but all of thier pieces were extraordinary. I got a few pictures before a guard (presumably) told me to stop taking pictures. Whoops.

This is some kind of music hall.
Overall we both loved Barcelona. I like it more than any city I have ever visited, save Rome. The extravagant amount of Roman ruins in that city gives it a slight edge over Barcelona for me, but only slight. It is an amazing city and I highly recommend everyone visit. We later gott a ride to the airport and flew to Granada. It was a little worrisome for a while, as when we left the airport in Granada at like 10pm there were no taxis waiting. Fortunately, some came and we were able to get a ride to our fantastic hotel in Granada. Pics from the first day there forthcoming shortly.

Lunch and more Gaudi

While in the neighborhood of the Archaeology Museum, we had an excellent lunch at a place called La Gordita. We had the menu of the day, which included this awesome seafood soup. Yes, that is a lobster head in my soup.

We then went back and toured Casa Mila, also known as La Pedrera (the quarry), a gaudi building about 7 blocks north of our hotel. It is a fairly large apartment building. Here is the exterior.
And here is a close up of one of the awesome balconies.

Some of the roof decoration.

And a general view of the roof.

It was a very cool building, and gave a good overview of the progression of Gaudi's work. You also goot to go through one of the apartments in the building. They were very cool, very open and airy.

Archaeology and Gaudi

Today we got up and hopped on the metro to go see Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral by Gaudi. It is still under construction, as you can see by all the cranes. I'm sure everyone has seen a million pictures of this so I am only going to post the one. We didn't go inside.

Afterwards we rode the metro to the other side of town to visit the Archaeology Museum of Catalonia (Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya). It was very cool, and they allowed pictures, which was a nice touch. Here are a few pictures fomr the collection. I took many more, but we are eager to go out and explore Granada, so I will post more later.

After a great lunch (more on that later too) we went to see Casa Mila, a.k.a. La Pedrera, another famous Gaudi building. I will post more about these later today. For now it's time to go see Granada.

Granada

Sorry for not posting in a while. The internet went down on the last day in Barcelona. We just got into our room in Granada, and we are both exhausted. I'll catch everyone up on the last two days in Barcelona tomorrow.

Yet more pics

Another Barri Gotic street

This was great. We were walking around the park and, upon hearing loud music, went to investigate. This is what we found. These kids were dancing and having a great time while this guy showered them with suds from what appeared to be a suds cannon. Every so often he would get a hose and hose them all down to wash off the suds, the start the whole process over again. The kids were certainly having a great time.
These are some of the geese that I mentioned that are kept in the cloister of the cathedral.

More random pics from Barcelona

More Park Guell

A view down La Ramblas

You can't read it very well in this pic, but these letters spell Barcino, the name of the Roman colony that founded the city.

This is the view off of our balcony.

Park Guell and the Picasso Museum

This morning we took the metro up and then walked to Park Guell, a large city park designed by Gaudi. Here are a few pics from there.

The entrance.

View of Barcelona from the top of the hill.

Cool stone chair.

Overall, we honestly weren't really impressed. There was some cool architecture, but we weren't sure it was worth the long metro ride and long walk involved.

Afterwards, after what was really the only mediocre lunch we have had yet, we went to the Picasso Museum. It was fabulous. It was the only museum founded while the artist was still alive, and was also the only one founded on his express wishes. It was heavily weighted towards his early works, but it was really cool to see the evolution of his style. No pictures allowed, though, sorry.

Last night we went to a great restaurant called Cerveceria Catalana

We got there 15 minutes after it opened and only had to wait a few minutes for a table. When we left we had trouble getting out it was so crowded. The food was fantastic.

Tomorrow we plan to see some Gaudi and the archaeological museum.

More random pics from Barcelona

Lunch today

Today we went to the Boqueria, which is a huge old market here in Barcelona. While there, we had a fabulous lunch are a very famous restaurant there called Ponitxo Bar (Pinocchio bar). Here is a picture of the place.

We had to wait a few minutes to get a seat, but it was worth it. Wow, was the food good. This was probably my favorite meal we have had so far in Spain. We had some kind of fantastic garbanzo bean dish, some kind of bacalao salad, some amazing beef stew, and a fantatic sausage. We are seriously considering breaking our informal rule of never eating at the same place twice on vacation and going there again.

Here is the guy that runs the place. He is quite a character.

More later, now it's almost time to go out for more tapas.

Random pictures of Barri Gotic

Barcelona Days 1 and 2

Well, Barcelona is awesome. We came down on the AVE train yesterday, and I would have to say that it was one of the more pleasant travel experiences ever. The train flew along at speeds of up to 300 km per hour (around 186 mph) and was quiet and smooth. It's a wonderful way to travel. The train station in Madrid was easy to figure out, no problem at all.

This is a not very good picture of the Gaudi building Casa Batillo. It looks even cooler in real life. We haven't toured it yet, but we most likely will.

This morning we walked down to the Barri Gotic, or the old city. It was really cool, lots of really narrow streets and old buildings. One of them is the old cathederal.

Outside of it there was a flea market going on.

In the cloister of the cathedral they keep 13 geese, symbolizing the age at which thier patron saint died. It was a little strange to see geese in a church, to say the least.

I will post more pictures of Bari Gotic shortly.

The food here is amazing. We went to two different tapas bars last night and everything we has was uniformly great. We are going out shortly for some more.

a special note on ham

OK, if you like ham, you must come to Spain. The ham here is amazing. It is far and away the best I have ever had. They slice it paper thin to serve it, and it is a thing of beauty. What you are looking for is a place that has this.

Oh yeah. That is the mark of happiness right there. Pretty much any place that sells ham will have these hanging somewhere, so that you can tell what kind you are getting.

On a related note, those of you who know me personally probably know that one of my favorite activities on vacation is trying new and different flavors of potato chips. Well, step aside Hot Chili Squid, because I have a new favorite. Behold:

Yes, that's right, those are ham flavored potato chips. And they are every bit as awesome as they sound. They really need to release these in the US.

the Prado Museum

Today we went to the Prado Museum. They don't allow pictures inside, but here is a picture of the exterior.

As you have probably heard, it's an amazing museum. The collection is heavily weighed towards painting, particularly the Spanish masters such as Goya, Velazques, etc. If you have taken an art history class, you have studied many of these paintings. It was pretty incredible. We got there before it opened, and the line wasn't too bad. It wasn't that crowded, especially at first. If you want sculpture or modern art, go elsewhere, but if you are interested in classical painting, you can't do much better.

Afterwards we had an excellent lunch at an Itallian restaurant as we walked north. We were walking to the National Archaeological Museum. The museum is mostly closed for a major renovation, b ut a small collection is available for viewing. Looking at thier plans for expansion, this is going to be a amazing museum when it is finished. Here are a few choice pictures of the collection on display.

After siesta, we took the metro down to Sol and walked over to Plaza Mayor. As you can imagine, it ws hopping. We stopped for drinks and tapas at a Museu de Jamon (Ham Museum), which is a local chain. And an awesome one, I might add. Also an excellent bargin. We had 3 beers, two giant ham and cheese sandwiches, a crossant with ham and cheese, a dish of olives, and two coke lights for under 10 euros. And the food was amazing. I love this place. It was a lot of fun, too, crowded and noisy. We were lucky to get a place to stand at the bar. What fun. I want to eat here every day.

Tomorrow I will probably not be posting until late, because we are taking the train to Barcelona. I am really looking forward to it.

Madrid Day 2

Well, after not sleeping at all on the plane, we really slept in this morning. I didn't get up until almost noon. Not like me at all (at least on vacation!) After getting going, we decided to just kind of wander around some. We first walked down Gran Via, one of the main streets in the city. The architecture is amazing.We eventually ended up near the Prado, which is closed on Mondays. We plan on seeing it tomorrow. We went through the botanical gardens, which were very nice.
It was a very pleasant reprieve from the traffic and heat. Did I mention it's hot here? Not brutally hot, but it is certainly hot. Bearable in the shade, but in the sun it's rough.

We then walked over the Parque del Buen Retiro, or Park of the Pleasant Retreat. And so it was. It is a huge park, and we had a nice time strolling around it.

One of the major features is a nice lake where you can rent rowboats. There is also a huge monument to King Alfonso XII.
We then took the metro back to or hotel to take a break before going back out to have tapas. More later.

Spain Day 1

Well, we made it to Madrid. Sorry for the small pics below, but they load a lot faster on the internet connection at the hotel.

Our hotel is near Plaza de Espana, the main monument in which is to the famous Spanish write Cervantes. That's him on the chair there.


It's a nice big square. The best part is the statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.

Madrid is really nice. It's loud and hectic, but it is the largest city in Spain, so that's to be expected. So far we are really enjoying ourselves. The flight over wasn't too bad, particularly since we both had aisle seats with no one in the center seats next to us. Sweet!

Above is a picture of the Royal Palace. This really doesn't capture the size of it. It is just enormous.

We had a great lunch at a place called Paradisio de Jamon, or Ham Paradise. It was good, and fairly affordable.

We then strolled down to Puerta del Sol. The most famous monument there is the statue of the bear and the madrono tree, which is the symbol of the city.

Next was Plaza Mayor. Again, this picture doesn't really capture the scale. It was enormous.
After this we went back to the hotel. On the way there we found a market and bought some bread and ham and cheese and made a supper of that. We were kind of exhausted, so we made it an early night. More in the next post.

Spain trip coming up

We are leaving for Spain soon, and I am taking a netbook so I can update the blog while we are there. Stay tuned for more posts on Spain in a couple of weeks.

another trip to Jack's Fork

Just got back from another trip to Jack's Fork and Bee Bluff. Will update with details and pics soon.

Eric

bonus pics

Well, I managed to save some of the photos off my bad card using eImage Recovery, so here are a few random ones from the trip.

Camping Trip

So me and my buddy Tuco headed down to the Ozarks for a weekend camping trip. We stayed in the Ozark Scenic River on Jack's Fork, and we found a gem of a truck camping site. I'm not gonna tell you which one it is, but you can easily figure it out (or ask me) if you want to.

Sneaking out of work a little early, we headed down. Taking Tuco's truck, it rained on us almost all the way down. No worries, though, the forecast was calling for a clear weekend, so I remained hopeful on the drive down.

We got to the camping area. There is a main campground, at which there were some trucks, horse trailers, and RVs/campers. We kept going and forded the creek to get to the isolated camp spots. We were fortunate enough to get Camp 9, and it was a fine camp site.

We were rewarded with this view when we woke up.


We had decided to just explore the general area that day, and, after a hearty breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches, we decided to start exploring. Bee Bluff was very near, and that certainly seemed to warrant a look, so we headed that direction.

First we saw a deer in the creek. I'm not sure if she was just out for a bath, or was crossing the river and we spooked her. Either way it was pretty cool.


Now the night before we had walked down the road a bit, until we got close enough to Camp 10 to see that there was a fire there. We both thought that Camp 10 might be a better spot, and we headed down to take a look at it. I also checked out the pit toilets, which constitute the main furnishings of the campground. When leaving, we heard a woman calling. She explained that her car wouldn't start. Her and her daughter had come out the night before and gotten stuck there. She was a local, and just needed to get her car (actually a small SUV) started to make it a few miles back to her group, which had RVs set up nearby.

We spent some time trying to push start her car, but just couldn't get any traction on the dirt. Of course neither one of us had jumper cables. We then found out that she had a roll of parachute cord. We took five strands and twisted up a rope, and finally got her car started by pulling it with Tuco's truck.

Now, that was fine, helping someone out and all. In this case, it was particularly sweet, because she was leaving Camp 10, which, as we suspected, was the prime campground at the site (or so we thought). After she left we immediately moved all of our stuff to 10.
That Jack's Fork behind the tents there. The camp was right on the river, and adjacent to a huge gravel bar.


Here is the view out of my tent. Pretty sweet.

After setting up we continued our exploration. We headed down to Bee Bluff, and it was awesome.

What was also very cool is what we started calling Camp 11. This is an unofficial camp spot right next to Bee Bluff, and it was superb. It was about a 30 second walk from the spot where the picture above was taken. Of course, since it was unofficial it didn't have the swanky grills, fire pits, and picnic tables of the other sites, but it was still the prime spot in the area, and is certainly where we will stay when we go back down.

We headed back to camp to start our beef stew. It turned out to be really good, and we had another good meal. We had a good night, just drinking and talking and stargazing. We had pulled our chairs out onto the gravel bar for prime viewing, and conditions were great.

One strange thing that happened was when the two gius paddled by in a canoe about 10 at night. They had headlamps, so they were doing fine. They said they had been on the river all day, and were headed to our take out, so they were happy when we told them they were almost there.

Here the sunrise over the river Sunday morning.


The next morining we made some fried potatoes, and some sausage and pepper and egg scramble to go over the top of them, with gravy consisting of the leftover stew. What a great breakfast it made. After cleaning up camp, we decided to head out. The woman we had helped had told us about the back way out, which we decided to take. I was driving starting off, and it was great fun to take Tuco's nice new truck down all the narrow dirt two-tracks through the woods. We had an uneventful drive back, and all in all it was a great weekend. Tuco is looking to buy a kayak, and as soon as he gets it we will probably be back down there. I know Tuco will whether I make it or not. The only bad part of the trip is that my memory card in my camera crapped out, and I have been unable to recover any of my pictures. Tuco was kind enough to send me some of his for this blog post. Hope you enjoyed it.

Shopping

Today L went shopping without me. I lazed around in the morning, and for lunch I headed down to the Buckhorn Tavern. This place was very close to our apartment, and bills itself as the oldest saloon in Texas. The name comes from the legend that the original owner would trade either a shot of whiskey or a beer for deer antlers. As you can tell, the strategy worked, as the walls are covered with stuffed animals of all kinds. The marble and wood bar is original, and very cool. This place had good food and beer at good prices. I recommend it, for the ambience if nothing else. Of course, if you are a staunch ASPCA member, you might want to avoid it.


After lunch, we decided to go check out the Tower of the Americas. This is a large, 750 foot observation tower built for the 1968 World's Fair. In addition to the amazing view from the top, you also get to view a "4-D" film showing highlights of Texas. it was pretty fun, the seats moved, it blew wind and water in your face at times, that kind of thing.


Here are some shots from the observation deck, 750 feet up.

In the lower center of that bottom photograph you can see the roof of The Alamo.

After dinner at Casa Rio, which is an excellent restaurant by the way, we walked up the see The Alamo at night. Wow, it looks dramatic at night.






After that, it was time to stroll home. Tomorrow, we plan to go see the historic King William historic area south of downtown.

The Alamo

Today we got up relatively early and walked down to The Alamo.
We were smart to get there early, because there were very few people there. What I didn't know is that what people usually call The Alamo, pictured above, was really just the church for the large mission that was around it. Much of that original property is now under modern San Antonio, but some of the more significant buildings are still extant, such as the church and the long barracks. Even though a lot of the mission is now destroyed, the site consists of beautiful grounds and several buildings some of which contain very interesting displays on the history of the site.
The grounds.
This is currently a research library.
This is the long barracks. This is one of the original buildings, and has some very interesting displays inside.
Here is another view of the long barracks.

This is a monument in Alamo Plaza, which would have originally been inside the compound.

We also got to hear a really good lecture by one of the staff giving some history of The Alamo. It was really good, since he was a good speaker and it is an interesting story.

After chilling at the apartment for a bit, we decided to head back to La Villita, which is a little historic district that has been converted to shops. While I was not really interested in the shopping, there were some very cool old houses.



After shopping for a while, we had a couple of drinks at Dick's Last Resort, a bar and grill on the river. I liked this place, it had a good vibe and big beers.

Market day

After a lazy morning, we headed down to A Taste of San Antonio, which was being held at Market Square, which is apparently a very old market. We decided that since there were so many street vendors we would eat on the street instead of at a formal restaurant. Wow, were we glad we did. The best thing we had was gorditas.
They were all made right there, with one woman making the casings, grilling and then frying them, and the other woman filling them. We had chicken and bean and cheese, all with hot sauce and guacamole. They were really amazing. We had some other things too, good tamales and fajita tacos, but the gorditas were the standouts. Note the line at the gordita stand; there was always a line there, which is why we chose it.

We also saw a really cool Tejada band, all the members of which wore classic Mexican wrestling masks. How awesome it that?
We saw the wrestling masks for sale, and I still wonder if I should have bought one. What I did buy was a guayabera shirt that I really like. Those of you that know me will no doubt see it soon enough. I might buy more. I like them, they are the original camp shirts.

Here are some pictures of the market.

All in all, it was a very fun day. We stopped at an Irish pub on the way home for a mid-afternoon snack, so there was no need for dinner.

Riverwalk is nice

We are staying at the Wyndham resort in San Antonio. This is a nice place. The building was built in 192, and was originally a hotel. It has really cool concrete floors, and many exposed concrete beams in the room. Here are a couple of pictures of the room.
The bedroom.
The living room.

After checking in and chilling for a bit, we decided it was time for some lunch. We headed down to the Riverwalk and strolled around for a while. The Riverwalk is really cool. Being Saturday afternoon, it was really crowded. There are many shops and restaurants along the Riverwalk, and it's larger than I thought, over 3 miles long, total according to the literature. My internet connection here is very poor, so I am having trouble posting more pictures. I'll post more when I get home.

OK, I bought a better internet connection, so here are some more pictures.
This is a very representative picture of the Riverwalk. It is basically lined with restaurants and bars, with a smattering of shopping thrown in. It is very pleasant and quite pleasant.
The restaurants and shops seem to do excellent business. There were a ton of people everywhere.

San Antonio

Stay tuned for updates from San Antonio, Texas starting this weekend.

Day 1: Lincoln, NE

For a short weekend trip in celebration of our 15th wedding anniversary, L and I decided to make a short weekend trip to Lincoln. Yes, Nebraska.

We both too Friday off, and headed out that morning, taking our time, since it is only a little over three hours away by car.

We arrived around lunchtime, and dined at a place called Buzzard Billy's, a Cajun place. My shrimp po-boy was very good, as was the locally brewed brown ale.

We drove up early so we could go to the National Museum of Roller Skating, which is not open on the weekends. This museum was pretty small, and was kind of funny. There was some interesting stuff there, but I don't think I could recommend going to Lincoln just to see it. Some of the really old skates were fun to see, and some of the costumes from the 70s were a riot.

The funniest thing was that the building had a bunch of people working in cubicles for the National Roller Skating Association. I saw at least 12 people working there. Is this organization so huge that it needs a staff of this size? I guess so, but I thought it was pretty funny.

After the museum we strolled around the Haymarket District in Lincoln. This is nice historic district with some old commercial buildings.




I really like the old painted signs.

It was L's idea to take this picture of the three signs, and it is one of the best pictures of the whole trip, I think.

After shopping for a while we had a light snack/early supper at a local brewpub,


and headed to the motel to check in and crash.

Day 2: Cigars and baseball and quilts.

Today, after braving the annoying crowd at the free breakfast, we headed out. There was a little league baseball tournament in town, and our hotel was full of young (junior high age) baseball players and their families. The kids were, on the whole, well-behaved; it was the parents who were the annoying ones, really.

Our destination was the farmer's market held in the Haymarket District just south of the University of Nebraska's main campus.

The market was crowded and pretty cool. It was more like a craft market than a farmer's market, really, but I bet this changes as it gets later in the year. The guy at Bad Robot (great store, check it out) said that the market would expand onto another street the next weekend.

The booths here were the usual kind of thing, with a couple of exceptions. First, the longest line I saw there was for a woman selling egg rolls. The line was long enough when we first got there that we didn't want to stand in it. I did later when I noticed it was shorter. They were OK egg rolls, but not worth the line, to be honest. Another lady was selling Taiwanese-style noodles, but by the time we went back to get some (we weren't hungry at all) they were gone. That made me very sad, because I am certain that they were delicious, and taught me a lesson I will try not to forget.

There was some other neat stuff there, too, like a train.


And this amazing brick train mural.

After touring the farmer's market for a while we split up. L went to the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, which she could not say enough great things about. This place is the main reason we came to Lincoln, and after hearing her talk about it I wished that I had gone too. She could not say enough great things about it, and we are planning to return when the revolving exhibit changes in the fall.

I walked all over downtown Lincoln looking for a place where I could drink beer and smoke a cigar at the same time. I was at first going to go to the famous Zoo Bar, which we had been to when in Lincoln before. However, it being Saturday around noon, Zoo Bar was closed, so I hiked all over downtown looking for a place, eventually ending up back at Haymarket at a place called Brewski's. I got a nice seat on the large covered porch and settled in. After a while, just enough time to have a couple of beers and smoke my cigar, L joined me.

After chilling at the hotel for a while, we went out to see the Lincoln Saltdogs play the Wichita Wingnuts (has there ever been a more appropriate name?). It was a great little ball park, and we were able to walk up and get tickets ($11.25 each) on the first row right behind home plate. We were no more than 10 to 15 meters away form the batters. It was cool. I forgot the camera, though, so there are no pictures.

Day 3: The long route home

After sleeping in, we packed to leave for home. On the way out of town we stopped at the promising-looking Hi-Way Diner, which we had seen before. After some slow service we got our food, which was good.

We had decided to take the scenic route home, and headed south to Beatrice, NE (stress the second syllable to see Homestead National Monument. We weren't really sure what to expect here, but it is very nice. One of the buildings is new and very cool.

The displays in this building, as well as the short documentary film they show, were very well done.

L took the car from this building to the other, and I walked the short (.4 mile) trail to the other building.
The tall grass prairie.


A panorama of the homestead.


A little log cabin that had been moved from another location in the same county.

Here's a detail of the end cuts used, as this can be regionally diagnostic. Homestead is an excellent monument, and you can get a good overview and history of the entire homesteading process.

We continued to take the scenic route home, heading down state highways on the way back. The area around Atichison, KS was really beautiful, I must say. Beautiful rolling hills, some nice woods, and close to the river. This must be an excellent place to live if you have a job nearby. It's too far to drive into KC, though. We made an uneventful trip home. We were smart enough to come back on Sunday, so we still had Memorial Day off to recuperate.

Rainy weekend in Arkansas

This weekend we drive down to Arkansas to stay in my Mom's timeshare (she had some points she needed to use up). The place is called Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Bay (click for TripAdvisor link). Friday night we drove most of the way, stopping overnight in Branson, Missouri. Wow, I had forgotten how horrible it is. We took over half an hour to go two miles on the main drag at 10 at night. Ugh. Personally, I would rather spend a week in hell than a week here, but, hey, if you like it, go for it. To each his own.

The next day we drove the rest of the way. It rained pretty much the entire drive, often extremely hard. At one point we went through an area near Clinton, AR which was hit by a tornado on February 5, 2008. They were still cleaning up, and the damage looks to have been severe.

Since we couldn't check into the timeshare until 4, we had some time to kill. We ended up going to a huge antique store called Antique Warehouse in Botkinburg, AR. They had a lot of furniture, some of it pretty nice, but I personally thought the prices were outrageously high. Of course, I am cheap, and know nothing about antiques, so maybe they were fair. They certainly have a huge selection. Neither of us are really big into antique shopping, but there was really nothing else to do, so that's what we did.

We had lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant in Clinton called La Rosita. The food was really good, but even better was the awesome picture they had painted in the entry. To my regret, we didn't take a picture of it, but it is reproduced in the menu.
It shows an Aztec warrior with a beautiful maiden in his arms. Imagine this five feet tall in full color. Like I said, awesome.

After a while we could check in to the condo. We had a two bedroom condo, and it was pretty nice. It has a stone fireplace (although no wood)
and a nice deck that overlooks the golf course. Neither of us plays golf, but I did have a good cigar on the deck and watched a couple of golfers go by. Fortunately it had finally stopped raining by this time. The master bath had the largest hot tub I have ever seen inside (although I am by no means familiar with such things).
It's hard to get a sense of scale from this picture, but it is literally seven feet or more wide. We didn't use it because we felt stupid wasting the 150 or more gallons of water it would have taken to fill it.

The resort was not that great for us, but I think part of that may have been the weather and also the season. I suspect the resort would be better in the summer, when something might actually be open. If you liked golf and/or playing on the lake, it would probably be a great resort, at least in the summer.

We awoke Sunday morning to pouring rain. We decided to just head back, since we had to head back that day anyway. We had intended to go geocaching, but we aren't hardcore enough to do it in the rain, so we decided to just get a head start on the trip home. However, but the time we got packed, the rain had stopped, and we decided to try to hike one of the nature trails at the resort.

We selected Indian Cave trail. It started at a cool log cabin near the country club. The cabin contained a small museum, but of course it was closed. The trail went past some cool, moss-covered rocks.
It was still very foggy, as you can see from this picture.
The trail soon passed Edgemont Shelter, also known as Indian Rock House, also known as 3VB6. The site is a large rockshelter that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This was a very cool site.
One of the cool things were the petroglyphs, which were pretty extensive.
Also cool was a carving by the person who homesteaded the place in 1900.
You want an arty picture? Here you go.
We looked around here for quite a while, and then headed on down the trail. We intended to find a couple of geocaches that are in the area, but it started to rain hard, and we started hearing thunder, so we headed back. Since the rain showed no signs of stopping, we had a great brunch at a local restaurant we had seen, and then turned the car towards home.

Eric interviewed on Amateur Traveler podcast

Recently I was interviewed for The Amateur Traveler podcast, and the interview went up today. If you are interested, you can download the episode here. If you are not familiar with The Amateur Traveler, it is a very popular podcast, and I highly recommend it.

Again, the podcast can be found at:

http://amateurtraveler.com/2008/03/15/episode-129-thailand/

Enjoy,

Eric

Videos uploaded to my YouTube page.

I have uploaded some of the video clips I took in Thailand to YouTube.com. The quality is not great, since they are taken with my regular digital still camera, but some of them are kind of fun. I'll be posting more there in the future, too, so stay tuned. If you are interested see my YouTube user page.

Enjoy,

Eric

Day 12: Back to Bangkok and then home.

Today we had a leisurely breakfast and got ready to head back to BKK. I paid the tab for the hotel, and the owner called us a cab to the airport.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived at the hotel in BKK in the middle afternoon. There is only one hotel in the immediate vicinity of the airport, the Novotel. While it was pretty expensive, at least for Thailand, at around $150 a night, I thought it was worth it since it is adjacent to the airport. It was a good choice.

This is an extremely nice hotel. The bathroom was amazing, and it also had a beautiful courtyard. It was worth every penny.

The bathroom, which, by the way, had an independently operated speaker for the TV you you didn't have to miss your program, or at least the audio portion.

Me chilling in the room.
The view of the courtyard from our window.We were really tired, and it really didn't seem to be worth the hassle of going back into town, so we decided to just hang out and rest for the rest of the day. We had dinner at the hotel and tried to psyche ourselves up for the flight back. Since we were going with the prevailing winds, the flight home is actually quite a bit faster than the flight there. It was not that bad, but we were certainly glad to get home.

I hope you have enjoyed this trip report. I will probably do at least one more Thailand post talking about some other things and giving overall impressions. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned to this blog when you hear be blabbing about our next trip, since I will almost certainly do this again. Right now the two big competitors for the next trip are Sorrento, Italy (which we have been to and both dearly love) and Spain. We have plenty of time to decide, so we are in no hurry.

If you are reading this and would like to see more of our photos, I have put them all online using Google's Picasa web folders. Just send me an email and I will send you the links to view them.

Day 11: A Lot of Thai cooking class

Today was our cooking class, which was given at A Lot of Thai. There are a lot of cooking classes in Chiang Mai, and I picked this one for two reasons. First, it had good reviews on tripadvisor.com and, second, it was taught in the woman's home, and therefore was restricted to a maximum of eight people. I liked the idea of a more intimate class.

I had forgotten to charge the camera batteries the night before, so I was low on battery. Consequently, I didn't take as many pictures this day as normal. Apologies for that, but there are plenty to give you the idea.

It turns out that A Lot of Thai was an excellent choice. The instructor, Yui, and her husband, Kwan, picked us up at the hotel in their blue VW microbus, which, to say the least, is a little unusual for Thailand.
We took the short ride to their home, and the class starts immediately. Each person has their own cooking station, utensils, ingredients, etc. This is very important if you are ever picking a cooking class.
First, we all gather aroud Yui's station, and she shows us the ingredients, and tells us about them. Then she shows us how to cook what we are cooking.
After this, everyone goes back to their station and cooks thier own batch.
And then you all gather around the table and eat what you just cooked.
Our group was pretty good, for the most part. We had a couple of guys from Canada, a married couple from Quebec, a girl from Hong Kong, and an Israeli woman. Everyone got along fine.

The first dish we made was a simple stir fry with chicken and cashews. It was quite good. That's mine shown above with the wok.

We then learned to make green curry with chicken, which is one of my favorite dishes, and one which I had frequently while we were there. It again came out really well, and I finally got something spicy.

I have not mentioned this before, but I should say that, contrary to the reputation, the food I got in Thailand was not really spicy. I understood from guide books and websites that the people making the food automatically tone it down for farangs, and this was my experience. I finally took to explicitly telling the server I wanted it spicy, which helped some. I did get some things that were pretty spicy, but I never got anything that I considered really hot. However, I do have a high tolerance for spicy food, and I love it, so someone with different tastes might consider it spicy. I never had anything where I thought "Holy crap, this is too spicy." Now, when I am a Thai places here, I order my food hot, but not Thai hot. Maybe one step below that, a 9 out of 10, so YMMV, of course.

Anyway, my green curry was pretty spicy. The curry paste was homemade by Yui and it was excellent.

The next dish was the famous pad thai. It was really cool to learn to make this famous dish. We are hoping to get to the big Chinese market this weekend to pick up some ingredients that we can't get at the regular grocery store. We'll need some good fish sauce, which is in almost all Thai food, some tamarind past, some palm sugar, kafir lime leaves, some chio bo, which is preserved turnip, and a couple of other minor things. I figure there are Thai restaurants here, so they must be getting these ingredients somewhere.

After the third dish, we took a tour of a local market near the house. This was a very fun tour. It was a real, local market, and we were the only non-Thai people I saw there. The prices and selection reflected this, too. There was everything from flip-flops to toothpaste to cakes of coagulated chicken blood to flattened dried squid to cutting boards to vegetables to incense to, well, pretty much anything. And, of course, this being Thailand, there were a ton of food vendors.

Yui took us around to several of the vendors and showed us ingredients, explaining their use. We saw many fun and exotic things. Afterwards, we were given a little while to wander the market. I got a new wok spatula, which cost me 60 baht, or $2. I probably overpaid, but that's OK, I guess.

Here are some of the pictures I took there. Some of them are a little grainy since I had the flash turned off, but they get the point across, I think.

Overall picture of the market, food vendor area.

There are many varieties of rice in Thailand. These are between 16 and 21 baht a kilogram, or between 22 and 29 cents a pound. Pretty good deal.
Nice fresh eggs.
Pre made curry powder. I would have so bought some of this if I could have figured a way to get it back in the country. It is 5 baht, or 15 cents, for 100 grams.

Mmmmm...chilies.Dried pressed squid. There was a lot of dried seafood.
The veggies were so fresh looking. Better than anything I have ever seen here, at least outside of the farmer's market.

Here's me drinking a really good Thai coffee. It is very sweet, and quite delicious. Note the bag. When you get a drink in Thailand that is not prepackaged, particularly when you are in an area frequented by locals, it comes in a little bag like this. The vendor puts some ice in there, your drink, inserts a straw, and ties a very handy rubber band to close it and to use as a handle. It's a cool system.


After the market tour, we learned to make egg rolls, the famous spicy tom yum goong soup, and sticky rice with mango. All of mine turned out really well, but I must say the sticky rice with mango was a learning experience. I wish I had known how good this is, so I could have been eating it the whole time. Must find some sticky rice and make it here.

The class lasted from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm, and cost us about $30 each. Pretty much the bargain of the trip, in my opinion.

Here is the group we took the class with.

We didn't do a lot else after that. After eating all day we really didn't want a huge dinner. We packed up for the flight back to BKK the next day. Since our departing flight on Thursday was at 6:40 am, we had long ago decided to fly back to BKK on Wednesday, and stay overnight at the airport hotel.

Day 10: Elephant Nature Park

Today was Elephant Nature Park (ENP), really a highlight of the entire trip (other links here and here). This place is simply amazing. First off, it is very different from many of the other elephant camps. The elephants are not there to be ridden or to do stupid tricks. The whole purpose of the camp is conservation and education. The founder, a woman named Sangduen "Lek" Chailert, has dedicated her life to helping elephants and to education people about the plight of the Asian elephant in Thailand. The park takes in abused and injured elephants, and allows them to live like elephants. They are allowed to roam at will, form their own family groups, etc. There are not tricks and no riding. These things are bad, as the howdahs used in riding can injure an elephant, particularly one that is pregnant. They do not make them do tricks because the methods used to get them to do tricks are brutal. You watch a film where they show the process of breaking an elephant, and it is hard to watch. They put it in a thing called a 'press' which is about what it sounds like, and basically torture it for 4 to 7 days. It is not nice. Many, although not all, of the elephants at ENP have gone through this process.

However, the issue is not as cut and dried as it appears at first glance, and the people at ENP acknowledge that. Since the logging industry in Thailand is no longer in (legal, at least) operation, elephants no longer have any work. There is also almost no real habitat left for them. I get the sense that they were not completely opposed to the types of elephant camps where you ride, etc. They just want to educate people about them, and insure that the elephants working there are treated as well as possible. They provide medical services to many of these places, and also take in elephants that can no longer work. They do single out for special scorn those who bring elephants into bug cities, such as Bangkok, to use in getting money for tourists. This is bad for everyone, aside from the owners making the money off of them. We never saw anyone in BKK begging with an elephant, which was good.

Anyway, it's an amazing place, and I would like to go back there and volunteer for a week. There were many people there doing just that, for periods of up to a month or more.

OK, enough of the unpleasant parts, on to the fun pictures.

First you are picked up in the ENP van at your hotel. You then go to a market and load up the vans and trucks with a lot of fruit. And I mean a lot. I have never seen so many bags of watermelons, which are apparently a favorite.

After loading the trucks, you ride up to the park, which is about an hour north of Chiang Mai. It is actually a pleasant ride, as you get to see some of the countryside, which was lush and beautiful.

After arriving at the park, everyone gets the safety talk. This is very important, and these are, in fact, dangerous animals. There are very specific rules about how to feed them, about never going down to the grounds alone, watching out for the babies, etc. Apparently the babies like to 'bowl with humans', in which we are the pins and they are they bowling balls. We were taught how to deal with this should it happen. As you may know, the females in an elephant group are generally all related, and all of the 'aunties' and they called them will help in the raising of the young. They are, like most animals, very protective of them. In short, leave the babies alone. We were also informed about a couple of elephants that we were not to go near, mainly the alpha male, named BK, and also another male, who killed his last mahout before coming to ENP. Really, it's hard to imagine anything like ENP in the US because of the liability issues. I mean, we can't even have lawn darts, for crying out loud.

While we were getting the safety lecture, the mahouts were preparing the food for the elephants. Each one has favorites, and so each has a laundry basket filled with his or her favorite fruits and veggies. When all is ready, everyone goes down to the feeding platform and feeds the elephants.

Here is the central area of the feeding platform.
Our elephant was named Lily. She had been force fed amphetamines by her previous owner so that she could work almost all the time. She was still feeling the effects of coming down off of them, almost a year later. As a result, she ate really slowly. Her basket consisted of watermelon and squash.



After feeding the elephants it was time to feed the people. There was a huge buffet lunch for everyone. To be honest, I kind of expected it to be not very good. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually really, really good. There were probably 15 dishes, and every one that I tried was uniformly excellent. There were two places to sit while eating, and it seems like we ended up eating with the volunteers. There was a really nice eating area.

After lunch, it was time to take the elephants down to the river for a bath. This was really fun. The mahouts lead the elephants into the river, where they lie down. We then get our buckets and our scrub brushes and go to work on the elephants. The elephants seem to enjoy this as much as the humans. The funny part was dodging the frequent chinks of elephant poop floating down the river. I didn't care about it, but it seemed to bother a couple of people. Whatever.

After the bath, the elephants immediately head into their mud bath. This functions as both a natural sunscreen and insect repellent.


After the first river bath, you have a couple of hours to just hang out at the feeding platform and watch the elephants. This is a very pleasant time, and the elephants just kind of wander around doing their thing.



After a while, you go down for a second bath before leaving. This one is a little shorter. Afterwards, the mahout had one of the elephants demonstrate blowing water from his trunk.

The same elephant also gave people 'kisses'. This felt really weird, like having a vacuum cleaner attached to your face. This elephant was named Hope, and he is the most gentle of them. He was raised from a baby by Lek, and has never been through the brutal breaking process. Because of this, he is much more trusting of people. He is a case study by Lek and the mahouts demonstrating that elephants can also be trained and tamed using positive reenforcement, not punishment.

In addition to 31 elephants, there are also a lot of dogs (somewhere around 50 I think) and a few cats at ENP, not to mention some cows and water buffalo. Lek is obviously a real animal lover and can not resist helping any creature that needs it.

Funny thing, too. The dogs are obviously fond of sleeping on the feeding platform, like these.
More than once, I saw an elephant come up and just make the dogs move for no reason. It was really funny. The dogs weren't real happy about it but what are they going to do? Elephant beats dog.

Here are a couple of videos.

First, the elephants in the mud bath. WARNING: This video contains extreme levels of animal cuteness. You have been warned.



Next, Eric feeding Lily.



After the second bath, we loaded up for the ride back to the hotel. All in all, L and I agreed that this was one of the funnest things we have ever done on vacation. For me it was right at the top of the list with Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast bus ride that I have told some of you about. If you are ever in Thailand, I strongly recommend you go to Elephant Nature Park. If you are concerned about the plight of the Asian elephant in Thailand, I urge you to send them a donation. They are doing good work and could use your support.

Tomorrow, A Lot of Thai cooking class.

Day 9: Rest day

Another beautiful day. We decided to take it easy, since the next day was the Elephant Nature Park. After a leisurely breakfast, we did some shopping along the main road. L bought some jewelry, which is big here, particularly silver

We had lunch at a really good Middle Eastern place called Jerusalem Falafel. It was a nice change of pace from Thai food, which is excellent, of course, but we felt like a break from it. I had the special, which was an excellent eggplant moussaka while L had an excellent chicken dish. The hummus and pita was really good as well. The pita was a lot thicker and breadier than we are used to, but it was really fresh and delicious. It was obviously homemade.

Didn't really do much else that day. Shopped a little more. I had another Cuban on the porch, and we had dinner at The Good View, one of the restaurants near the hotel. It was really good and did, indeed, have a good view.

Some random pics.

A cool Wat we visited in Chiang Mai. Probably more pics of this one to come.



Another river shot.
People living along the river in CM.Broken signpost.
Crumbling stupa.

I didn't know this until I started doing research for the trip, but Red Bull actually started in Bangkok. Here's what it looks like there. Tastes exactly the same, except it's not carbonated. Oh yeah, and a bottle is like 13 baht, or about a 40 cents. Of course, this bottle is clearly labeled 10 baht on the bottom right. Baht is the one word I learned how to recognize. Must be the 7-11 markup.Silly, I know, but one of the things I enjoy while traveling is trying local potato chip flavors. Here is nori seaweed. Not bad, but not my favorite. Also, I am pretty sure the first two are Lay's brand.

The most interesting were these-hot chili squid. They were...interesting. Not great, but better than I thought they might be.These are crab curry flavored, and I actually really liked these. This was by far the best flavor I tried while I was there.
Tomorrow: Elephant Nature Park, a highlight of the trip.

Day 8: Chiang Mai flower festival parade

We awoke to a beautiful day. Since it was the day for the famous Chiang Mai Flower Festival, we got a move on and got going pretty early. We walked down to Tha Phae Road, which leads into the main eastern gate into the old city, which I posted a picture of on yesterday's post.

This parade was so cool. It was already going on when we got there, but we still saw over two hours of it. It was so much like a parade in the US, and let so unlike one here as well. It was like ones here in that there were marching bands, all playing western songs I recognized, and there were flower floats, local groups. etc. However, it was also unlike one here in that there were no barricades, and we were right up on the parade. When something large, like a float, was coming through, guys with whistles would urge people back. Also, there were, of course, a lot of things you don't get in parades in the US, like all the people in traditional costumes and the guys carrying huge drums (one of my favorites).

Here are some random pictures of the parade.

Not sure who these guys are, but we were walking behind a trio of them on the way down to the parade.



I think this little boy thought the parade was about the most amazing thing he had ever seen. I tend to agree.
I think I mentioned that the King's sister had recently died. She was featured on several floats (not to the mention many, many pictures of her everywhere).




Some of these pictures really give you a sense of how close we were to the action.








This band was so great.
Here's a video of them. See if you can figure out what song they are playing. I think you can.


Another cool thing. Since there were no barricades, five minutes after the parade was over it was a major street again, carrying a ton of traffic.

After the parade was over, we had an OK lunch at a place called The Corner. It was good, but nothing great. One cool thing happened, though. I went to use the restroom, and to get to it you went right through the kitchen, right past the guy at the wok. Everything was right there. It was pretty cool, for some reason. I was excusing myself to squeeze past the guy who had just cooked my lunch.

After the parade is over, they take all of the floats down to a large park that is in the southwest corner of the old city. They stay there all weekend so that everyone can go see them. There are also flower displays, and, of course, food vendors. Actually, that's not different. Food vendors are everywhere in Thailand. Seriously. Everywhere.

Here is a picture going into the street where the floats are. Note the city wall on the left.


I think pretty much the whole city was there. Many people were having picnics at this nice park. This picture doesn't look really crowded, I know, but trust me, there were people everywhere.
After walking around the park for a while, we decided to head back. We were actually a long way from the hotel, so we decided to take a tuk-tuk. This was actually the first one we had taken. The ride cost us 50 baht, and I gave the guy 60, or about $2. We asked the guy to take us to The Chedi, which is a really nice hotel over on the river that sells cigars. Man, I would like to stay at this place. Swankerrific.

A got three cigars, and we took another tuk-tuk to the pedestrian bridge, then walked back to the hotel for a rest. L went shopping at a really nice place next to the hotel, and I sat on our porch drinking Singha and smoking a Cohiba cigar. It was an extremely pleasant afternoon.

That evening we had dinner at The Brasserie, another of the nice places on the river. It has good live music and good food. It was a great place.

Day 7: Rain in Chiang Mai, The Night Baazar

It rained last night, and was still raining when we woke up this morning. After breakfast (which was delicious, as usual) I got on the computer in the lobby to look at the weather report and also to try to find a cigar store in Chiang Mai.

The weather report was not heartening. It was supposed to rain all day. We decided to go out anyway, since it was out first full day in the city. We waited until it slacked off a bit, then headed out. We didn't bring any rain gear, because it is not supposed to rain at this time of year in Thailand. Anyway, it really didn't matter; even had I brought my rain gear, it was too warm to wear it. I would rather be a little wet than hot and wet. I had my adventure hat, anyway, so no worries.

Anyway, we decided to walk to the old city, which is defined at the area inside the old moat. Our hotel is not even on the map that I just linked to, but, if you look at the scale, it is not huge. The area inside the moat is about a square mile, so it's really not that far from out hotel. It would normally be about a half an hour walk, but, when you have to stop and look in every other store, it sometimes takes a little longer....

We walked and shopped our way there. Once we were there, it started to rain harder, so we took refuge in an Irish pub called the UN Irish Pub. I had some very mediocre Hungarian Goulash, and some excellent chicken fried rice, and L had some pretty good fish and chips. And of course I also had a Singha. Singha is a Thai beer, and pretty much the most popular one, although there is also Chang and Leo, neither of which is as good, IMO. Chang has a higher alcohol content, at 6.4%, as opposed to 5% for Singha. It's just not as good, though. Singha is a lager (like most standard American beers) but has more hops and more flavor than your typical American brew. It was an OK, but not great, meal (I know, what do you expect at an Irish pub in Thailand?) What can I say, it was raining and this place was close.

After trying off at the hotel we decided to try the famous Night Bazaar. This is not a single building, I found out, but several. I saw at least three separate buildings on the map, and they are all huge. This is in addition to the stalls lining every side of every street. There is so much to see here it is staggering. I didn't take many pictures that day, but this should give you an idea.

This one is not actually the night baazar, technically, it is Waorat Market, which is right over the pedestrian bridge from our hotel.

We had lunch at the food court at the Night Bazzar. It was one of those places where you buy tickets, which you exchange for the food. When you're done you turn your tickets back it for a refund. We had red curry, pineapple fried rice (always a good choice here), some veggie samosas, a soda, and a beer (Chang this time, they seem to have a monopoly at the food court). It was all really, really good, and the total cost was 270 baht, or about $8.50.

Afterwards we shopped some more. I actually bought something, a little alien warrior guy made out of aluminum wire, who is now proudly guarding my TV in my game room. I paid a lot for him, 450 baht, or almost $15, and I forgot to haggle, but it's ok. He is very cool. From the same lady L bought a very nice embroidered purse which she loves.



We had dinner at The Riverside, which, as you might guess from the name, is right on the river. It also has the large advantage of being on our side of the river, and about a 5-10 minute walk down the road from the hotel. It has a fantastic terrace overlooking the river. The food was good, but nothing spectacular. The good news is there are three other fairly famous restaurants in the same area almost next to each other, so we'll try them next.

Here's some random pictures of Chiang Mai.

The Ping River from the pedestrian bridge.

The Ping River at night.The flower market at night.

The Tha Phae gate. The picture is not great because I couldn't get a head on picture, because there was a huge poster of and memorial for the King's recently departed sister.
One of the streets that runs along the moat. This is where the walls used to be, but they are gone now except for at the corners and at some of the gates.
A better shot of the moat.
I wish KC had a moat. City walls, too, for that matter. You never know when St. Louis will decide to attack. Can't be too careful.

One of the remaining corners from the inside. Unreconstructed, obviously.
Tomorrow, the Chiang Mai Flower Festival parade.

Day 6. Travel to Chiang Mai

This is the day we flew to Chiang Mai. We thought about taking an overnight train, but it's a 12 hour ride, and to maximize our time, we decided to just fly. We flew on a local budget airlines called Air Asia, and two round trip tickets cost us about $158, which was pretty good. To make it easier I booked our flight for around noon. After another breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we headed to the airport, which is a 45 minute ride from central Bangkok.

The new Bangkok airport, Suvarnabhumi (which, somehow, is pronounced Swan-a-poom) is really nice. The main terminal is, by some measures, the largest in the world, and it is indeed extremely huge. There were apparently some problems when it first opened, but it seemed to be operating smoothly every time we were there.

I even remembered to have the doorman at the hotel tell the taxi driver that we were flying domestic, so he took us to the correct area. By the way, an interesting thing; almost every building we went to had a doorman, in Bangkok at least. I don't think I opened a door the whole time I was there. At the hotel there was a guy that was always there to open the door and wai us when we left or entered.

We made our flight with no problems, and, although it left about 45 minutes late, it was an uneventful hour long flight to Chiang Mai. Air Asia was fine. It was kind of like Southwest, in that there was no assigned seating. Also, there were no free drinks or food (not even water or soda); if you wanted anything you had to buy it. It was fine, though, and I would certainly fly them again.

While flying up, I stared out the window the whole time, which is what I generally do. It was very interesting in that for the first perhaps two thirds of the flight, everything was all rice patties. I had read that the central part of Thailand, meaning the area around Bangkok, is a huge rice producing area, and this certainly reinforced that. Thailand is the world's largest exporter of rice, and the rice there is fantastic, and there are many different varieties.

Once we were at the airport at Chiang Mai, which is, to say the least, somewhat smaller than that in Bangkok, we headed for the cab stand. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't know our hotel, but they woman knew right where it was and we quickly got there for 140 baht, or about $4.50.

The bed and breakfast we stayed at in Chiang Mai is named Baan Orapin, and it was simply our favorite place we have ever stayed on vacation. It is fantastic. We had a junior suite, which consisted of two large rooms, and a large bathroom, for $67 a night, including a cash discount. We loved this place. The grounds were beautiful and lush, and it was like a quiet sanctuary from the city.

The grounds in the kind of central yard.



That was our porch.

Our bedroom.

Me watching Thai TV in the living room.

I can't say enough nice things about this place. A great breakfast was included, and it was served in a wonderful open air room by a very nice guy named Pepsi. There was a selection of several different items, but I quickly settled on the Thai omelette with tomatoes and onions, served over rice with a side of bacon. Every breakfast also included coffee or tea, fruit juice, and fresh fruit. It was fantastic. The owner has a computer with internet you can use for free in the lobby, and is available to call a taxi or arrange tours and the like. The B&B is in a kind of compound, and has a gate, which you get a key to along with the key to your room. There was even a mini bar/fridge in the room, the items in which are actually offered at a fair price (35 baht, or $1, for a beer, 15 baht for a soda, free drinking water, etc.). I couldn't wait to give this place a great rating on tripadvisor.com.

We decided to chill for the rest of the day.

Day 5. The National Museum

We got up a little early, since we wanted to get the the Bangkok branch of the Thailand National Museum by 9:30 so we can take the weekly free English tour. It was raining on the way to the museum, and for a time while we were on the skytrain it was pouring. No matter, though, museums are perfect for rain days.

We did have a minor setback on the way there; we took the river taxi to a dock a little north of the one we took the last day, and got off on N10, or Tha (pier, in Thai) Phran Nok (see map here), in the hopes that we could take a cross-river ferry and get to Tha Prachan, or at least Tha Makarat, both of which are a good bit closer to the museum. Unfortunately, the cross-river ferry took us back to N9, or Tha Chang, so we had a bit of a walk to the museum. No big deal, though, as we got to walk along the Sanam Luang, which is a big open area adjacent to the Grand Palace where various ceremonies take place. It's pretty much the only large open area in the part of Bangkok, which is the old city, so to speak.

In any case, although we were a few minutes late, we made it. Tickets were 50 baht, or about $1.60, each. A good deal any way you look at it. So we found the English tour, which had only just started. At that point, there was only one problem; the woman who was giving the tour was so quiet, I could barely make out what she was saying. The first part of the tour was outside, and she was completely drowned out by traffic on the road in front of the museum. Soon, we moved into the first building, which is called Buddhaisawan Chapel, and contains the second most sacred Buddha image in Thailand. Around the inside of the chapel was painted scenes from Buddha's life. The tour guide took us around to several of the more famous ones and explained them, although she was generally drowned out by a woman giving a tour in Japanese on the other side of the building.

Here's the exterior of Buddhaisawan Chapel.


We weren't allowed to take pictures of the interior, which is too bad, since it was very beautiful.

Afterwards, we moved on to some of the other buildings, and the guide explained a some of the other collections. At this point, we were in a somewhat quieter area, and I was able to hear more of what she said, although by no means all of it. Although quiet (and with a habit of looking away from us as she talked) she was very knowledgeable, and gave us an extensive lecture on the various styles of Buddha sculptures in the collection.

The tour lasted about two hours, and ended in a large structure that contained a huge collection of funeral chariots. These things are amazingly elaborate. One was so large that she said that it took 140 people to pull it, and I believe her. They are used to pull the remains of royal family members to the location of their cremation (which takes place on the aforementioned Sunam Luang. In fact, the king's sister had recently died, and she will be taken to the cremation location in a chariot like these.

After the tour was over, we had an excellent lunch at a restaurant on the grounds of the museum.
Like many buildings in Thailand, this one was open air. Not really a use to seal things up when it's 100 degrees in winter, I guess. Most of the older buildings at the museum we not air conditioned, either, but it wasn't that hot that day, so it wasn't a big deal. It was also, of course, very cheap. Two entrees, a large water, a soda and a beer was 230 baht, or about $7. And the food was really really good. I had one of my new favorites, which is Chicken with chilies and holy basil. Awesome. I had it for the first time at the place the day before, and started ordering it a lot.

After lunch we walked around the museum on our own for a while. While we were touring the newest building, something really funny happened. This building had a new, really nice state-of-the-art exhibit on the history of Thailand, and was very interesting. However, while we were there, there were also numerous school groups touring the building as well. While they were looking around, there was a school teacher that was blaring out a discussion into a microphone the entire time. It was so amazingly loud, and the kept it up almost the whole time we were there. It was kind of annoying, particularly since we couldn't understand her, but it was so funny it was hard to be annoyed. We were laughing about it the whole day. The best part was that the kids were running around, talking and playing, and couldn't have been paying less attention. It was hilarious.

One of the coolest things in this exhibit was a stone inscription (shown in the link above) that exhibits the oldest known example of the Thai script. Except for the screaming, it was very cool.

We looked around a lot more of the museum, and although there are no pictures of interiors, there was a lot of cool sculpture. With the assistance of the tour guide, we could really notice the difference between Buddha sculptures from the different areas and time periods. There was also an interesting (at least to me) exhibition on the prehistory of Thailand.

One funny thing. In the older buildings, the display cases did not have any locks. They had little pieces of string with wax seals, but anyone could have opened them and taken stuff. It was really funny. Based on what I saw (both this and other things), and everything I have read, the Thai people are very honest. Many times at markets I would see shopkeepers leave thier stalls unattended for a long time while making an offering at the shrine (there was one at every market, always with food and incense offerings) or to get food. No one ever seemed to be worried that anyone would steal anything. As an aside, there was never a time anywhere we were in Thailand where we felt anything less than totally safe.

Here are some other photos of things around the museum.

A fancy chariot or cart.

The place was well defended.
Another ceremonial structure.
This is called the Red House. It is a traditional Thai house, although one of an upper class person, as demonstrated by the large size and decoration.



Overall, we walked around the museum for about six hours. Afterwards, we were tired, and walked back to the pier to take a river taxi back to the skytrain, then back to the hotel.

I think I mentioned that the river taxis do not tarry at the docks. Here is a video of us coming into the dock. If you listen, you can hear the boatswain whistle the guy in the back uses to signal the pilot while docking. You can also hear the long whistle he gives when it is time to get going again. And yes, we unloaded passengers during this stop.



So, yeah, when it's time to get off the boat, you'd better be ready.

We were very tired that night, so we just had dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was actually quite good. We didn't want to wander too far, since we were leaving the next day for Chiang Mai.

Day 4 (Pt. 2): Wat Arun

After a great lunch at a place called Wat A-roon Cafe (which is right across the river from Wat Arun) we took the cross river ferry over to Wat Arun. The price of the ferry recently increased, so it cost 7 baht, or about 21 cents, for us both to cross.

Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn, is an extremely impressive structure. It is across the river and just downstream of the Grand Palace area, and makes a beautiful sight as you go by it on the river.



The central central prang is huge, as you can see. It is also really cool because of the way it is decorated. It is completely covered in pieces of ceramic. Not tiles, but actual plates and cups and the like that have been put on it. Close examination of these reveals that extreme care was taken in placing the pieces, such that the flowers are formed out of plate parts, with the edges of the plates carefully preserved. The overall result is extremely beautiful.

The whole thing is decorated like this.


There are stairs you can climb for a fantastic view of the area. There are two sets, and the second set is by far the steepest set of steps I have ever climbed. You can see the second set in the upper part of this photo, but the picture does not do it justice. The steps were literally about an 80 degree angle. It was amazing.
The view from the top was fantastic, as you might expect. Here is a panorama that I took of the view back towards Bangkok.
The picture is kind of small, but you get the idea. Here is a closer view of part of that picture

As you can see, I'm pretty high up there in this picture.

Here is a view of Wat Arun itself. It is so large it is hard to get a good picture if it, really. This one is taken from quite a ways off.
After walking around Wat Arun for a long time, we headed back to the hotel for a break. Again it was getting later in the afternoon and the river taxi was very crowded.

After a while, we took the Skytrain back up to MBK for another dinner at Mr. Ming, since we liked it so much. After wards, we bought some much-needed items (particularly sunscreen, did I mention that is was hot?) in the huge Tokyu department store that is in MBK.

Day 4 (Pt. 1): Wat Pho

Today we took the river taxi up the the dock near Wat Pho, which is just south of the Grand Palace. Wat Pho's claim to fame is the giant Reclining Buddha, but there is a lot of other cool stuff there as well. For example, there is this 'mountain' that demonstrated various yoga and massage positions. This is here because Wat Pho was actually established as a university, and is still the foremost school for learning Thai massage. They also have their own website.
Here is a general view of the compound. We found Wat Pho much more charming that Wat Phra Kaew, because while the latter is very nice, it is kind of too perfect, whereas Wat Pho is a little more worn, and seems more real. Also unlike Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho has resident monks, which adds to the feel, I think.

These guys were my favorite. They are farangs, and are said to represent Dutch traders from the Ayutthaya period, when the capital of Thailand was located in that city, which is north of present day Bangkok. In fact, this temple is older than the city of Bangkok itself.

Of course, the big star is the Reclining Buddha. He is reclining because the is represented in the position in which he achieved enlightenment. And boy is he big, at 150 feet long. It's very impressive.
His feet are inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and show the 108 auspicious signs of Buddha.
Behind the Reclining Buddha, there are 108 pots (one for each of the signs) and, by tradition, you get a small cup of satangs (which are Thai pennies, basically, it's the only time I saw any) and you put a coin in each pot for good karma. This was a lot of fun, although I ran out of coins just before reaching the end. Hopefully Buddha will let it slide.


Here is a brief video I made of the compound. We were delighted to find that, although the area around the main entrance, where the temple housing the Reclining Buddha is located, was very crowded, if you went into the Wat a little farther, it was not crowded at all, and was nice and peaceful. And trust me, in Bangkok you want all the peace you can get, 'cause it's a loud city.

Day 3: What Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace

Today we decided to go see the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, which is inside the palace grounds. To get there, we rode our Skytrain line down to the end of the line, which is right at the river. We then got on the Chao Phraya river taxi. This was extremely enjoyable. The taxis stop at the many docks along the river to load and unload passengers. They are fast, however, and you can't dawdle. In some cases where only a person or two are getting on or off, they may literally stop for 5 seconds before they are off again. A woman with a little metal tube with change in it, that she shakes a lot so you can hear her, comes around to sell tickets. The trip up the river to the pier where the Grand Palace is located costs 15 baht, or about 45 cents. An unbeatable bargin, in my view. The river along the river is very nice; it's cool and pleasant. This is pretty much the best way to travel in BKK. Here's a short video of the ride.

We get off at the North 9 dock. The docks are labeled from the Central Pier, which is where we got on, North 1, 2 3, etc. Couldn't be easier.

We leave the boat, walk through the inevitable markets surrounding the exits, and head to the entrance to the Grand Palace. Along the way, at least two people try to tell us that the Grand Palace is closed for a Buddhist holiday, which is a common scam. We know better, of course, since only a person who did absolutely no research (and was also very gullible) would fall for this one, since every single guidebook and website mentions that this scam is very common, especially around the Grand Palace.

We enter and buy our tickets, which are expensive (for Thailand) at 250 baht, or ~$8. The main thing to see in the palace grounds is Wat Phra Kaew where the Emerald Buddha is housed. This is the most sacred Buddha in Thailand, and is a very, very big deal. It is quite small, actually, at around 60 cm, but it is really beautiful nonetheless.

The Wat it is housed in is something else, too. Talk about decorated. Wow. Here are some pictures of the grounds. There are no pictures allowed of the Emerald Buddha.

A huge gold chedi.

I love these guys. They are temple guardians, and a pair of them are located at each entrance.

Every surface of the buildings is highly decorated, as can be seen here. This is the temple that houses the Emerald Buddha.


Here is a view of the compound.
I really like these things too. They are called Nok Tantima, and are very cool. They are like half bird, half human. A kind of guardian, I think.


Another view of the other guardians.

Here is what the pair looks like guarding the entrance.

You can really see the Chinese influence with this guy.

This is a statue of the hermit who is supposed to have invented yoga and herbal medicine.

These guys surrounded the entire chedi base.

The entire inside wall of the Wat is covered in a huge mural depicting scenes from the Ramakien, which is the Thai national epic, borrowed from the original Hindu. See the link for more info. Many of the statues in the Wat depict creatures from this story. Here are some samples.


After leaving the Wat, you walk through a little of the palace grounds, most of which are not open to the public.

After this we decided to head back to the hotel, since it was really, really hot that day. We walked back to the pier and took an extremely crowded river taxi back to the central pier. It was obviously rush hour, since the boat was shoulder to shoulder crowded. This was kind of an adventure in itself, really. Like I said, the boats do not linger at the pier, and you have to be at the back and ready to exit when they get to the pier. Lots of fun.


For a late lunch, we went back to MBK and went to a dim sum place called Mr. Ming. It is probably the McDonald's of China, but it was really good, and really cheap. We weren't really hungry, so we just got 6 small plates of dim sim, and these with a coke and a bottle of water was 133 baht, or about $4.25. Can't beat that.

L wasn't feeling great, so for supper we just decided to order room service at the hotel. It was actually pretty good, and wasn't too expensive.

Day 2: Chatuchak Weekend Market

We are having trouble getting our sleep cycles back to normal. I could not go to sleep until after 4 am last night, and then woke up at 6, went back to sleep at 9, and slept until 2 pm. Not good. Gotta get that sorted out before Monday, when I have to be back at the office.

Anyway, the second day we were there, Sunday the 27th of January, we decided to check out Chatuchak Weekend Market. Some people claim that this is the largest market in Asia, with between 8,000 and 12,000 stalls, depending on where you read. All I know is that it is massive. The nice part is that the Skytrain goes right there; it is at the northern terminus of the longer line.

I think that pretty much anything you want could be found at this market, if you could find it. We had a copy of Nancy Chandlers excellent Bangkok shopping map, which helped a lot, but it was still a challenge. It was packed with people, crowded, stuffy, chaotic and amazing all at the same time. Some people apparently stay here for two whole days. That was far more that we could take, but it is definitely an experience not to be missed. I did buy a small painting for 450 bhat (~$15) which I really like.
There are outdoor sections and covered sections. It is kind of organized into areas (clothing, pets, etc.). We walked through a good part of the market, but I don't think we saw more than a fraction of it.

This is my favorite picture from the market, although I honestly didn't take that many from there. These are fighting roosters for sale. I regret that I didn't try to find out how much they were, because I was very curious about how much a good fighting rooster would cost.
There are also, it is said, often rare and endangered species for sale at the market, if you know where to look and who to talk to. There were some booths with "No Photo" signs posted, but I don't know my species well enough to tell. There were tons of puppies, fish, rabbits, snakes, etc. for sale. Mostly dogs in the section we were in, but I'm sure there were more sections. I saw several times people blow drying fluffy puppies, which was pretty funny.

We had a frankly mediocre lunch at a restaurant in the market. After lunch we walked around for a while longer and then decided to head back to the hotel for a little rest.

After a rest, we had to decide where to get some late lunch/early dinner. This was always a problem in BKK, because we didn't know the area that well, and there were not a ton of places in the immediate area. We decided that we wanted to try a place I had read about called Soi Polo Fried Chicken, which is supposed to be awesome. We asked the guy at the front desk about it, but he didn't know where it was. We then grabbed a taxi that was waiting in front of the hotel (a mistake). We asked the guy about it, but he didn't know it either. After making sure he would use the meter, we asked him to take us to Soi Polo. He did take us there, but we could not find the place. On the way there, of course, he tried to get us to go to his friend's restaurant, his friends tailor shop, and everything else. We drove down Soi Polo once, but like I said couldn't find the place. In any case, after seeing the soi, L didn't want to eat anywhere on the soi. It was not a bad neighborhood, I don't think, but it was certainly not nice or anything. After failing to find the place, we asked the guy to take us to Sukhimvit Road, which is a very popular shopping and eating area. But the guy refused to take us there, saying it was too far, he had to meet his friend, etc. etc. etc! First time that has ever happened. It's not like we weren't willing to pay or anything. I think he was pissed that we wouldn't go to his friend's place After that, we just told him to take us back to the Four Seasons, which is a swank hotel very near our hotel, basically at the intersection of the road out hotel is on and the main road. We chose this because, first, the guy knew where it was, and second, there is an expensive (for BKK) and allegedly good restaurant inside called Spice Market, which we decided to try instead. So that was our adventure with a not so wonderful cabbie. On the whole, it could have been a lot worse, since the entire thing cost us a little time and, like, $2 total, so lesson learned, I guess. I had read in several places that cab drivers in BKK are different than in most cities. Whereas in most cities the cabbies are veterans who know every square inch of their city, including the best restaurants, apparently in BKK are sometimes guys from the countryside who end up driving a cab in the big city after a failed rice crop, family emergency, etc. I'm sure there are some good ones, and if you can find one, you can travel by cab for next to nothing. Traffic (which, as I said, it terrible) would still be an issue, though. Funny thing, too, almost every cab we saw was a Toyota Corolla, slightly modified with a smaller trunk and more back seat area. Says something about Corollas, I guess.

Anyway, when we got to Spice Market, it was kind of mid afternoon, and the buffet was closing in 15 minutes, and the main menu wasn't available for a couple of hours. So we decided to go to Cabbages and Condoms, which is a restaurant run by the Thai Population and Community Development Association, all the proceeds of which go to fund it's activities. The name is based on the founder's belief that condoms should be as cheap as cabbages. The food was good, and we were able to get there easily using the Skytrain, which we now realized is a huge plus. On the way back we found an internet cafe and checked our email. This cafe has a nice feature; you could use an AIM-like application on the desktop to order drinks, which were then brought to your station. Also, it cost a bhat a minute, and since a bhat is worth about three cents, it was a bargain. Two beers and 40 minutes of internet access cost 180 bhat, or around $5. Can't beat that.

Here is a picture of the painting I bought, now hung on my office wall.
That's all for now.

Eric

Day 1: MBK center and Jim Thompson house

OK, I have managed to drag myself away from Bioshock for long enough to start the more in depth, illustrated trip report. We'll see how long I can resist the allure of this fantastic game. BTW, if anyone reading this likes games, or humor, and you have not seen Zero Punctuation yet, you really owe it to yourself to check it out. It is brilliant.

OK, so the first day we were in Bangkok (BKK) we pretty much took it easy. We walked down to the Skytrain (think Chicago's el trains, but newer and nicer) station about a 5 minute walk from the hotel and rode up to the huge MBK mall. Holy crap, is this mall enormous. First off, it's seven stories tall, and fairly large laterally as well. There is a whole floor that is almost entirely cellphones. Here is a view of the central atrium area.
Among the many amusing things here was the Ronald McDonald that wais passersby. Pretty funny.

We got lunch that day in the food court at the mall. Now, food courts in Thailand are much, much different from in the US. First, and most importantly, the food is actually really good. It is also pretty cheap. The system works like this. When you enter you either buy a certain amount of tickets, or you get a debit card (which was the case here). You then go to any vendor you like, and at MBK there were probably 15, with everything from Thai food to Indian food to American food to Chinese food, and everything in between. After taking your order the vendor either takes the appropriate number of tickets, or debits your card. At MBK they have a cool system where they don't have to swipe your card, they simply place it on a little pad and it is automatic. I assume it uses RFID or the like. In any case, when you leave you either redeem leftover tickets, or pay the amount indicate on your card. It's a good system. Anyway, the food was really good. I had green curry pork and a large Singha beer, and L had a seafood pad thai and a soda. The total was 380 bhat, or about $12, and of that 120 bhat, or $3.85, was my huge beer. After walking around the mall for a while longer, we decided to leave, as it was getting crowded. You could tell that school let out because the place filled up with school kids. You could tell they were school kids because they were still wearing their uniforms.

We decided to go see the nearby Jim Thompson house and museum. Jim Thompson was an American ex OSS agent (the OSS was the forerunner to the CIA) who worked in Bangkok, fell in love with it and after WWII stayed there. He is credited with reviving the then dying Thai silk industry, and the company he started is still a major player in the industry. His house is down a peaceful soi (alley) on one of the klongs (canals) that used to me much more common in Bangkok, and at one time were the main form of transportation. His house consists of five antique Thai houses that he brought in from other parts of the country and had reassembled on site. He was also an avid collector on SE Asian art.

The house was amazing. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the structures, but I will include some exterior shots to give you an idea.


The bottom shows what appear to be some (mostly) prehistoric pots in his collection. The really nice stuff, of course, was inside. Nicer items included an really nice Buddha (still with the head, unlike the one above), and some amazing Chinese porcelain. It was a really nice tour, and a nice location. After the tour, and walking around exploring the garden on our own, we had a drink at the cafe. We then walked back to the nearest BTS station and went back to the hotel. We were both jet lagged, so we decided to take a nap. After waking up at 8 pm, we decided, screw it, we're just going to bed.

General impressions of BKK. First off, holy crap was it hot. With the humidity (which was considerable), it was around 100 every day. I had really not expected that, since it was winter there, too. I guess when you are only 14 degrees about the equator that's what you get.

Consequently, we were not able to get as much done each day as I had thought, since it took a lot out of you just being out walking around in the heat. Speaking of walking-wow, not a real pedestrian-friendly town. First off, it is really spread out. We were in an area called Pathumwan, which is primarily a shopping area. It was nice, but it was a long way from many of the major sites. The traffic is every bit as bad as I had heard, and you are smelling diesel fumes a lot. There are also a lot of touts, primarily tuk tuk and taxi drivers. They seem to assume that any farang walking obviously wants a cab or tuk tuk ride, and you are constantly asked "Where you go?" by them. They are not really aggressive or anything, but it gets old pretty rapidly. Taxi and (especially) tuk tuk drivers are also famous for scamming tourists. Generally this is done by not wanting to use the meter, in the case of taxis, or asking exorbitant prices in the case of tuk tuks. The other side of the coin is the tuk tuk driver offering you a really cheap tour of the city (like 20 bhat an hour, around 75 cents) which will actually be a tour of gem shops and tailor shops and souvenir shops, all of which pay him a commission for each person he brings in. This is also how the famous 'gem scam' can start.

In short, it is not an easy city to visit. However, we wanted to visit someplace really different, and it was definitely that.

OK, that is enough for now. I'll post the next day tomorrow.

Eric

We just made it home safe and sound. The trip back was not as bad as the trip there, but it never is for me. More details with pictures this weekend.

Eric

Well, in half an hour we go back to the Chiang Mai airport and fly back to Bangkok, and tomorrow at 6:40 am we leave for our interminable flight back to the states. I am sad to leave Chiang Mai, which really is a great city. I am even sadder about the horrible flight we have coming up. The good part is it should be significantly shorter than the flight here, which was pretty bad. The total travel time from our front door there in PV to the hotel in Bangkok was 30 hours and 15 minutes. The way back should be a little better, since the cross pacific flight is about 2 hours shorter, since you are not fighting headwinds.

I'll post more details, including pictures, over the course of the weekend. After I recover from jet lag, that is. Fun fact, we leave here at 6:40 am local time, and arrive home about 6:30 pm local time, after traveling for about 24 hours. Stupid round planet and time zones...

Today was the day we had our cooking class. We had the full day course at A Lot of Thai and it was fantastic. Yui, the instructor, was very helpful, and walked us through all of the dishes. The class is taught in her home, so the size is small, with a maximum of 8 people, so you can really get individual attention if you need it.

You start of by her showing you how to do things, then you go back to your station (which each person has) and cooking the dish yourself. They you eat it. We made three dishes in the morning, Green Curry Chicken, Chicken Stir Fry, and Pad Thai, all of which came out great.

Then, you take a break and she takes you on a tour of a local market near their home. She shows you a bunch of different ingredients and the like. This market was a real, local market where regular Thai people shop. Things were so cheap there, and other than our group, I saw one other farang, which was pretty cool. I took some great pictures, too, which I will share when I get back.

After lunch, we made Tom Yum Gong, the famous spicy Thai soup with shrimp, spring rolls, and sticky rice with mango, which is a popular dessert here. It was all fabulous. If you are very nice to me, perhaps I will make you something when I get back. First I need to make a big shopping trip to the Chinese market, though, to get some ingredients. All in all it was a great day. I came back, had my last Cuban cigar, and relaxed for a while. Now it is time for one last visit to the Night Bazaar before we fly back to Bangkok tomorrow and then home Thursday. Like I said, I will post a bunch of pictures when I get back.

Later,

Eric

Monday we went to the Elephant Nature Park another official link here, wikipedia entry here. This was an amazing experience, I must say. This park is different from the usual elephant 'dog and pony show'. At those shows, the elephants do stupid tricks that they have been taught, at Elephant Nature Park (ENP) the elephants just get to be elephants. They wander freely, while at the other parks they are chained up when not working. They woman who founded and runs the place, Lek, is an amazing person. In addition to the 31 elephants, there are also 50 some odd dogs, several cats, water buffalo, and some cattle. As you might guess, Lek is quite an animal lover. She founded this park as a place to save elephants who have been treated poorly, as many of the elephants at other places are. In fact, you watch a very good video from National Geographic that, among other things, demonstrates how elephants are trained for the trekking companies and the shows. Let's just say is in not pleasant; they basically lock them in a confined space, called a press (if that tells you anything) and torture them for between 3 and 7 days. It is not nice.

Like I said, however, SNP is different. The elephants roam freely, and form natural family groups on their own. On the way to the park, you stop at the market and load up a bunch of fruit for them to eat. At the park, you get to feed the elephants. They take the fruit right out of your hand. It was really cool. Then, after a really good lunch for the people, you take the elephants down to the river for their bath. This is like nothing else you have ever done. They lie down in the river, and you splash buckets of water on them, and scrub them down with brushes. They really seem to enjoy it. Then, after the bath, you watch and they go back to their mud hole and wallow in the mud for a bit. After this there is a long time where you can just sit in the shade and watch the elephants do their thing. Then, before you leave, you give them another bath. All in all it was a tremendous day. Wait until you see the picture of the elephant giving me a 'kiss'. It was something else. They really have some suction in those trunks.

The park is outside of town in the country, in a pretty valley. It was one of the best parts of the whole trip, and they really educate you about the plight of the elephant in Thailand, which is, to be honest, somewhat grim. They are particularly down on people who bring elephants into big cities, even Bangkok, to beg. This is very bad. After being here, I would never go to any of the other camps. They also have people that volunteer and stay there for a week or even several weeks. There were 40 volunteers when we were there. I could see how this would be quite an experience. If you come here, I strongly recommend that you visit ENP.

Well, we decided to take it easy today. After breakfast, which was terrific as usual, we went for a walk in town. We ended up having lunch at a really good middle eastern place called Jerusalem Falafel. It was great. We also did some shopping along one of the main streets in town. We also vainly looked for a place to do some laundry. We never found a laundromat per se, but we did find a place where we could drop it off and pick it up later. It should be ready at 8 tonight, so we'll head there after dinner. It is conveniently very close by.

Yesterday I finally managed to get some cigars, so I had an extremely enjoyable afternoon sitting on our porch and smoking an excellent Cohiba. Great times. Had a Romeo y Julieta today, and it was great as well.

Tomorrow we go to Elephant Nature Park which promises to be a lot of fun. I'll write all about it, including pictures, when we get back. The day after that is our cooking class.

Well, almost time to go to dinner.

Eric

Today was, by any account, an awesome day. After our usual great breakfast, we went down to see the Chiang Mai Flower Festival, one of the premier festivals of the area. We watched the parade for a couple of hours, then walked through the old city to a large park where everyone was gathered. All of the floats were there for everyone to see, and everyone was indeed there to see them. After walking around for a while, we actually took a tuk tuk, our first, to The Chedi, a high end hotel, where I bought some cigars. I paid way too much, of course, but WTF, we're on vacation, right? After getting back home, L went shopping, and I sat on the porch and smoked a Cohiba and had a couple of beers. All in all, it is hard to imagine a day being any better. More stories and pictures when I return.

Eric

Well, it's raining today in Chiang Mai. According to teh intertubes is might rain all day. This would not be a problem if I had a cigar, since we have a porch that would be perfect for smoking one, but, alas, I have no cigars as of yet. I am currently here in the lobby looking at the weather and also trying t find a cigar store. Not as easy as one might think...

The last two things we saw in Bangkok were terrific. Wat Pho, with the giant Reclining Buddha, was really cool. It was a lot different from Wat Phra Kaew, which is where the Emerald Buddha is located. That temple was amazing, don't get me wrong. However, Wat Pho was different. Wat Phra Kaew was very clean, and very proper, as befitting it's status (it is in the Grand Palace grounds, after all). The temple holding the Emerald Buddha is essentially the Thai equivalent of the Sistine Chapel. Wat Pho is more lived in. Unlike the other, it has a resident group of monks. It is also older that Bangkok itself.

Well, someone again is waiting for the computer, and I have been monopolizing it for a while. I'll talk about Wat Arun later.

Eric

Well, we made it to Chiang Mai. It is nice here, not least of which because it is much cooler. We are checked in to Baan Orapin and it is fantastic. Such a nice place.

Over the last couple of days, we saw Wat Pho and the Giant Reclining Budda, Wat Arun, and many other things. We also learned that riding the Chao Phraya River taxis is a really great way to get around Bangkok.

There is someone waiting to use the computer, so I'll write more later.

Eric

Well, that is one heck of a flight. From our front door to the motel in Bangkok was just over 30 hours, and it felt like every second of it. We made it, though.

So far we have not done a whole lot. The first day we went to the huge MBK mall and shopped, then after a great lunch in the food court we went to see Jim Thompson's house. He was an American OSS agent that stayed in Bangkok after WWII and revived the Thai silk trade. He had an amazing house (six houses, actually) right on the canal. It consisted of several old traditional Thai houses that he had brought in and rebuilt in place. It was a great tour.

Today we went to the Chatachak market, said to be one of the largest markets in Asia, if not the largest. I certainty believe it. This place was enormous. It had everything from fighting roosters, to rabbits to furniture to, well, pretty much anything. Of course it was crowded and hectic and hot. Did I mention it's hot here? It's in the 90s everyday. I can't imagine coming here in summer.

After a rest at the hotel we tried to go to this famous fried chicken place. Of course the cabbie didn't know where it was, and was only interested in taking us to his friends place, or to get a suit made or the like. After not finding the place and turning down numerous offers for other things, we had him simply take us back to the hotel. Lesson learned, I guess. On the plus side the whole fiasco only cost about 2 bucks, so really a cheap lesson I guess. On the other hand, getting around on the skytrain has been great.

I can't really post pictures here, since I'm in an Internet cafe, so I will post a longer description of this trip, including pictures, when we get back. Tomorrow we are going to the Grand Palace, which will include our first ride on the river. Should be fun. Later.

We leave for Thailand in less than a week, so stay tuned here for stories and pictures about that trip.

The Glacier Express

After two great days in Geneva, we took the train to Zermatt, most famous for the Matterhorn.

We stayed a night in Zermatt. Zermatt is a charming, if touristy town. It is all pedestrian, so you get to walk a lot, and of course the scenery is amazing. Here are a couple of shots. The first one is the main square of Zermatt, where the train comes into town.

Like I said, it's touristy, but still kind of cool. The whole town is basically hotels, restaurants, and shops. Here is a view down the main street in Zermatt.


Everything is pretty expensive, but as I have noted before, that is Switzerland. Cleanliness and efficiency are not free!

At the hotel we got lucky and had an amazing view of the Matterhorn from our balcony. Here is the view from our balcony.

All of the buildings in this photo are hotels. The open lot across the way, the corner of which is visible in the photo, was for sale. I was very curious how much it was. Many millions, I imagine. One of my fondest memories of the trip is sitting on this balcony, smoking my first Cuban cigar (a Cohiba for you cigar smokers out there) and drinking a Cardinal beer. Cardinal is a Swiss brand of beer that comes in bright yellow half liter cans. It is a typical European lager, hoppier than American varieties, and quite tasty. And, of course, the cigar was fantastic. When I was doing that life was good!

One of the things to do is take a train through the mountain to an area above the town, where you can get a better view of the Matterhorn. The train is very cool-basically running at a 45 degree angle through the mountain. Here is a shot of the train.

We got into Zermatt later in the day, so we didn't have the time to explore up there like I would have liked. Nonetheless, the views of the Matterhorn were fantastic.
The Matterhorn seems to be always at least slightly obscured by clouds, but the next morning I got lucky and got a great shot of it almost clear.
We ate at a good restaurant, and had rosti, a potato dish that is often considered a Swiss national dish. It is yummy.

The next day we took the Glacier Express. The Glacier Express is a scenic railway that runs from Zermatt to St. Moritz, all the way across southern Switzerland. I cannot say enough great things about this trip. I saw some of the most amazing scenery of my life. The train itself is modern and comfortable, of course, with the tall windows that allow maximum viewing of the scenery. And, boy, what scenery. On some of the following photos you can see some reflection from the windows. I could not figure out how to prevent this, but is doesn't detract from the scenery too much, I hope.
This is typical Swiss countryside.
Here is a shot of the train car.
And some general shots.
One thing you learn quickly on the trip is that the Swiss are not afraid of tunnels. The train goes through many, many tunnels, one of which is 16 km long. It also goes over many viaducts, one of which, the Landwasser viaduct, is justly famous for it's size. It is impressive.
My favorite part of the trip came towards the end, when the path went through the Rhine River Gorge, known as Switzerland's Grand Canyon. I think whoever named it that must have not seen the real Grand Canyon, but it is amazingly beautiful and impressive nonetheless.
All in all, I cannot recommend this trip highly enough. I fully plan to go back and do it again some day. Next time I think I will go the other direction (St. Moritz to Zermatt) which is the most common way to do it.

The trip stopped in St. Moritz, a famous ski town. To be honest, we did not spend bot one night there, and it was summer, not the best time for a famous ski resort, so we didn't see the town at it's best. Here is a picture of the church there, which was near our hotel.
And a general shot of St. Moritz.
After a night in the hotel, we parted ways from S, who went to Paris. L and I went to Rome. The train ride from St. Moritz into Italy was beautiful as well. Of course, we crossed the Alps.
We were crossing in early June, and it was snowing lightly at one point. Also note the ice in the lake. I was happy to be inside the train. I think I remember reading that this is the highest above ground pass from Switzerland to Italy.

Then we went back down and, bam, we were in Italy. It was amazing how drastically the architecture changed. The Swiss definitely have their standard architecture (see above pictures of Zermatt) and suddenly everything was typical northern Italy.

We crossed the border at a small town called Tirano. It was a charming looking little town, and I would love to go back one day and spend more time. We had to board our train to Rome via Milan, however. Crossing the border was interesting. It consisted of holding up your passport and walking past two bored looking Italian officials (police, border guards? not sure). Something interesting did happen. We were one of only two groups of Americans on the train as far as I could tell. When the guard say our passports (they are color coded, you know) he pulled us aside. He took our passports and looked at them, then took them over to his colleague who also carefully examined them. He never asked us a question or anything, and, after waiting for a couple of minutes, just handed them back to us and waved us on. Interesting.

One of the cool things we passed on the way to Milan was Lake Como.
Lake Como is another place where I would love to spend more time. It looks beautiful.

We arrived at the main train station in Milan. Wow, this place is one of the largest buildings I have ever been in. There were close to twenty platforms. We had to find out train, although our tickets were in German, having been bought in the German speaking part of Switzerland, and, of course, everything in Milan is in Italian. We managed to get on the right train, although we did get in the wrong section at first. Thank goodness everyone uses Arabic numerals! We boarded the high speed train to Rome. This train was very nice, and whisked us rapidly to Rome. I recommend not spending the money for first class tickets, since second class is perfectly nice. Overall, the Italian train system is great.

Next, the eternal city.

Switzerland and Italy, June 2005

The plan on this trip was to meet L's best friend, in Geneva. She had already been in Europe for a week or so. The three of us would tour Switzerland, then split up, with L and I heading to Rome, and S heading to Paris. The whole concept of being able to tell a friend "OK, let's meet in Geneva at noon on July 23rd" is very cool. I recommend it.

Geneva is a beautiful city. Absolutely the cleanest place I have ever been. We were in Switzerland for five days and I never saw a single piece of paper, trash, or anything. It is a clean, efficient, well-run country. Consequently, it is expensive. Bring some money.

We flew in on Sunday morning, and the airport was deserted-we were the only people in our terminal. We took a cab (a Mercedes, which was nice) to the hotel, dropped off the bags, and went walking around the city. It was deserted-we saw maybe 10 people the first hour, but gradually people started showing up.

One of the big attractions in Geneva is the huge fountain (Jet d'eau) in Lake Geneva (or Lac Leman, as it's known there). Geneva basically wraps around the end west end of the lake, where the Rhone River leaves the lake. This thing is huge, those are five and six story buildings there on the other side of the lake.We were only in Geneva two days, so we didn't get to see that much. We stayed at the Hotel Central, which is near Old Town. The hotel was great, basically a small hotel occupying a couple of floors in a building. Look hard enough and you will see a small sign for it.
Nice place, and not that expensive (for Geneva). It was near Old Town, which is a really cool part of Geneva.
One night we got supper in what was described as the best Italian restaurant in Geneva, La Favola.It was awesome.

Geneva, City of Refuge, is also home to the Wall of the Reformation.
This is reported to be the oldest building in Geneva. I can't remember when it was built, exactly-the 16th century I think.
Geneva is also home to the famous "Flower Clock", which, frankly, was a little bit of a let-down for me. The jet d'eau was much cooler, IMHO. ( I mean, it's OK I guess, but I wouldn't fly to Geneva just too see it).

Here are a few more shots from Geneva.

My biggest regret from the whole trip is not going into this bar for a drink.
Next post, the coolest train ride ever, the Glacier Express.