January 14, 2003 Bangkok
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| View From Our Room |
We left Hong Kong, flying Thai Air to Bangkok. We are staying in the Sheraton Royal Orchid on the 23rd floor overlooking the Chao Phraya River. The hotel is beautiful, as always.
The River is incredibly
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| Rooster Tail Boats |
busy, with high speed rooster tail (James Bond) boats, ferries, commuter boats, express and cross-the-river commuter boats, and small barges hauled by tow boats. Families live on the barges and tow boats, where a small cabin on the stern doubles as their home. You see children playing, tv aerials, and women washing clothing and cooking on the boats. We count eight fan tail boats on the River in front of our hotel at the moment. In the middle of all this frenetic activity is a small police boat, apparently serving to warn everyone to keep speeds down.
There are small Khlongs (Canals) connecting to the River. These Khlongs act as drainage ways into the river, and the larger ones are navigable. We watch small boys swimming and jumping into the khlongs.
We are watching the sun slowly set into the river. The smog overlying the city diminishes the attractive sunset.January is the coolest month in Thailand. Temperatures in Bangkok are average about 91 degrees.
January 15, 2003We spent a lazy day in Bangkok. We shopped a little in the beautiful shopping center attached to the Sheraton Royal Orchid. Went swimming in the pool, beautifully surrounded by palm trees and next to the River.
The first time we swam in the Royal Orchid Sheraton jungle pool, I hit something twice with my hand. I am very near-sighted, and a little stupid, so it took me a few moments to realize that it was a large green snake that I had hit. As I began to reach for the snake, my brain belatedly kicked in, and said,
"SOUTHEAST ASIA. DEADLY POISON SNAKES! DON"T GRAB IT!!"
So I just rose to the surface, and told Beth about my friend the snake. Several pool attendants rushed over, netted the snake, killed it, tossed it in the River.
They then told me, "don't worry, not poisonous." I hoped they were right, but I went looking for bite marks anyway -- did not find any.
On another trip we found a large turtle swimming in the pool. And the grounds of the pool contains peacocks.The peacock strutted its stuff for Beth, unveiling it's huge fan tail composed of feathers that were sapphire blue and emerald green, and fragile like lace. Many of them have an eye-like pattern.
Last night we had a nice Thai dinner with Chuck and Anne Kathrein. Chuck is an old Marine buddy, and Anne is his wife. Anne is Thai, Chinese and American. They founded a successful software company, Mustang Technologies, that services business in the far east. The name derives from the fact that Chuck (and I) were Mustang officers, meaning we were first enlisted Marines before we became officers (we are like wild horses). Mustang Technologies was the first business to open in Bangkok's new Technology Park. The Royal Princess visited their company, which is a very great honor in Thailand, where the Royal family is greatly respected.
