FIRST DAY IN BANGKOK

Sunday, April 12th – First Day in Bangkok
I got a good nights sleep but got up at 7:00 a.m. Woke Len at 8:40. Time for breakfast and some exploring. Today continues with Sangkran Festival. Walking outside our hotel we certainly began to get the feeling of this holiday involving what they call “water play”. The streets are filled with young people carrying huge plastic water guns which they aim at anyone on the streets. They also have small buckets which they will pour over people walking by them. People are literally drenched from head to toe! In addition to the water, they are carrying a powder which they mix with water into a paste which they smear on your body and face. We quickly figured out that we could sometimes avoid the water treatment by holding up our hands in front of us and saying “no no”. There is no way to walk around however without getting some water on you. Len got his face smeared with stuff. If you have a water gun you are really in for a fight so, I discouraged Lenny from buying one.

Many businesses are closed today for the holiday. We took the sky train to the Jim Thompson House Museum which was very interesting. He was an American who fought in WWII and in 1945 decided to live in Thailand. He built an amazing house and established a silk business there. He took the silk to the US and showed it to people at Vogue Magazine and subsequently sold his silk to the movie producers of the King and I, making a huge fortune. His silks were felt to be of the highest quality in the world. Jim Thompson disappeared on a vacation where he went out for a walk by himself and never returned. His nephew, his sole heir, established the Jim Thompson foundation in his uncle's memory and bequeathed his home to the government.

We ate at a well recommended restaurant called Cabbages and Condums. The food was quite good. They literally have statues made of colorful condums. Their goal is to help eradicate aids in Thailand through education and the restaurant have donated thousands of dollars toward this aim.
Each venture out puts us in contact with the water play. I am getting tired of it.

After dinner, we once again got on the Sky Train and went to the night market. I am not sure how to descirbe it other than to tell you that we have never seen such a sea of humanity in our entire lives. Most of the people were in their 20's, celebrating the New Year Everyone was drenched from head to toe. There was literally water everywhere. The kids were covered with the powdered goop in their hair and all over their bodies. We took several pictures from the Sky Train Station looking down on the market. After that, chicken that I am, I was ready to go, but Lenny wanted to venture down into the market. After about 5 seconds there, I insisted that we leave. We were both only a little wet but I had had enough.

So here we are in Bangkok, watching TV and seeing all the coverage of the demonstrations and violence but here at our hotel and where we have been so far, we do not feel that there is any danger, at least, not so far. On the other hand, we are not going to venture out by ourselves too much. Lenny wants to do more than I will allow us to do. I feel that we should be better safe than sorry, yet, I do not feel that we need to try to leave the country at this point.