Hello Bangkok!

What a difference between Africa and Thailand! Despite the Kenya Airlines strike which ended while I was in the airport, my flight left Nairobi right on time. After a 12 hour flight with a short layover in Doha, Qatar, my transfer to the hotel was waiting for me at 8 AM. There was a protest going on related to the recently convicted Prime Minister of Thailand. The home base of the protest was my hotel, The Royal Hotel in the heart of Bangkok. Chaos doesn't begin to describe how it was getting to and around my hotel yesterday. I was basically told not to speak to anyone in red (color the protesters were wearing!) because there was some dissonance between the Thai people over the PMs supposedly corrupt actions. I wore black and grey just to be safe! The protests were on BBC International News last night, so it might have made it home too!

I spent yesterday afternoon riding around in a tuk-tuk (basically a motorcycle with a cart which you sit in that scoots around town). I visited two temples and the Golden Mountain. I tried my hand at the gong there for good luck! This morning, I had a private tour with a Thai lady where we visited three more temples. Unfortunately, I could hardly understand her because she had such a heavy accent. So, I just kept nodding and saying "really" "wow" "how interesting!" although I have the slightest clue what she was saying. Oh well...it all looked pretty. I have now seen almost as many buddhas as I did lions in Africa. I can't keep them all straight!

I have also done a lot to support the Thai economy on Khao San Road. Bought some beautiful 2 carat, 14 K white gold garnet earrings (my birth stone and a really early birthday present for myself!). Jewelry here is VERY cheap. So is the food. I had pad thai from a street vendor for slightly over $1. The green curry is better than Downtown Thai in Winston-Salem and costs only $1.50. This afternoon, I'm going for a 3 hour thai massage and foot reflexology massage that will cost just over $10. It's a tough life. The heat and humidity is ridiculous, so I just have to do something to escape it! ;)

Tomorrow morning I am headed to the floating market. It's about 1 1/2 hours out of Bangkok - it's supposed to be incredible...all of the vendors sell their wares from a boat...and the people shopping are in boats too. Insanity!

I fly to Sydney tomorrow night. I can't believe how quickly time goes when you're having fun! Speaking of fun, my eye caught the Wall Street Journal while walking past a newspaper vendor yesterday. Congrats to all of the BB&Ters reading this for the acquisition of Colonial! You all will have your hands full for the next several months! But, you'll pull it off with no problems I am sure! It was weird to see the newspaper and to watch the news in the hotel last night...I have been ignorant of everything going on in the world for the past 7 weeks!

My favorite part about Bangkok, despite the beautiful architecture and lovely people, is my hotel room. It's got air conditioning, a queen size bed, and a shower with a bath tub. And, hot water! The best part is that after I shower, I walk onto tile and carpet, as opposed to dirt while in Africa. So, my feet actually still look like they are clean. It's really fantastic.

That's all from Bangkok...off to my massage! ;)