Bangkok, Thailand

Written By: Dan

I had the most memorable Thanksgiving.  I didn't have Turkey, or Watch football.  In fact, my Thanksgiving was 12 hours early, so football started after I went to bed.  Thanksgiving dinner wasn't traditional, Turkey was hard to find, and "Thanksgiving" was difficult to explain.  I settled for chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans.  Close enough.

What made my Thanksgiving so memorable is Annie arrived Thursday night!  It has been about a month since I had seen her, so this was quite a treat.  Annie had traveled from Detroit to Tokyo to Bangkok.  Her travels took over 24 hours.  He took off on November 23rd (Detroit time) and arrived to the hotel around 3am November 25th (Thailand time).

After I handled some work meetings in the morning we set out for some sight seeing.  Our first stop was Wat Pho.  Wat Pho is the home of the famous reclining Buddah.  (picture to come soon).   We then toured the rest of the temples, and did some local shopping.

The next morning we headed out for a Thai cooking class at Baipai cooking school.  Here we toured the Gardens, made coco butter, then used it to cook a variety of dishes.  One of which being Phad Thai.  I can't wait to show you all our own Phad Thai dish.

Annie making coco butter

Our Phad Thai (with Prawns) dish

After our cooking class Annie and I headed back to the Palace area of Bangkok for more sight seeing.  We rented a Tuk Tuk and toured palaces, temples, and Buddhas.  We also had our driver take us to a few place to go shopping.

 












Annie at a Buddhist shrine.

Buddhist Monk teaching.  This picture was taken during a national day of meditation.

Annie and I in the Tuk Tuk.  The drive let Annie sit in the driver seat to take the picture.  


Our last stop was Wat Pho.  Wat Pho is a Buddhist temple much like Angkor Wat.  This temple is on a island.  Because of the proximity to the water we got our first feel of the impact of the flooding in Thailand.  A gift shop we visited was flooded.  Instead of packing up shop, the owner laid down board for walking, and high shelves to put product on.  We also noticed how high the water was.  On our flight out of town we saw how massive the flooding was.  Miles of flood plains under water.

 












Wat Pho.

Flooding on the river.  Notice the railings.  This is where the river usually ends.