Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!

Did you know the King and I is banned in Thailand? They don't like the way the royal family is portrayed. The musical, the movie and the music are all banned, if you are caught with it inside the country you could be jailed. Have you seen Broke Down Palace? I'm so not reliving a moment of Claire Danes so I can watch Anna and the King.I say however, it's good to be the king, as one of the world's longest serving monarchs, the Thai people love their king. His face is everywhere on everything. He even has his own anthem, we played it before every show. Like a game of red light, green light, the minute the anthem is played everyone freezes until its over as a sign of respect. Its very pretty, listen here. And if you want to know about ,Bhumibol Adulyadej, aka King Rama IX, well our friends at wikipedia can teach you all sorts of stuff.

Snap, crackle, pop

I've seen Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bordain eat enough weird food on TV so you would have thought I wouldn't be icked out by it in person, nope, not so much.

The dried fish market. Smelled so terrible!That's a whole rooster, eye balls and all. Ewww.These are grasshoppers, the cockroaches and grubs were too blurry to post.And this well, it defies description!

Wouldn't it be loverly?

Pretty sure I saw Aliza Doolittle lurking as I wandered the outdoor flower market. This place is up and running 24 hours a day. The flowers are freshest at night when they are newly floated down the river from the mountains. They smelled heavenly and were so cheap. A bundle of roses? 50 baht. That's like $1.50.

Time for a rub down

Watching Buddha take a rest got me thinking I could use a moment to regroup before I continued my touring. Lucky for us at Wat Po, you can visit the world famous school of massage! 45 minutes of sheer bliss cost 350 baht, yes that's $10 bucks! Really like the treatment? Stay and enroll in the school. Tis better to give than receive, but when it comes to massage I want to receive!
All I have to say is more tourist sites need to clue into this. Eiffel Tower followed by foot massage, yes please! The Acropolis with a little backrub, hellz ya!

See how relaxed I look? Ah....

Lazy boy?

This is the famous reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. I'm thinking the Thai people never heard of barcalounger.
This Buddha is more than 150 feet long, 50 feet high and gold plated! (Gold hit $1000 an ounce while I was in Thailand - you do the math).Big feet, little person, gives you an idea of the scale of this Buddha.
Throw pillow anyone?

Things that are round for $500?

Took this picture at a street side food stand. Besides being very pretty to look at I'm not sure that these items should be stored all squashed together like this.

Its takes a village

to raise a child and to put on a show. This is the entire group responsible for our two weeks in Thailand. I'm at the top of the photo in the center. Look for eyes but no mouth or nose, guess I should have picked a better place to stand.

Monkey see monkey do

Apparently there are monkeys in them thar hills. We didn't see any of them because we arrived late in the day but our guide Eak says the monkeys are very smart. They know when its lunch time and they come down to be fed by visitors. Even more impressive Eak says they know when its Saturday and Sunday (the parks busiest days) and the number of monkeys begging for food increases! Even the monkeys are industrious in Thailand. Sheesh.

Paradise found

Its seems apt that they will film a movie here, every turn is more stunningly beautiful than the last. This is the bridge to waterfall #3. Haven't I seen this death trap in Indiana Jones or Romancing the Stone?

As you cross the bridge you get your first view of Pha Num Tok.

Its been six months since the rainy season, so the falls are at their lowest points. Falls #4 to #7 are already dry. Normally all this would be underwater.

I can't even imagine how much more glorious number 3 could be with more water. My only regret is that we didn't bring our swimsuits so we could swim. The size of the fish in the water however gave me the heeby jeebies so I'm not certain I could've gotten past them.

Bathing beauties

Here is waterfall number two (Wung Macha), the most popular with swimmers this time of year. There is a ranger station where you can rent tubes and float in the pool below the falls. I know this looks like something Disney would have created at one of its parks, but no, its just mother nature. Even the color of the water doesn't seem natural, I assure you it is and you can see all the way to the bottom of the pond.

This puts my rain shower head to shame.

On the hunt for Tarzan

Ly Kin Lung is the name of waterfall number one which must translate into breathtaking beauty. As you come out of the trees, this is the view you are greeted with. I'm fairly certain that Tarzan and Jane must be around here somewhere.

Look at this sweet mother and daughter enjoying the falls. I can't even imagine having this place be my local park to go to any time I wished. Talk about a charmed life.

Going Hollywood

The last stop of the day on our adventure was at the Erawan National Park. Home to seven stories of waterfalls, this was an absolute MUST on my list of places I wanted to go. Apparently we weren't the only ones that were interested in this corner of paradise. A movie, The Lost Medallion, will be filmed here. There were building traditional Thai huts from Bamboo for the movie. This place totally brought my Blue Lagoon and Swiss Family Robinson fantasies to life. Did I want to climb in and camp out for the night? Ya you betcha!

Click your heels together

Turns out there is no place like home. I could definitely have spent more time in Thailand but as we landed in Chicago I was really excited to be stateside again. That also could have been just because I wanted off that airplane after 11 hours!!!!! Anyhow lucky for you (especially you Paula) I probably have another week of stories to share. After that you may have to find a new source of entertainment.

Arsenic and Old Lace

I was asking about Thai shadow puppets one night and our local host looked at me like I was crazy. The very next day in the market we saw something from the same family for sale. I bought an elephant, Steven bought an angry looking godlike creature. Turns out they are made on cowhide! (They look like paper.)
Me being the cynic I am I figured they were laser cut or something. Then in Wang Po there was a little man making and selling them at a roadside stand. The intricate lace like design is done by hand, each and every hole is punched one at a time using that little hammer! The elephant he is holding took 10 days to make and sells for less than $50US. Talk about a work ethic!

Alms for the poor

At each temple you can donate money to the poor. You make a donation pick up a bowl of pennies and makes wishes as you drop the coins in the bowls. As you walk through the temple, the coins fall into the pots and sound like rain drops. It was so fun to walk the line and hear the plink, plink of wishes being made.

Melts in your mouth, sticks to your hands

Just when you thought there wasn't anything else that could go gourmet, enter cotton candy. This awesome stand in the mall sells it in buckets big and small. Each color is a different flavor. So darn delicious, I'm gonna miss it something awful!