"I Love Our Family!"

Ten points if anyone knows what movie the title is from!

Seriously, though, I love my family. I don't think there's another family I know in which I could decide to leave for Bangkok in the morning and be here in the afternoon, without either of my parents worrying about it or thinking it strange. I got in yesterday evening, and then today was spent touring Bangkok with my cousins Eve and Annie and Eve's friend Hudson, who served his mission in Thailand.

I haven't been back since we lived here 20-odd years ago. All the memories I have are vague wisps of geese, our yard, our maids (we had Thai maids who looked after Hannah and me), and our house. And they all seem flooded with sunshine somehow. That same sunshine accompanied us today - it rains in the afternoon and evening here regularly, but days are hot and bright. We began the day with breakfast in the hotel lobby. Without a room, it would have cost around US$30, and it would be worth every dollar! It's basically a smorgasbord of everything you could ever want for breakfast with a few Asian foods thrown in for good measure. I had croissants, pate, smoked salmon, dim sum, Brie on a baguette, fresh mangos and pineapple, fresh squeezed pineapple juice, and ten other things I forget.

Our hotel - the Sheraton Grande in downtown Bangkok - is conveniently attached to a sky train station. Bangkok has both an underground and a skyway, and there's a walkway to the train stop right outside the hotel. We caught a train to central Bangkok, then transferred to another line and got off at the Chao Praya river. From there, we caught a river taxi north to the Grand Palace. Built in 1782, it's the only structure of its kind in Southeast Asia that isn't a ruin, because Thailand was never conquered by outside invaders except for Japan, who treated Thailand as a satellite state rather than enemy territory. What impressed me was how ornate and beautiful everything was. Inside the Pavilion of the Emerald Buddha (really made of jade), every square inch was covered with intricate paintings and carvings of the Buddha's life and teachings.

As in India and at the Vatican, tourists need to be dressed appropriately to enter the Grand Palace and other monuments. I was wearing jeans, but I got to wait for 25 minutes for Eve, Annie, and Hudson to wait in line so they could borrow sarongs and pants. They looked much more Thai in their new clothes, though!

From there, we walked to the reclining Buddha temple, or the Wat Poh. On the way, someone tried to tell us it was closed until later and that we should take his friend's tuk tuk to see some other sights before we came back! But we pressed on. It's nice having someone in your group who speaks Thai. The reclining Buddha was much, much larger than the Emerald Buddha - probably at least 30 meters long and 10 meters high, lying down and resting his head on one hand. I think it was made of wood, but lacquered or painted gold.

Our last sight was the Wat Arun, or temple of the dawn. It's a very steep temple, like Angkor Wat, so we climbed up and got a spectacular view of the surrounding area. Annie wouldn't climb up the last staircase, but the rest of us went up to the top. There were railings, thankfully. I don't mind heights, but the floors on this temple sloped slightly down as they went out, so you felt like you were going to fall off.

After that we got some food. I got spicy noodle soup; I don't know what possessed me to do so, as I was already sweating, and that only made it worse. Annie chose wisely - she only got a huge frozen strawberry ice syrupy concoction to eat. Then we came back here, went swimming, and now we're sitting in the room. The other three are about to leave for the bus station, where they'll be taking the night bus to Chiang Rai. I don't envy them that! My dad and I fly back to KL tomorrow afternoon, so I might see some more things tomorrow morning. So far, Bangkok is great, and slower/less crowded than I expected a city of 10 million to be.