Bangkok, Part Three and The End

Friday night we laid low- dinner near the hotel with Chris and Jen, and then the girls and baby went to bed.  On the way back to the hotel from dinner baby Zander was fussing and a hooker asked him if he needed a hug.  Bangkok is awesome.

No trip to Thailand is complete (for Bruce, anyway) without some Muay Thai boxing.  I was grateful he had a guy friend who wanted to go with him.  He reported that the fighters seemed very young.  "Like, ten." he said.  Music played the whole time and sometimes there was more dancing than fighting, at which point the referee would encourage the fighters to start beating each other again.

It's a good night of fights when someone gets taken out in a wheel chair.

We had a few hours to kill in Bangkok before our flight, so we went to Lumpini Park.  It's Bangkok's version of Central Park.  It was green and beautiful.  This statue of the king was out front.

The king's name is King Rama- all the kings are called that. The current Rama is the 9th one, and he is the longest serving head of state in the world.   He is in his 80's now and is going senile, but everyone we spoke to said that he had been a good king.  The country was beautiful and clean, so we might be inclined to agree.

The next few pictures are inside Lumpini Park.

After the park we went to the Jim Thompson House- Jim Thompson was an American architect who moved to Thailand after WWII and is credited with reviving the silk trade in Thailand.  He disappeared into the jungle without a trace and left his home to a nephew.  The home (which is 6 traditional Thai houses now joined together) is open for tours.  It was an amazing example of Thai architecture and had some cool antiques.  The Thai people believe that once something is broken, it is bad luck and they get rid of it immediately.  It stands to reason then, that they aren't much for antiques!  The tour guide said that the house was "A house full of broken things."  (Um, stop with the hard sell...) Our guide told us that the Thai people aren't good at preservation for that same reason, which is what makes the Jim Thompson house so important: he didn't care if things were broken, he just loved beautiful items. 

These girls love beautiful items too...

...as long as if by "items" you actually mean "turtles."

The main part of the house- picture taking was frowned upon so I don't have a lot.

The downside of Thailand: it was so hot and humid that it ruined two boxes of Hot Tamales that I had in my suitcase.  I'm trying not to be bitter.

The other downside of Thailand (which is actually nothing to do with Thailand and everything to do with Philippine Airlines):  We were given a lot of grief when we were trying to check in for our return flight about our visas.  The gate agent insisted that we couldn't re-enter the Philippines without proof that we were leaving, and we nearly wore our voices out explaining that we had a multiple entry visa that actually REQUIRED us to leave and come back every 59 days, and we were actually trying to COMPLY with the visa requirements and not DODGE them.  The man wasn't getting it at all, but after 40 minutes we finally were checked in- unfortunately our flight was leaving in 30 minutes, and we still had to clear passport control and security.  We were those crazy people running through the airport at a dead sprint with children in tow and panic in our eyes, but we made it.

It was a great trip and a nice farewell to Asia.  I think there are some nice things about the Philippines, but it's hard not to compare when visiting other Asian countries- many times we thought, "Get it together, Philippines, and you could be like this!"  After such fun experiences in Hong Kong and Bangkok I'm developing a love for big Asian cities!