Great

Hi,
Man, what a weekend. We went to the airport, walked the street, cruised the river, and rode an elephant. We also did the Night Bazaar. Tired yet?

It would appear that you've been stumped. Either that or you were too busy to care. (Ha) It was "No Time" by The Guess Who. I know some of you know this song 'cause I know how old you are and you were around. It's a group named after a bird, many hits:
"He was a hard-headed man, he was brutally handsome, and she was terminally pretty. She held him up, and he held her for ransom in the heart of the cold city..." Clue: Some people never slow down. The subjects of this song lived hard and fast. Hmm.

Saturday morning we picked Kristin up from the airport. She had just finished a long layover in Bangkok and we figured she'd want some sleep, but she wanted to stay up and get on a Thailand schedule. By late afternoon I expected her to fade but she hung in there. The afternoon was spent walking around downtown, so Kristin could see the main street in the daytime. She got a picture of the Night Bazaar street before it's transformation and got to see a few of our frequent shopping spots. We went to 'Walking Street' in the evening since it was the only time Blue and Kristin would be here on a Saturday. We managed to see about half of it before we called it an evening. Not only is it a lot of slow walking, but a bit of sensory overload. So many things to see, so many sounds coming at you at the same time. The whole thing had grown since the last time we 'walked'. There was a live R&B show set up off the street and a large food area had been established. Maybe next time we'll explore more.

Sunday we made the short trip around the corner to the long-tail boat dock and hired a boat to take us to Moo Ban Ruimit. It's also known as the elephant village. We made one stop along the way at 'Monk's Cave'. This is a temple in an actual cave on the bank of the Mae Kok River. There are photos of this unique temple on the Flickr site at around November of last year. I may post a few new ones. After our visit and some gong ringing for good luck, it was back on the boat for the longer part of our journey. The trip takes about 40 minutes and the scenery is a constantly changing landscape. When we arrived at the village we walked around first, just to see what shops were open. Then we got our elephants. Lisa and Kristin rode one and Blue and I rode the second one. After we turned off the highway and into the village path, I looked back to see how Lisa and Kristin were doing and saw Kristin sitting on the neck of their elephant and the driver sharing the bench with Lisa. What? That looked like fun. Kristin confirmed that it was indeed fun. She stayed there for the whole ride, all the way back to the starting point. Their driver would give the elephant vocal commands and most of the time it responded. The total ride took about 30 minutes and we got to see the real village life. The last part was done in the river, which was really fun.

Sunday evening we went to the Night Bazaar for dinner and then just walked around looking at all the crafts and watching one of the stage shows. Kritsin also got another pic of the street in full bloom. On our way to dinner we ran into a Samlor (pedal driven tricycle taxi) driver Blue had photographed years ago, and whose picture is in his new book. He showed the driver the picture and reminded him of where the photo was taken. A big smile formed on his face and I'm sure it was something he'll remember for a long time.

I think I'll tell you about our Monday on your Tuesday. Have a Fabulous Week.

Peace,
Danny

"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that,
but the really great,
make you feel that you too can become great."
~Mark Twain


Gettin' Funky, Thai Style
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