Bangkok Day 1

We were awakened to the sounds of Thailand this morning by a very vocal bird singing his song.  For the first 30 minutes, Mindy thought Caleb, the 2 1/2 year old in the room next door, was crying out.  After finding out it was actually a bird, John gave Mindy some earplugs, but the bird's song could not be shut out.  However, the bird was not victorious because Caleb was sent to wake them at 10:30 am.

For today's adventure, we went to Tem Im to eat Thai food. John has so many allergies to foods that the folks here gave him a slip of paper telling Thais what he is allergic to and especially peanuts. It is written in Thai so there will not be any confusion. They did add one fun line at the end of it that says, but "I like rice." So, when John handed our waitress his slip of paper she read it very methodically, nodding as she finished reading each important food item not to have in his food. When she got to the last line about liking rice, she began laughing. She ended up having to read the piece of paper again because she was laughing so hard about the rice.

We visited the Jim Thompson house today. He was an American who contributed substantially to the silk industry growth in Thailand. He is also known for the construction of his house where he took 6 teak houses and made his home from them. Some of the houses were two centuries old. If you would like more information about Jim Thompson and the house we visited please visit this website: www.jimthompsonhouse.com.

We have also used two different forms of transportation today: the sky train and a tuk-tuk.

Mindy says she found interesting the way everyone lives behind gates, and many of them are ornate. She also thought the food vendors on the streets were wild and crazy. Mindy also likes how everyone is small. John's impression is that the downtown buildings are very modern and futuristic looking. He was impressed with their transportation system. He says the Magic City needs a sky train. He also likes the fact that he can look at everyone eye to eye.
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