Going to Thailand

Tuesday - The morning was spent planning our trip to Thailand and booking Double Happiness fare to Phuket and Bangkok. That is two destinations two people, good price but no changes allowed. Since we are leaving in less than 24 hrs we were required to go to the Royal Thai office on HK Island, pay in cash and get the tickets. The rest of the day was spent visiting a Buddhist nunnery (Chi Lin), the Nan Lian Garden and a Taoist temple in Kowloon. The nunnery was built of joined wood with no nails and consisted of many rooms with golden Buddhas surrounding square courtyards. There were plantings in the court yards with bonsai, thick, gnarled trunks, probably very old trees, in miniature. The gardens adjoined the nunnery and was a replica of a Tang garden where "one would be content with ones lot if he stayed still in his mind and was in harmony with nature". The curving garden paths trees were lined with bonsai planted in the ground and all variety of rocks ranging from 3 ft to car sized with exquisite form, color and texture. It wasn't clear to me if the rocks were found objects or sculpted. The garden was a peaceful place set amongst a busy, noisy, polluted city. There were ponds with water lilies and koi, pagodas and larger buildings separated connected with curving paths. One of the buildings had a display of Chinese timber joining. I marvelled at how precise the carpentry needed to be, especially as all the work was done with only hand tools. The garden would have been a fitting way to end the day but it was overdone with an a visit to the Taoist temple, bustling and unharmonious in exact contrast to the garden.

Wednesday - I am writing this blog on my PDA phone at 40K feet over the S China Sea on the way to Phuket. I am using Word to write and edit and will transfer the document to the blog when I can. The plane is more empty than full, the service gracious, the alcohol free and the lunch quite nice. We have no reservations ,in Phuket but will arrive early enough to find a small hotel in a town away from hubbub of Tan Patong, the place most people vacation when in Phuket. Phuket is an island on the southwest coast of Thailand and much too favored as a vacation spot. It is best known as one of the areas hit by the tsunami but has apparently been rebuilt.

It always seems that wherever you go it takes the whole day. We left the apartment at 7:30 am, took a shuttle bus to the train station, a train to a subway to the airport express train, to two airport trains, to a plane to a van. Our initial impression of Thailand is of unplanned and overdone growth of what may have been a beautiful island. We went to Karon Beach, south of Patong, the large, unruly center of tourism here. The hawkers are everywhere, touting food, souvenirs, trips, hotels, massages etc. We are staying for two nights at My Friends House 2, an inexpensive nondescript small hotel lacking charm, with a swimming pool about 15 minutes walk from the beach and a little further to downtown. It was recommended to us by a Danish couple who we asked on the street. We cooled off at the pool before taking a taxi to the centerfor the evening. Dinner was chicken satay and mango.

Thursday - Slowing downAmerican style breakfast was at the hotel. We walked to the beach, rented lounge chairs and umbrella and spent the next five hours swimming, reading and watching the world go by. The island is filled with Danes and Swedes and there is a direct nonstop flight from Copenhagen. The beach was had its share of overweight Scandinavians on holiday. The best breasts however, belonged to an Italian woman who also had the best tan on the beach. They were large, symmetric, perky and perfectly shape. Most of the women wore tops but she flaunted her assets. Oh, the beach had the finest white sand which squeaked when you walked on it (like Singing Beach in MA). The water temperature was in the 80's, comfortable but not too hot. There was no reef or snorkeling so we shall be off to Phi-Phi Island tomorrow. We had a wonderful green shrimp curry and sliced fish in ginger sauce for dinner.