Monday, December 19, 2016

Sunday, Part 1

I’m listening to Christmas music I downloaded to a flash drive as I write offline on my Chromebook. There is wifi here, but our building is actually across the street from the main building (a very small street-more like a paved alley when compared with home, but a very common street type here), so my phone can barely pick it up if I hang over the edge of the balcony, but my Chromebook doesn’t. Haven’t tried it out on the porch...will try that tomorrow morning.

I woke up a couple of times during the night, but went right back to sleep. When I woke up at 4:30 ish, I knew I was done for that night. A good 8+ hours. I took Nyquil, which I’m sure helped, but I slept soundly and really felt well rested. Was able to read and spend some quiet time...a good start to the day and the Sabbath for me. Indira had been up longer and once I got up, we had the pastries Martha had welcomed us with at the airport yesterday. Couldn’t get the hot pot to work, so no tea.

We met Martha for breakfast down across the road at 8 a.m. and it was glorious. I was hungry, which someone told me is a good sign of time adjustment/jet lag recovery. Instead of Pad Thai, there was a chicken vegetable dish with rice...a crock pot of boiled potato quarter wedges. The plates of different fruits, ham slice platter, breads for toasting, plates of small bites of pastries, what looked like pound cake and then small squares of a chocolate iced chocolate kind of dense cake-I had one of those. : ) Our hosts offered to make us omelettes, but I was happy with what was already out. Hot ginger tea and then hot water for tea bags and instant coffee. All wonderfully yummy.
Our corner of the breakfast nook.
Our hostess; very sweet and friendly. Those are plates of fruit...notice the flowers. Presentation is very nice.
My breakfast plate.

Tee had an unexpected day off, so he had a friend with a car come and gather us all up and we went to the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden--about a half hour to get to the north side of the city and another half hour out in the country and up into a mountain area. We couldn’t begin to do the whole thing, but we did the glass houses--amazing orchids, ferns, all kinds of water lilies, succulents of all kinds. One of the houses was dedicated to the folks who care for rice paddies in the mountain area and had recreations of the huts built in the fields and used as a home away from home while tending the rice. Interesting weaving and baskets for all kind of purposes. Lot of pictures of folks in traditional dress and special day ceremony type clothes. Very interesting. The largest glass house (which reminded me of the dome at Golden Gate Park), has you start at the bottom of the jungle floor with all kinds of under the canopy low growing plants and a nice waterfall and small pond. Then we walked a circling ramp upward until we were at the top of the canopy. Pretty cool.

We started in the water lilies and lotus flowers.
Very Japanese Tea Garden style. My grands who enjoy the one up at Mickie’s Grove would have enjoyed all the little trails like this one through the water on stepping stones.
The orchid houses were amazing!
The bag Jen gave me totally matched my environment! : )
One of the rice patty hut replicas.
The cactus and succuent house was really nicely done. Made me thing of Martha’s uncle, Sylvan--the cactus grower-keeper.
Then into the big bubble house...down on the ground level…
...and winding our way up…
...and looking down from above.

Up several long sets of plant covered stairs to the giftshop.

A nice long browse in the gift shop (thinking of my grands made it extra fun). A stop at the toilets--my first experience with a squat toilet. After feeling quite pleased with my experience, as I walked out the far door I saw that the last four of a dozen stalls were western toilets. Next time I’ll check out the stalls for possibilities first. : ) No TP, so glad for my tissues. : )  (While you’re laughing remember I warned you that you may not want to read ALL the details!)

By the way, on the entrance price sign, it said that the fee was B100, so a little less than $3. But then I saw on the side where it said “Foreigners over age 60:  Free”.  Very cool!

1 comment:

  1. How wonderful that you're sharing a daily journal!! I feel as though that I'm right there with you!

    ReplyDelete