Back from Thailand

Bob and I just got back from 12 days on the other side of the world in a beautiful, if homogenously modernized, country named Thailand. It was both of our first time in Asia, and we enjoyed it a great deal. We spent a few days in Bangkok then went off to Phuket, a resort area in southern Thailand, for the majority of our trip. In spite of a nasty bout of food poisoning the first night in Phuket (damn you river prawns!), the whole trip was pretty damn great.

I'll be blogging a bit more about some of the things we did in Thailand in the next couple of days, but here are some highlights:

• I'd travel half the world again and again to see Wat Phra Keo — the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
• The reclining buddha at Wat Po is ginormous.
• The klong river buses are a great way to get across Bangkok, but woe to you if you don't feel comfortable jumping on to a moving boat.
• There's a kerjillion wats (temples) in Bangkok, and there's something interesting about every one of them.
• Ride the Chao Phraya river boats at dusk. The city is beautiful by boat.
• The warm waters of the Indian Ocean are so peaceful.
• Playing with a young elephant in the ocean is something everyone should do once in their life.
• You may feel like they're beating you up, but Thai massages are cheap and excellent.
• Forgo the ugly blandness of Phuket itself and head out to the wonders of the Andaman Coast.

I want to go back some day, and I think Bob does as well. It's a country of incredibly generous and sincere people and incredible and sincere wonders. We didn't make it anywhere north of Bangkok, and there's so much more to see there, so that's a reason in itself to go back again some day.