First, the memories of Thailand aren’t disappearing. In fact if anything they’re stronger now than when I left. It’s clear to me that the place and the people affected me.

Then there are the connections that remain in place. Not a day has gone by without multiple contacts with my new friends. Thank god for Facebook! But electronic connections aren’t going to be enough, that’s become clear to me. I know that I’ll be seeing Mike and Lek in Florida in May for the Top Gun Championships and I can’t wait. But there are others, not the least of which is a beautiful Princess, who I need to see again sooner than later. There is no doubt in my mind that I’ll make this happen.

I’ve noticed a peace inside me this week that wasn’t there before i left. I’ve spent the last couple of years letting difficult events in my life weigh me down and become so large that I couldn’t see past them. These things seem small now, and what’s on the other side is so bright and beautiful that I won’t let it be blocked out again.

Maybe most important of all, I’ve gotten my sense of humor back! Perhaps the quality I’ve liked most in myself has been my humor. I’ve been fortunate to have friends who have filled my life with humor. But the weight of events had hidden my smile and replaced it with other things. I see myself in photos this past month and all I see is a smile. And all I feel is peace.

Today I’m living in two places on opposite sides of the world, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If nothing else, it’s caused Life to fill all 24 hours of my day!

The afternoon was spent back at the apartment, where Holly and I relaxed and listened to music. At lunch Na had recommended Arun Residence, a beautiful restaurant on the River near the Royal Palace and Wat Pho, for dinner and had made reservations for Holly and I to have a ringside view of the sun setting over Wat Arun. My attempt to plug the address into her GPS, which is completely in Thai, didn’t go so well, but ultimately her brother (over the phone) got us close. We were able to zero in on the restaurant based on a sketch I made from a map on their website. The view didn’t disappoint. After dinner, we went by Tuk Tuk (a small motorized open-air taxi) to an area not far away known for it’s nightlife — clubs, bars, outdoor bands, it’s a lively place. We ended up at a jazz club where we met up with Y who works in the attached art gallery. From there we collected Holly’s car and drove to the home of another friend, Monika, who was being visited by B. Monika opened up a delicious bottle of Dom Perignon, and after that was gone we headed out to Bed, a nightclub with great dance music and beds instead of tables. After a while we were exhausted and called it a night.

Lek’s driver took me to the airport at 9AM for my flight home. I can’t believe I’ve been here for just about 3 weeks. It feels like I’ve taken several trips in that time period. I was hoping for certain things on this trip and they were all realized and then some! I had wanted to travel to places I had never been and begin to see the world differently. I wanted to get to know my cousin Mike better, since I had only seen him a handful of times in the last 20 years. I was hoping to meet interesting people and make new connections in my life. I wanted to photograph beautiful sites that I had never seen before. I wanted to remind myself that there are such incredible opportunities and possibilities out there that I didn’t need to limit myself to the life I had been living. All of these have been accomplished. Then there were the unexpected things — getting closer to Mike’s wife Lek than I thought I would, creating some real friendships with exciting and interesting people (not the least of which is Bert Kikkert but including Mike and Lek’s great group of friends as well as Holly’s friends), deciding to bring home a puppy from Mike’s kennel, having some wonderful and educational conversations with Mike who has memories of my family’s past that I don’t, and extending my trip to spend time with a wonderful and special person. Mike is a terrific person, with varied interests (many of which overlap mine, such as astronomy, photography and dogs) and a desire to share them with others. While he lives a lifestyle that i will likely never reach myself, he is most happy when allowing friends to share that lifestyle with him. Lek is quite something. She’s interesting, dynamic, and her classy group of lifelong friends are a testament to the type of person she is. The two of them are such gracious hosts and they made this trip into something I could never have imagined. And I have to say something about the dogs. I absolutely fell in love with Lucky the Dutch Shephard. He is a special animal. And the joy of having puppies around wherever we spent our time was a happy unexpected bonus. I’m glad I blogged this trip as events unfolded, I’m afraid that after having experienced so much that there is no way I could have remembered the details and nuances without writing them down. What is most exciting for me is to see what happens next. The only thing I’m sure of is that from here on out nothing will be quite the same. To those of you who have taken time to read my posts and even comment back, I thank you for maintaining my connection to home while I was away.

With Holly along the river overlooking Wat Arun

Traveling by Tuk Tuk

This is Y

At Nightclub Bed

B and Monika at Bed

I made plans for my personal tour guide Princess Holly to take me with her to a talk by a famous Buddhist monk/author originally from England, ordained in Thailand and now living in Australia. I hope it’s not in Thai, but if it is, I’ll manage. Holly has read some of his books and apparently he is quite famous in this part of the world. After that, not sure what we’ll do, we’ll play it by ear.

So after dinner I decided to do some packing in case I’m out most of the day tomorrow. Just as I started, the lights went out, not just in our building but in our entire section of the grid. Turns out there was a fire not too far away, and the power was turned off to prevent a short circuit with all the water required. Power is back on now after about an hour.

Mike and Lek leave for Bahrain in the morning so I’ll get up early to say goodbye. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to thank them for their hospitality and generosity the last few weeks.

My last dog training session this morning, and I got a chance to see my pup’s mother, Donna, at work. We’re packed up and ready to head back to Bangkok.

Donna, mother of Elan

This afternoon Mike and I balanced his magnificent TMB180 refractor on the Takahashi mount, and had hoped to use the telescope tonight. But late in the afternoon some clouds rolled in. While later in the evening the zenith became clear, we had no view of Polaris (very low in the sky at this latitude) to align the scope. So this is something for the next trip.

Bert and his family are leaving this weekend, so Lek and Mike threw Bert a going away party, which included the entire staff as guests. We ate outdoors on the patio (I can’t really find another word for it, but patio doesn’t do it justice). It was cute at the end of the night, I had mentioned that I liked being called “Sir Andy” by Nini, one of Lek’s staff from the Phillipines, and Bert’s daughter didn’t understand why I liked it. So I told her the story of King Arthur and his Knights, a story she had never heard in Holland.

Today I spent a lot of time with Elan, daughter of Donna and Cartouche. I’d been considering Mike’s offer from 2 weeks ago to take home one of his Malinois puppies, and now after spending so much time watching the dogs and understanding the breed I have decided to bring Elan back. Actually Mike is sending it soon. I think Arleigh and Monty will like her. At least I hope so!!

So tomorrow (Saturday) back to Bangkok for the rest of the weekend, and this time no more trip extensions, I head home Monday. Still two days of adventure left and I’m looking forward to every minute!

Meet Elan! She's going to live with me

A portion of the outdoor party area

A toast to Bert!

The Siam Crown team and Samphran staff

Mike and I had lunch and then drove to the Emporium to do some shopping. When we got home, we decided to have a casual dinner at home, and we invited Lek’s friend Holly to join us. After dinner, I mentioned that I had wanted to see the view of the city from Vertigo, a bar at the top of the Banyan Tree Hotel (my friend Mark Frisk had sent me an article about this before my trip) so off I went with Holly, thankfully transported by her driver! The hotel was a block away from the Met where we had been dancing on Friday. 59 elevator floors + 2 climbed flights later, we were at a beautiful open air bar on the roof of the hotel enjoying the view. I hadn’t brought my camera, so I asked the group at the next table if they would take our photo and email it to me. I hope they don’t forget to send it.

We were talking about how my trip was ending in a little over a day and how I wasn’t ready for that, and Holly suggested that if I was enjoying myself I change my flight. Those of you who know me well know that I often don’t consider such major changes in plans, especially when so many others will be affected (I’d be imposing on my cousin for several more days, my brother has been taking care of my dogs, etc.). But the simple fact was that the second she made the suggestion I knew that it was what I was going to do. I got up very early knowing that Mike would be up, and after clearing the extended stay with him I changed my flight home until Monday.

So right now I’m back at the river house until Saturday, getting to know an incredible 8 week old Malinois puppy named Elan (hmmmm), and then Sunday I will enjoy my last day in Bangkok before leaving on Monday.

After the elephants we took a small flat boat around the city/island through the river and canals. I took some photos on this trip, but the story they tell is of the decay and lack of any wealth. Fishermen are looking for prawn, families are bathing in the river water, people are sleeping on mattresses under any overhang they can find. Garbage and even dead dogs litter the river. After I returned to Bangkok and described this to Mike, he told me that so many areas of the world are worse off than this, I just haven’t traveled to them yet.

We had a short lunch then walked around the ruins of The Grand Palace, built almost 600 years ago. The ruins were magnificent.

We returned to Bangkok, and I’m in the kitchen with a bunch of the guys while Lek hosts a dinner party for 17 friends.

A young tiger at the elephant complex

One of the nicer homes along the river

Every boat is customized. If it can float, it's on the river

Huge monitor lizards live in the river

A local child beats the heat in the river

Prawning in the river

Standing in the ruins of the Grand Palace

Ruins of the Grand Palace

After many hours walking we came back, and I’m having a Chocolatini while writing this entry. Not sure what we’re doing for dinner. I’m off for a day trip tomorrow.

A local uses a harpoon fishing rod a block from Mike's apt.

One of the views from the apartment

The apt. takes up the 20-21st floors, it's the top bulge on the right

Broom and duster cart

Panthip shopping mall. Amazing!!!!

Nini!!!

Upon arrival in Pattaya we had a quick lunch outdoors at the Hard Rock on the beach, then drove another 15 minutes to the Marina. The boat is docked at the furthest point from the marina entrance. It is an 88 foot Sun Seeker Manhattan 84 (Sunseeker made 10 84’s, two of which were 88 feet). It’s difficult to describe what an 88 foot boat is like but I’ll try. The boat is maintained by a full time crew of 4 (Captain, 2 mates, cook). There are outdoor seating/eating areas on both the main and upper decks, there is a jacuzzi upstairs, there are several cushioned sun decks. A rigid inflatable can be lowered by built-in crane for use in reaching land from where you are anchored. One jet ski sits on the back of the boat (the entire back portion of the boat hydraulically lowers to launch the ski), a second is towed along. The inside has a master bedroom, 3 guest rooms and 2 crew quarters on the lower floor. The main cabin is divided into two areas: a living room complete w/ satellite tv and a sitting/dining area. There is a secondary bridge here too. But the captain pilots the boat from the primary bridge on the upper deck, next to yet another large sitting/dining area.

We remained docked Saturday and used the jet skis to check out the area. The jet skis are SeaDoo supercharged 255 horsepower monsters. One has a stabilization system built in, but the other one is the fun one. On Saturday I took it easy, as the machines can be dangerous at the speeds they’re capable of. I’ve never jet skied in salt water before, it was a blast.

We were joined by Rom and Prow, Lek’s relatives who live in the same building in Bangkok. It was Prow’s bday party I attended on Friday the 13th, she is a sweet girl and Rom is a very nice person. After dinner on the boat we hung out and fell asleep pretty early. I woke up at 5:30am, and found Mike already awake. The two of us caught a very bright International Space Station pass directly overhead at 5:40am, then waited until Lek and Bert woke up. We had breakfast while waiting for Bert’s family to arrive from Holland. They got to the boat at 10am and we immediately left the marina. We were headed for an island owned by the Thai army, which Mike often uses as a private beach. It was a 35 minute 20-mile boat ride. We anchored in a cove several hundred yards from the beach, and began 6 hours of water play. I was getting the jet ski up to 66 mph on some very quiet water (I’m pretty sore now from getting thrown around). Bert’s family spent a lot of time on the jet skis and in the water. A tent was set up for us on the beach, and the crew drove us back and forth in the inflatable (although I swam it a few times too). I spent about an hour snorkeling around an absolutely gorgeous reef filled with tons of live corals, anemones, various angel fish (and others) and a zillion sea urchins. I would have done this longer but I was worried about my back burning. We did a lot of swimming in the warm blue-green waters. Lucky the dog learned how to jet ski and had a blast playing fetch from the beach into the water. Lunch on the boat was mostly various seafoods including crab, lobster, fish and more.

At 4:30 we packed up and headed back to Bangkok, had dinner, and now I’m looking forward to a long sleep!! Tomorrow I don’t have much planned. I have some work to finish and then I’ll probably look around Bangkok with Bert’s family in the afternoon.

Jetskiing at the marina

Approaching the beach

Lowering the inflatable

The Flying Kikkerts

Bert and his daughter Michela

88' Sun Seeker Manhatan 84

Mike and Lucky

Lunch

With Bert on the beach