Sawat dee, Everyone!
Grandpa is here! We spent last weekend in the country with Grandma’s friends Dr. Porntip, Dr. Yaowalak and Dr. Wanna. First, we went to Ratchaburi province to visit a cave. I found some of Grandpa’s favorite coconut dumplings for him on the way there. Then we went inside the cave. It was very pretty inside, but also very damp! My mane got really frizzy! Many of the rock formations had special lighting. I had to go through a very narrow place to get to the pool of underground water! After we got out of the cave, it was nice to see pretty flowers and make friends with a turtle.
From Ratchaburi, we went to the seashore in Samut Songkhram. We had lunch on a big sandbar in a town named for the razor shelled clams that are famous there. There were lots of people selling seafood along the street! Then we went to another town, Amphawa, which is on the Mae Klong River near the Gulf of Thailand. We stayed at a very nice resort along the river and took a long-tail boat into town to visit the night market. Long-tail boats have automobile engines attached to a propeller by a long shaft, and the driver steers the boat by moving the shaft around. Drivers are very proud of their boats. See how shiny the engine is? The market was full of people selling food or having dinner. Some of the cooking was being done on boats in the canal. When we left the market, I made friends with a firefly statue. This area is famous for the fireflies along the river after dark, and we got to see some on our boat ride home.Here we are at our resort on the river!
On Sunday, we went to the gardens and cultural museum in Amphawa. These gardens are named for Rama II, a king who lived a long time ago and liked this part of the country. I made friends with Hanuman, the monkey warrior, and with some terra cotta children. A very nice lady who was making roses from pandanus leaves gave me some to keep. Rama II wrote plays, and one of the plays was a fairy tale about a boy who could make himself ugly or handsome when he wanted to. I joined the group of statue children to hear him tell his story, then I made friends with the tiger who was listening from behind the bushes.
On our way back to Salaya, we stopped in Nakhon Pathom . First, we had a yummy lunch at a Vietnamese style restaurant. I really liked the lime mint smoothie! Then we went across the street to see a palace that Rama V built. There are seven houses built in different styles and a special statue of Rama V’s favorite dog Jah Leh. I made friends with some more elephants. After that, we went to the tallest pagoda in Thailand, which is right in the middle of Nakhon Pathom city. It is really big! I made another friend there before our weekend adventure was over.
Tuesday evening, we flew to Khon Kaen. Grandma is teaching here until Thursday, then we will have some more adventures before we go back to Salaya.
Love,
Lion-san