Out and About

The gardens at the Jim Thompson House are fantastic. I saw many types of flowers in bloom including many colors of Ixora, Jasmine, Tacca, Lotus, Heliconia, and Ginger. Many orchids and ferns hung from trees. I especially liked the baskets of Bear’s Paw Fern and Rhipsalis potted into towers along the pathways. I was lucky enough to spy a gardener working on a rooftop garden. Check out the photo! By the way, Heather and I think that this would be a great setup for the entrance to the Tropical Forest Conservatory. Paul, you can build us something like this, right?


We decided to walk through the neighborhood near the Jim Thompson House instead of jumping back into a taxi. We came across some elephant topiaries (in daylight) so I was able to photograph them. Also, check out the photo of this parking garage with every color of Bouganvilla cascading over each railing. Amy, I can see you sitting there reading the blog with the 5 volume RHS library in your lap trying to standardize my latin naming. Without you here I’ll have to switch back and forth from Latin to common…sorry.


Between the Jim Thompson House and our local hotel I was able to make several book purchases. Unfortunately, I’ll have to schlep the books across the country but I am thrilled to have my own copies of A Field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand and Flowering Plants of Thailand: A Field Guide. I also bought some books for the project research including books about cooking, popular culture, spiritual abodes, and silk production.

I think my favorite contrast to life in the US was spotted when we were on our way back to the hotel. Women sweep the streets of the city with a large broom and dustpan. Curt, I have 10 of these ‘Sweepy Things’ on order for you. I never expected these bunches of twigs to accomplish much in the sweeping department but I can admit that I was wrong. There are potted plants everywhere. I am not sure but I think they are akin to the lawn chairs that are used as parking spot place holders in Pittsburgh. When we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by a group of Scots in Kilts serenading us with their bagpipe tunes. Definitely a contrast to the plucky tunes of the Thai stringed instruments we’ve heard. Marnie, I’ve got some great signage ideas for you. My favorite sign text so far includes “Mind your Head” and “Mind your Step”. Though I’ve never tried coffee I am curious to try the local favorite, a Pepsi Latte. I’ve also found out that if you multiply a Celsius temperature by 9/5 and add 32 you’ll get the temperature in Fahrenheit. I’ll let you know how that works out for me.


The river cruise http://www.pearlrivercruise.com/ was an ‘interesting’ evening event. It wasn’t really what I expected. We boarded the ship with about 100 other people and sat down at our window side table. The boat took off for a 2 hour cruise down the Chao Phayra River. A dinner buffet was quickly set up and it included a variety of foods (it didn’t really seem to be authentic cuisine). jOsh, you would have loved to hear the Thai live band play your favorite “Fly Me to the Moon” followed by their rendition of “Islands in the Stream”. After a short break they came back to play “Play that Funky Music (White Boy)”. As a bonus, we did see many of the Wats lit up for the evening.

I’d better get some sleep. We’re headed to the floating markets tomorrow. We’ll be leaving the hotel by 6:30am.