The comings and goings of the Minsky's in Thailand.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Best of Friends

Jules comments:
Playing host to our best friends was a job that we really relished. Franzman & I have done so many things together, had so many adventures, that we had to make sure this trip would be worthy of that history. I am happy to say that I think we succeeded. We did a great variety of beautiful & exciting things; elephants, tigers, monkeys, bats, orchids, The Grand Palace, waterfalls, beaches, islands & ... The cherry on top was provided by having the Goldmans and Urana join us for the last few days.
I encourage everyone to seek out some good friends and plan a little "outside the box" adventure together.
With this as a backdrop, we can't wait to see what the future has in store.

Eleanor's comments: We had waited and waited--the day was finally here--our dear friends, Steve and Diane, came to visit for three weeks and we were to be their guides to see Thailand, north and south. For us, it was a darn good excuse to see all of the sights again and to lay on the beach for ten days--what could be bad? During the final weekend of their trip, Dickie and Susan Goldman from Woodstock, and Urana coming in from Bangkok, would join us in Chiang Mai.
Seeing everybody brought home how much we missed our dear friends and family. Seven months is a long time to be on the road. We have enjoyed it thoroughly and have had a great time. We have discovered that this life-style can be repeated anywhere in the world so our horizons have been expanded considerably. We learned that Jules misses his teaching a lot--it is part of who he is--and he wishes to continue to teach. We learned that I can find a million and one things to keep me busy and happy, as long as the list doesn't include the practice of law. But that doesn't mean that I won't enjoy doing something legally-related to help the elderly or disadvantaged.
We have learned that life is unpredictable. So we are truly going with the flow. Surprised to hear that from me? Well, I guess I've mellowed with age. But, we know our air ticket gets us home on May 1--we will be in Saugerties house-sitting for six weeks--and we have air tickets to visit our West Coast friends and family from July 17 to Sept 5. The rest is unknown--the right path for us will reveal itself in due time.
But back to the fun time that was had by all. Tigers and monkeys, oh my. Stephen especially enjoyed the sign at Erawan Falls, which said: "Beware: A monkey steal your belonging." A metaphor for life, perhaps?
Diane and I stayed out of Tiger Canyon, located outside of Kanchanaburi, but the guys made the trip down. Diane and I had valid excuses, but, to tell you the truth, I was not enthused about being in the presence of unchained wild animals--think Siegfried and Roy. The guys loved every minute of it and have the pictures to prove it.
Phang-Nha lived up to its reputation. We took an all day boat trip there from Phuket. It was billed as a "canoe trip". Its real name should have been: "trip where young thai men paddled the inflatable canoes"-- the Minskys and Franzmans laid back and enjoyed the ride. It was really something--one of the highlights of the trip.
But the beach towns of Phuket left something to be desired. I thought of the old saying: Be careful you don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg. That is exactly what has happened. Thai people serve the tourists but, other than that, there is no evidence of Thais--the beach towns are devoid of the rich cultural texture of Thai life--it's just not there and the beach towns are charmless to me. However, that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy reading on the beach and swimming in the warm water--just the right temperature.
The current smoke in the atmosphere of Chiang Mai presented a real problem to us. Should we go there or change our plans? Those darn "slash and burn" farmers. For centuries they have burned their fields every March. I wonder if it is the same every year--complaints until the first rains wash away the particles from the air--then everyone forgets the problem until next year. Well, everyone says that this year it is especially bad. We saw the pictures on TV and started the canceling process. We thought we would go to Hua Hin instead. But we called our friends in Chiang Mai one more time and were assured that the situation, while not perfect, had improved enough to warrant coming there. So we reinstated our flights and came home to Chiang Mai. We were glad we did. We had a great time as shown by the pictures at Mae Sa Elephant Camp. We took a tour up the Ping River, saw a lot of Thai dancing and shopped til we dropped. We had some great meals, one of which at the "Bake and Bite" prompted Dickie to say: "this is the best roast vegetable sandwich I've ever eaten"--this is very high praise! I was busy eating the "hash browns" which tasted like the best potato pancakes I'd ever had.
We said our goodbyes--we were happy that we would see everyone again soon--Urana at Songkran, the traditional Thai New Year, from April 13 to April 17, and the Franzmans and Goldmans on May 1. This is the official end of our blog. Any comments are appreciated. We hope you've come along on our travels by way of this blog and have enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed writing it.

The Best of Friends

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