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The night of our dinner at The Deck Restaurant, we gathered in the lobby of our hotel, which was sporting a beautiful rendition of a Christmas tree, and the ladies were dressed to the nines. I was regretting not bringing my Tux. ;o) Just kidding.

Saigon has an amazing array of night lights with blazing colors and beautiful shapes and designs.

After returning to our hotel we went to the roof, where the pool is located, and enjoyed a cocktail as we viewed the night scenes of the city.

We couldn’t identify these buildings, but they were certainly expressively lit up. I wished Tin or Ut were on hand to fill in some of the details regarding what we were seeing.

The next day we head for the airport for our flight to Bangkok. It didn’t take long to get there, and the city looked like any other large city, with lots of sky scrapers and lots of traffic.

If they didn’t announce over the intercom that we were landing in Bangkok, it could have been any one of a hundred large cities.

We were taken directly to our hotel in time for breakfast, (or was it lunch?) and then the rest of the day was on our own time. It was suggested that we take a tour of some of the temples, and visit the Chinatown area or shop at the Indian market at Phahurat.

The water taxies were plying the waterways, taking passengers from hotels to shopping centers or anywhere you wanted to go.

The hotel was certainly first rate. Our room was huge, the kind of place you hate to leave when your stay is over.

We enjoyed our traditional martini before dinner in the lounge, and ate in the hotel restaurant. The presentations were excellent.

The next day our tour was going to be a long one, with several tours scheduled. The first tour took us on a trip through an interesting outdoor market, where you could find almost anything there. Most of it looked really delicious, but there were a few things you’d have to disguise very cleverly before they would make it past my palate.

Interestingly, the market borders an active railroad track. You can see the rails blow, and the shoppers walking down the center of the track as they shop. A train comes by once a day, and fortunately very slowly when it reaches the market. Shoppers scramble for a footing off the track, and the merchants move their wares back off the track as the train slowly passes through.

I felt sorry for these poor crabs with all the rubber bands holding their legs and claws tight against their bodies, very immobile.

Our guide beckons us to board our bus for our next adventure. She had bought a couple of bags of fresh pineapple to share with us once we were all on the bus. It was sweet and very delicious, and sweet of her to do that.

We wend our way through the bustling city, as we head for a coconut plantation, which had their own banana trees on site.

At the entrance was a traditional ancestral shrine, which we discovered were very common here in Thailand.

A load of fresh coconut were dumped in a pile near the large shed where the work was performed. It took us a while to figure out what they were producing. Like most mom & pop industries, they had one major product, plus a profusion of side products.

The dried coconut husks were used as fuel for the fire to boil the coconut milk It was quite an elaborate setup.

Several huge kettles rested in the top of what turned out to be a huge elongated oven for cooking down the coconut milk.

It was blazing inside, like a huge pizza oven. They didn’t share their recipe, but those two tall wooden bowls contained what must have been coconut milk.

After it cooked down for a long while, it was then brought out to cool, and was constantly stirred as it thickened. They let us assist in the process. We were always eager to be hands on, and enjoy the experience while we sere here. From this caramel like substance they produced a delicious candy, and I believe this was their main product.

They had a menagerie of caged animals on the site, and the cutest little puppy you’d ever want to hug. and lots of birds.

Their home / sales floor (under the home), was open for us to visit, provided that we removed our shoes. I love that custom, and in fact when we lived in Mountain view, we observed that custom in our home on Sierra Vista.

Their home was beautifully built, with polished and lacquered hardwoods throughout. The sales floor had a wide range of goods.

I believe the mortar and pestles with all the spices, lemon grass, ginger, etc., was a display to show what goes into a typical Thai menu.

The home had a large bedroom, with an exercise bike, and another room which had an elaborate shrine, with food offerings.

I had never seen such an ancient typewriter. I think it even worked. The kitchen was huge, and looked very functional.

All things considered, I was very pleased that Viking included this factory/home in our itinerary. It gave me a much better understanding of the life and customs of the Thai people.

Well, as I said earlier, this will be a very busy day. Next we will do the traditional “longtail” boat ride, followed by an elephant ride. But that will be in the next chapter.