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This mornings adventure was a bit more subdued that yesterday’s. The group was driving to the country side to see how the people live. Salt is ready for harvest in the marshy waters and coconuts are also ready. We also had a chance to visit an orchid farm. Flowers are very important to Thai culture and they are everywhere. Exotic orchids , Pride of Barbados, Bougainvillea and the ever present marigold, bloom happily along side zinnias and Mexican petunias. We were ferried in a long tailed boat down a series of canals and saw how people really live in this area. Houses sit alongside the canal, laundry hangs in the sun to dry, old men watch the boat traffic and old women sell various goods from their boats. Soft drinks, water, beer, coconut pancakes, coconut ice cream, fried bananas, satay, mangoes, hats and fans are all there to buy. Lunch was an assortment soups, rice, fish, pork and chicken. Fresh pineapple juice decorated with an orchid and the ever present watermelon for desert. Tomorrow we leave for the River Kwai.

Yesterday Troy and I visited the famous Wat Pho Temple which is also home to the world famous Wat Pho Massage School. We booked a massage for eight and two women came to our hotel. We wondered how they were going to fit tables into the room and boy were we surprised. They covered the bed with padding had us remove our clothing and they went to work. They climbed onto the bed with us and we had the massage of a life time. For two hours they worked on feet, legs, back and then turned us over and began with the head and started working down. Forehead, ears, neck and shoulders. Arms and fingers knees and toes as the old story goes. Troy immediately fell asleep and started a gentle snore. The girls giggled. My therapist would tackled a painful spot, I would resist, she would insist and when I obeyed, she would giggle. In fact there were faint giggles from them all of the time. When we had turned to mush, she moved us to a sitting position on the end of the bed gave us one last pounding on the back, collected their $40 and quietly left. Their fee was actually $32 but we were in a generous mood. Breakfast conversation this morning was all about how wonderful the unexpected can be.

PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS BLOG HAVE BEEN CENSORED!!!!!