Sweating To The Goldies
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What happens in Pattaya stays in Pattaya…
The early morning light revealed nothing of what lay bubbling beneath the surface of this city. Pattaya, southeast of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, had lived up to its name–the Other Sin City. There was the familiar atmosphere of hedonism and excess that one would expect in Las Vegas. But layered upon this was Continue reading
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Siam I am…
My second greatest regret of our tour was the brevity of our visit to the province of Ayutthaya or Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya as it is officially known. The area was the former capital city of Siam (now known as Thailand) before the designation was moved further south to Bangkok. I was fascinated by the Continue reading
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Cutting a swathe…
Our tour guide reassured us that the rice rats we were about to sample were of the highest quality. These were not filthy city rats who ate leftover scraps in dark alleys but their country cousins who feasted only on the organic insects and snails that thrived in the lush rice paddies. Tour members would Continue reading
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The shape of water…
Many cities across the globe have bodies of water running through them. The Nile travels northward through Cairo in Egypt and empties into the Mediterranean Sea. In Europe, the Danube river cuts across four capital cities: Vienna Austria, Budapest Hungary, Belgrade Serbia, and Bratislava Slovakia. In the East, the river of myth and legend, the Continue reading
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All that glitters…
Refreshed after a long night of sleep, we headed down to the hotel’s complimentary breakfast buffet as soon as it opened. Our game plan for the morning was a 15-minute walk south to visit Wat Pathum Wanaram Rachaworawihan before the day’s activities. From our prior online research, the temple should have held nothing of real Continue reading
