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Thailand

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Bangkok

Thailand was the first of our dealer incentive trips.  We were supposed to go to Hong Kong, but it was 1989 and the riots in Tiananmen Square threatened to spill over into the British Colony so we changed plans at the last minute.  We stayed at the Peninsula Hotel, which at that time was the best rated hotel in the city.  The traffic in Bangkok was unbelievable.  We were in constant traffic jams, no matter what time of day we were traveling or what direction we had chosen.  About the only way to navigate the streets of Bangkok was by Jitney Jeeps, a mode of transportation that was like a cross between a taxi cab and a bumper car.  Riding in a Jitney was like being a passenger in a destruction derby race; somehow they managed not to collide with one another, but just barely.

The week in Bangkok was spent shopping, eating Thai food and visiting the palaces and Buddhist Temples.  Jet boating on the Chao Phyraya river introduced us to the “floating market”, where we could purchase everything from clothing to fresh vegetables right on the water from sanpan merchants whose boats were loaded with merchandise. On our last evening of the trip, our tour guides took the dealers by bus to a rose garden where we had set up an outdoor buffet of a huge array of Thai foods.  Lorry and I met the dealers in style; dressed in full Thai costumes (I looked like Yul Brynner with hair) we rode up to the approaching bus on elephants.  At the end of the evening, we invited all the dealers to go down to the waterfront and put a floating candle in the river (a custom that is supposed to assure a return visit).  As they put the paper candle bags in the river, we lit up the sky with a firework show that lasted at least fifteen minutes.

Chang Mai

Midway through our stay in Bangkok, we loaded the dealers onto a chartered plane for an all day trip to Chang Mai.  This is in the center of the “Golden Triangle” in Northern Thailand where the opium trade flourished at one time.  Our day-trip included an afternoon spent at an elephant logging compound, where we were able to see how elephants are trained to carry the heavy teak lumber harvested from the forest.  We were also treated to “elephant rides” in baskets mounted on their backs.

My most enduring memories of Thailand were the people.  Never before had I encountered a more warm and gracious culture.

 


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