Bang Pa In

Last Wednesday I took a trip down to Bangkok and spent the weekend with Helen at her house (Chris came down and joined us Friday after work). Book club had a special trip planned for Thursday to visit the Summer Palace at Bang Pa In, one of the main settings in our book this month. I haven't had a chance to read it all yet (since I was gone on home leave) but this month we read, "Four Reigns" by, Kukrit Pramoj. It's a very famous book in Thailand, originally written in Thai as a newspaper serial, and then translated into English and made into a novel in the 80s. If you are at all interested in Thailand's history, it's a fun way to learn about it. It's written as a historical fiction novel following a girl named Phloi and her family starting with the reign of King Rama V in the 1800s and ending with King Rama VIII in the 1940s. Chris read it while I was gone on home leave and found it really interesting and learned a lot of things about Thailand we didn't know.

One of the members of AWC Book Club is a Thai lady named Tina and she led us on a great tour! We learned so much from her and she even told us stories about her grandfather and his life in Thailand during the same time period.

The Summer Palace at Bang Pa In, is where the main character of the novel, Phloi, lived with the Royal family as a courtier. The gardens and buildings were so beautiful! King Rama IX (the current King) still visits and often comes to stay here with his family or when they have guests to entertain. We were not allowed in the actual palace (and couldn't take pictures in the buildings we were allowed in), but it was fun walking around the grounds... actually we rented golf carts and had fun driving those around! None of the other ladies wanted to drive so I was the lucky one... man I miss driving!

We went into a small temple and got our fortunes told by Joss Sticks. You shake a can full of sticks really fast until one falls out. It has a number written on it which corresponds with a shelf full of fortunes. I had number 5 (although it might not really be my fortune because 3 sticks fell out at once and I just picked the number I liked best). Tina read each of our fortunes, since they were all written in Thai, luckily because it would have taken me a year to translate it! Mine was really long but here is the gist of it: If I have children they will all be girls (I really hope not), that I must make merit and that I must never be sad. If I find myself in a dark place to be patient because I will always find my way out. After our tour we went for a delicious lunch on the river, and then took a long tail boat ride on the canal.