Kris flew up from Singapore and joined us for the rest of the week so we could continue to CELEBRATE! The rest of the week we saw Thai boxing, visited the Royal Palace, went to the snake farm and found a great restaurant.

Thai Boxing. We heard that Thai Boxing could be very violent and bloody. Even the taxi driver on the way to the arena warned us that it might be too violent for our Western tastes. But the violence and blood is exaggerated. I've only seen boxing on TV before. What we saw in Bangkok looked a lot the same except they also kicked. They wear the same boxing gloves (though their feet are bare, so those kicks must hurt). And their referees also got very involved, stopping the fight quickly if it looked like anyone got hurt. One KO happened but there was no blood and the guy didn't fall down, he just got woozy. As soon as he looked woozy the ref ran in and stopped the fight. It happened so quickly I missed the actual punch. I was watching the crowd.

Watching the crowd was more fun. Each fight had five rounds, of which the third seemed to be the most important. The crowd roared and yelled during the third and jumped up against the cyclone seats that separated our US$4 seats from the $25 seats where the big-time gamblers clustered, with big wads of cash and cell phones in their hands. A small band of three percussionists played a fast rhythm all during the matches and when the crowd got going, the whole place surged to the rhythm. Even the boxers bounced and punched to the beat. In the high-priced seats down front we could see one big Chinese guy holding a wad of money and surrounded by men yelling and holding up paper (probably money) in their hands like it was the New York Stock Exchange.

Royal Palace. We didn't make the dress code for this place the first time we tried to get in. The second time we deliberately tried to dress acceptably but failed again. (Joan: they didn't mind babes bopping by in practically missing miniskirts, but they objected to my knee-length dress because it was sleeveless). Luckily they provide long pants and skirts and shirts for free.

On the way to the palace a Tuk-Tuk (three-wheeled taxi) pulled up next to us and asked the age old, "Where you go?"

"Royal Palace," we told him. We only had another half block so we figured this would make him go away. But he said, "Royal Palace closed!" and pointed to his watch.

Fortunately Joan and I had read about this scam and told that jerk to get away. Of course the palace was open. They just tell you that so they can take you on a long shopping trip to stores where they get commissions for bringing you. It's a mean lie and big disservice to the tourist and Thailand. If you believe them you miss out on something you want to see. We never road a tuk-tuk because of that. We didn't trust any of the drivers.

The Royal Palace is actually more of a temple than a place. It has many glittering gold, red and blue buildings. Walking the grounds was almost surreal. Definitely worth the price of admission. Too much to describe here.

Snake Farm. We thought it was strange that the snake farm was located behind the Red Cross building but it turns out the purpose of the snake farm is to produce anti-venom. Making the antidotes involves horses. They inject the horses with snake venom a little at a time over months. After the horse develops immunity, the antidote makers draw the blood of the horse to make the actual anti-venom products used in hospitals. We learned all this in the 30-minute video. After the video snake handlers brought out several snakes to show off-some giant cobras and other highly dangerous snakes.

The first several snakes they treated pretty casually. It shocked me at first to see these six-foot long cobras with big hoods played with-they poked these snakes with sticks and pulled their tails to keep them alert (i.e. half the snake's body vertical, and the snake hissing) for the audience. Since they play with these ones every day they're pretty tame. They fed one of these snakes É by using huge tweezers to stuff several whole large chicken legs down his throat, and then massaging the swallowed bones down the snake's body. It wasn't a gentle massage either.

Eventually they brought out a snake for milking. To milk them they stick the fangs in a dish and press on the venom sacks to push the venom out of the snake's fangs into a petri dish. They milk every snake once every two weeks. They treated the snake they milked with a lot more care. I don't think it gets handled as often as the others.

At the end they let everyone handle this one huge snake I don't remember the name of. Kris let them wrap it around his neck.

Hemlock's restaurant. The food in Thailand is the best in the world. It's not hard to get a good meal. In our neighborhood in Banglampu however, every meal is accompanied by screaming, gunfire, explosions, and profanity all played at high volume on the big-screen TV located in every restaurant. We found pretty good restaurants, and a couple not-so-good restaurants outside the area, but we found a really great restaurant after we met up with our friend Dave.

Dave lived upstairs from us in San Francisco and started his around-the-world trip at about the same time as us except he went the other way. We met up with him for 24 hours in Bangkok, as he was on his way back from Cambodia and we were on our way to the Philippines. He introduced us and Kris to a restaurant called Hemlock's that we place on our list of the best restaurants in the world. It's an AC restaurant with white linen tablecloths and incredible dishes for 75 cents to a few bucks each. Also it plays classical music. A whole meal there (e.g. squid in green curry sauce, pineapple fried rice served in the pineapple, steamed rice and two large Carlsberg beers) costs about $8, slightly less than two burritos and one beer at our favorite burrito stand, La Avenida, in the Inner Sunset of San Francisco.

Next: The Philippines

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