Final Post From Bangkok.

  The computers at the Guesthouse are so slow that I'm unable to upload any more pictures.  When I'm home, Valentine's Day, I'll post more pictures.
  Today I visited a Buddhist Temple a few blocks from where I stay in the heart of downtown Bangkok.  Was I surprised to find it had a stable with 16 head of cattle and 7 or 8 water buffalo. I've visited hundreds of temples in SE Asia but this was a first.  Worshipers were buying plastic bags of hay to feed the animals.                                                                               If I understand correctly that ritual offers the promise of eternal life.  How that squares with reincarnation I have no idea.  I think I got some good pictures including the temple against the background of the downtown sky scrapers.
   Noted:  Sign in a bathroom:  "Please do not deposit waste in the toilet."  No comment.   A note in the handbook for the Bangkok Christian Guesthouse;  "Absolutely no alcohol, smoking or durian allowed anywhere on the premises."  Seen on the street in Bangkok;  an older farang (western) man playing his guitar and singing for donations.  He wasn't receiving much. It perhaps didn't help that he was playing acoustic guitar next to noisy Silom Road.
   What will I miss about Thailand?  The weather, of  course, but beyond that there is much I will miss.  I'll miss the people I know in Ayutthaya and the energy of Bangkok.  It is so different here it's like living in a carnival or circus.  It's just so different that I find it endlessly  fascinating, like find that animal stable in downtown Bangkok    Much of tourism is going to someplace that's much like home to hang out with people like we know from home.  In some small way I've been able to live a little bit like Thai and interact with them as they go about their everyday lives. It's been another great experience.
  Now, just 24 hours of travel and I'll be home!