A Farmhouse we Visited in Bhutan

The courtyard of the farmhouse
Thoroughly modern young lady showing off the interior
Her bedroom complete with Leonardo DiCaprio posters
The living room

The Tiger's Nest Bhutan

Prayer flags on the way to the Tiger's Nest
A close-up view
Part of the stairway approaching the monastery
Looks of relief to replace looks of sheer terror

More Pictures of Bhutan

That speck of white is the Taktshang Monastery or Tiger's Nest as it is commonly known.
Every country has its propaganda
We're going where?
The speck is getting bigger!


I am going to post the pictures of our adventures in Bhutan although I haven't written the blog yet and may not be able to post it for some days since we leave for the hinterlands of China early tomorrow. Yes, we climbed up to the Tiger's Nest and survived, although I don't know how!

Pictures of Bhutan

Mt. Everest from the Royal Druk airplane
The main street of Paro, Bhutan with dzong (fortress) in the background
The world's sweetest Bhutanese guide, Kuenley
Monk in courtyard of temple

More Pictures of Chinatown in Bangkok

Chinatown Street
Tiny crabs for sale
Street market
Lady making a betel nut concoction (somewhat addictive we hear)

The Miracle

View from our window in the Oriental Hotel Bangkok
The Authors' Lounge at the Oriental where high tea is served and Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham (I think) used to hang out.
Tom and I on the grounds of the Oriental
The Terrace of the Oriental

This is our last night in Beijing and I am now two countries behind in the blog. It's not my fault though! Honest! The other morning we were leaving the hotel in Bangkok to fly to Beijing when I fell down. Right in the middle of the hotel lobby! Of course there were about a million people around, all very concerned (or amused as the case may be), but I knew immediately that the only thing hurt was my pride so I dusted myself off and assured all that I was fine and off we went. Oh by the way, my computer was in my well padded bag and it didn’t even occur to me that it may have taken the brunt of the fall. You guessed it, it did. When I tried to log on to write my blog in the airport, I got a most ominous screen which I hoped was interference but nothing changed later. Long story short, when we got to Beijing the first thing I did was tell the guide I had to find an Acer store that could diagnose the extent of the problem. Hopefully, a small adjustment would be all that was needed.

Our guide, Amanda, and the hotel concierge worked it out and by the next morning the computer (without me) was on its way to Acer across the city in a cab with a hotel bellman accompanying it and Amanda’s cell phone number taped to its cover. We were in the Temple of Heaven when the call came—terminal. Or in Amanda’s words, your computer is destroyed. I panicked because all of the pictures were on it, but they said the hard drive was ok. About ten phone calls later we had communicated that we wanted a new computer similar but better than the old one, the cost (not too bad), and that we would pick it up after 3:30. Amanda said she would go with us which was really nice of her considering our Mandarin Chinese is a little shaky, so around 4:30 we arrived at the Acer repair center where at least three people had literally dropped everything to get another computer (they had to go to a different place for that), re-program it from Chinese to English, get it all set up, and whatever else you have to do and by 6:00 we were back in a cab with a brand new twice as powerful Acer, the old hard drive which was intact, and memories of some new friends. The true miracle is that I have got it up and running without Eric to help me! And as you can see, I am now able to post pictures and can even post some makeshift captions! So here are some pictures of the Oriental and now I'm going to post some more pictures while I can.

More Pictures

Buddha in Residential Neighborhood
Floating Market Bangkok
Starlet in Chinatown

The Grand Palace with Royalty

RB from the Bottom of his Feet

Reclining Buddha

Our Second Day in Bangkok

Our second day in Bangkok with Bee and our driver was an action packed day. We left the hotel early and drove about 80 km to the largest floating market in Thailand. When we arrived we got into another canal boat and motored at a leisurely speed through another residential canal similar to the one described from yesterday. Out of nowhere appeared a very large white Buddha, just a little neighborhood icon for the locals to revere. Some very nice homes all with spirit houses are along this canal and it took about ten minutes or so to reach the floating market.

For some reason, we didn’t stop at any of the stops along the river but went instead to a large shopping complex on the water where there were vendors galore selling everything from straw bags to large rugs to metalware of all kinds, clothing of every description (mostly cheap) and lots of corny souvenirs. The bargaining was fun though and Mary and I came away with a few goodies.

The most interesting thing about the market was the mile after mile of shops and stores right on the water. (Well, it seemed like mile after mile, but it was probably much less than that). I’ve always thought of floating markets as a bunch of boats floating and selling their wares and there was a little of that, but here most of the commercial activity was stationary but right at the edge of the water. People would come up in their boats to buy the goods and there was a lot of trading going on. It is quite fascinating to watch yet another way humankind has invented to make a living. So much of the same thing is being sold from one shop to the next you wonder how they manage, but Bee said they survive so they must sell something. I suspect the camaraderie is just as important or more important than the sales, because the talking and gesturing and backslapping and handshaking and smiling and laughing that goes on is clear evidence of that. In my opinion, we didn’t spend enough time at the floating market, but we had to leave because other amusements were waiting back in Bangkok. So after a while, back into the boat we piled and headed back to the embarkation point for the ride back to the city.

Back in Bangkok, we headed for the Jim Thompson house, the former home of an American ex-pat in Bangkok who single-handedly revived and rebuilt the silk industry in Thailand during the 1950’s. He became very rich and highly revered by the Thais for his efforts on their behalf, but on a trip to Cambodia in 1963 with a friend, he went out for a morning walk and never returned. No one has ever found out what became of him but there is endless speculation including that he was captured by head hunters in the jungle and that he was an undercover CIA agent and disappeared of his own free will. His house is now on the tourist circuit because it is an especially fine example of Thai architecture and design and filled with wonderful antiques and authentic furnishings from that era. It is made entirely of teak and is comprised of three separate smaller houses joined together by passageways. Quite beautiful. Hot, though. I don’t know how he stood it without AC. Since our last visit, they have added an air-conditioned restaurant where we had lunch before touring the house.

After our visit with Jim, we drove to Chinatown, a fascinating section of the city which Mary and I did not see on our first trip. We walked the streets and alleys with Bee at the lead for a couple of hours fascinated by the brilliantly lit gold shops, the street-side food vendors, the Chinese banners that span the streets, the tiny shops barely wide enough for one person to enter, and things not only visual but sensual—like the sounds of traffic and music, the smells of dried fish and Chinese herbs, chestnuts literally roasting on an open fire, a profusion of tiny fried quail’s eggs, and a young woman in a white halter dress with red polka dots, red floppy hat and white go-go boots surrounded by cameras, obviously a starlet or model of some repute. We took her picture too and she turned and smiled fetchingly enjoying the foreign attention.

I had brought some Chinese cough drops from our favorite Asian market in Dallas and given a few to Neil who had a bit of a sore throat. He liked them and while we were in Chinatown he opined that maybe we could purchase something similar so that we would have an ample supply. Bee took the empty package and showed them to a shopkeeper who immediately produced the exact same brand! Dr. Chang’s throat lozenges or some such name, but he must be a famous guy to have made it all the way to Dallas. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a few packs myself because I think they were a lot cheaper. It’s becoming a very small world.

We returned to Paradise, aka the Oriental Hotel, in time to get cleaned up and descend to the dock for our dinner cruise aboard the Menhora, the same boat we girls had taken three years ago and remembered so fondly. Mary and I had gone to the concierge the day before to make the reservation and the concierge had said that that particular dinner cruise involved taking another boat to another pier but if we took the Oriental dinner cruise (for about $10 more), we would be picked up right at our own private pier. No, we said, we wanted the Menhora, because we had done it before and loved it. Is your cruise the same, we asked. Exactly the same, she said, same boat, same food. The only difference is that the boat picks up at the Oriental instead of someplace else. So we happily paid the little extra money for the convenience of being picked up at “home.” Well, there was one small difference as it turned out. The boat was indeed the same, but the food was served buffet style, with the buffet table taking up the entire center of the main deck. tThat left only the periphery for the tables where we were seated, and oh by the way the food was cold and lousy, the atmosphere was hectic what with everyone having to get up to get their food, and the bottom line was we were very disappointed. To add insult to injury, the real Menhora sailed right by us with a smallish group, table service with uniformed waiters and open bar at the end of the deck in full evidence. Mary and I were furious. So the next morning we headed for the manager’s office and after a polite but forceful harangue, a highly chagrined and endlessly apologetic day manager refunded half our money but not our wounded pride for not having delivered the promised experience to our beloveds.

The truth is, the cruise was still lovely—the boat beautiful, tables decked with the finest silver and linen, good wine in silver buckets, the same uniformed waiters, etc. and of course it was the same fabulous river with all of its magical lights and river traffic, etc., but it WASN’T THE SAME! I guess the lesson learned is that you can never really go back and that nothing is ever really the same.

Sitting in Bhutan but Writing about Bangkok.

Today is April 7, our last night in Bhutan. I have mountains of material about this fascinating country, but I haven't told you anything about our stay in Bangkok which remains one of my favorite cities. Here in Bhutan we haven't had access to the internet until today where we are spending our last night in a most interesting hotel called Zhiwa Ling in Paro. This is a change from where we were booked but more about that later. As usual, posting pictures is difficult because the connection is so slow and sometimes just before it loads it screams ERROR at you and you have to start over, so I'm going to post what I have and try pictures later or maybe tomorrow when we are back in Bangkok for one last night before flying to Beijing.

After Chiang Mai, we flew back to Bangkok. Our stay in Bangkok was enhanced in several ways. First, by our guide, Bee, a young woman with a terrific sense of humor, great command of the language, and a lot of sensitivity to our needs. Her father named her Bee for the first letter of his BMW. She has a younger brother, Em, but thankfully the parents didn’t have a third child who would have been stuck with the name DoubleYoo.

Second, we stayed at the Oriental Hotel. Now people, if you ever come to Bangkok, do not stay anywhere else. Of course, it is well known as one of the best hotels in the world, but we have stayed in a few others with such reputation and seldom have they lived up to the hype. The Oriental is exquisite in every way. Mary and I had stayed with our group of ladies at the Sheraton three years ago and we loved that, but the Oriental is light years above any place I’ve ever been. The view from our room was straight down the Chao Praya and one could do nothing but watch the river activity all day long and be happy. The room itself was perfect, and mind you, this was not a suite, just one of their standard rooms. It had an internet setup with printer, fax, secretarial supplies and even magic markers (!), a bathroom where the lighting permitted you to actually see yourself in the mirrors, and the bed was one you didn’t want to get out of. Unfortunately, to catch our 6:00 AM flight on the morning we left for Bhutan, we had to arise at 2 AM, probably a world’s record for early rising. There is a butler on every floor and if you ring for yours, they are ringing your bell within seconds with ice or whatever you need. Fresh flowers and fresh fruit daily in the room, fresh towels in abundance, plenty of room to put your stuff, and the décor is, as the brochure says, “elegant but not stuffy.” The lobby is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen, and the service impeccable. Tom is so spoiled he is insisting I bow to him at home and greet him at the door with hot compresses. Dream on, sez I. This was our big splurge and it was well worth it.

Bangkok is a fabulous, modern, vibrant city with one major drawback. It is hotter than the hinges of hell. It had been quite warm in Chiang Mai as well, but we’re talking Dallas mid-August sweltering in Bangkok, well over 100. I remember visiting the Grand Palace with the ladies on our first trip and having to be covered from head to toe with long sleeves, long pants and even no backless shoes. But they’ve relaxed the rules a little and sandals, sleeveless tops and skirts are now allowed. So we thank God for small favors. Just as we had the first time, we took a boat down the Chao Praya to the Grand Palace so the breeze made the heat less oppressive. It was very crowded in spite of getting a really early start, but I must say it was every bit as impressive as the first time I saw it. Bee was most informative and she would find us a spot of shade while she explained some fascinating tidbit or another. The sheer amount of gold is dazzling, and every inch is encrusted with mosaic or glass or in a few cases rare jewels. The Emerald Buddha is still there I’m happy to report, and he is made of jade, not emeralds.

On our first trip to Bangkok, a few of the ladies went on their own to see the Reclining Buddha, a famous local attraction, but for some reason Mary and I opted not to go. We both have always regretted it. This time, RB was on our agenda and we finally got to see him. Forty-five meters (that’s about 135 feet long) and 15 meters high, he is housed in a rather compact temple with just enough room for his substantial length and for the sight-seers and worshippers to walk around him. There are large square pillars every 20 feet or so and a fence between the pillars, so you can’t see him all at once—just vignettes of the various parts of him. For example, when you enter you can see his enormous smiling face propped on his hand, arm akimbo to support his body resting on its side. As you move down his length, you can see the folds of his robe and the curve of his legs beneath and of course the entire statue is in dazzling gold. When you get to his feet you can turn and walk up the other side, but don’t miss the bottoms of his feet—they are inlaid with mother of pearl and marble (I think) in a most intricate design and with all ten of his toes complete with exaggerated toe prints. His head is covered in tiny (scale-wise) ringlets and his earlobes are very long, to indicate his Buddha-hood. He is a most impressive sight.

After we visited the Grand Palace and the Reclining Buddha, we went by water taxi back up the river and had lunch at a seafood restaurant right on the water where again the fascination of the river activity is the main attraction. After lunch, we took a longboat into the clongs or canals which run snake-like in all directions off the main river. A longboat is like a cigarette boat, long, narrow and VERY low-slung and difficult to get into but after we were situated it was easy to maneuver (for the boatman, not us) into the more shallow and narrow arms off the river. We saw how Bangkokians live, both rich and poor, with their homes built right on the water. Some were luxury homes with palm trees, elegant patios and wrought iron gates, others were more middle class looking, and still others were quite poor looking, but almost every house was festooned with flowers, hanging baskets and plants. Spirit houses (small personal temples) are in front of many of the homes, small stores interspersed among the homes, and of course every so often a temple appears right in the middle of this water residential area.

Our next day in Bangkok was action packed so I'll put it in a separate blog.

Note: I have tried for the past hour to post pictures, first five at a time (no can do), three at a time (no can do) and then just one, and even it would not post. I know it has something to do with the very slow connection, but now I'm concerned I won't be able to post this blog! So I'm going to try right now and worry about pix tomorrow. So sorry, I know my prose needs pictures, but I gotta work with what I got. Love to all from the backwoods of Bhutan!

The Elephant Camp

This blog is for my Grandchildren.

Dearest Avery, Michael, Cassidy, Jessica, Savannah, Maile, Dylan, Hunter, Holland, Ella, McKenna and Caroline, I miss you all but especially so when we visited a very special place in Northern Thailand. Check on your globes where that is so you can picture what I am about to tell you.

Two days ago Granddaddy and I and our two friends were picked up at our hotel in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand and driven by van to a place about one hour away. We were on our way to an elephant camp. We left the city behind and before long we were in the Thai countryside with flowers blooming everywhere and Buddhist temples scattered along the road. When we reached our destination, we got out of the van next to the Ping River and crossed a very rickety bridge that shook and trembled with our every step. Our guide, Ruchi, had said C’mon let’s go, but immediately was way ahead of us and after a minute or so of inching slowly along the bridge while holding on to the ropes on both sides, I figured out that if you walk faster, it is easier to keep your balance. So by the time we reached the other side of the bridge, we were balancing quite well. At the exit of the bridge there was a sign that said “No more than 12 people can be on the bridge at one time.” I looked behind me and at least 25 or 30 people were walking single file all on the bridge at once. But the bridge did not collapse, happily for us.

We were in a true jungle. There were about eight elephants knee deep in the water and as we walked further in, there were more in an large enclosed pen. A small stand was selling bananas and sugar cane for feeding to the elephants so we bought some and hand-fed them. They would grasp the sugar cane with the tip of their trunks and plop it into their mouths with one fluid sweep. I noticed another sign that said “When feeding the bananas, please give one bunch or half at a time. This keeps the elephants from losing patience.” We thought that was pretty funny but we didn’t want to find out what would happen if an elephant lost patience, so we stuck with the sugar cane.

I learned something interesting at that moment. Ruchi told us that Asian elephants (with the smaller ears) have a lip on the bottom side of their trunk tip so that they can grab hold of something just like you would with your hand. African elephants (with the big ears) don’t have that lip so it must be harder for them to pick things up. Imagine having to pick something up if you didn’t have a thumb. These Asian elephants were able to grasp things with amazing precision.

After we fed them for a while, the trainers signaled for the elephants and immediately the elephants knew what was coming. A bath in the river! Elephant handlers or trainers are called mahouts and maybe some of you have heard that word before. Each mahout has his own elephant and they usually start out together very young. So the young mahout (maybe 12 or 14 years old) is assigned a baby elephant (I think about three years old because they are with their mothers until then) and then as the years go by they grow up together. The ideal situation is for them to grow old together, but usually the elephants live longer than the people and so more likely an elephant will have several mahouts in his or her lifetime. Ruchi told us that when a mahout gets married, his wife understands that the elephant will always occupy a more important place in the mahout’s life than she will.

The mahouts jumped onto their elephants and they walked one at a time into the river where the mahouts scrubbed them with big stiff brushes while they sprayed water at each other and at the mahouts, and some of them lay down in the water and put their legs in the air. And some of them just sat down and sat there enjoying their bath. And you know, because you’ve all seen elephants, that they smile just like people do, especially when they are happy. I’ll only be able to show you a couple of pictures of this happy scene, but I have lots of pictures and will show you all of them when we get home.

Then we moved on to a performance area where we took a seat with just a few other people and pretty soon about ten elephants with their mahouts paraded out onto the grounds. Don’t forget that this is not like going to the circus at Reunion Arena. This was in the jungle and the seats were very simple and the grounds just bare dirt. The elephants gave a demonstration of how they help their masters by doing very heavy work that men alone aren’t strong enough to do. First, each elephant would drag a large log (a whole tree really) from one side of the space to the middle. Each elephant did this until they had a pile of logs which they then proceded to place in a big pile just like Lincoln Logs! The amazing thing was that two or three elephants would pick up one log by placing their tusks under the log and then holding it with their trunks and walking with it to the place where the pile was to be. Sometimes, instead of the log falling onto the pile nice and straight, a log would end up catty-wampus or on an angle. No problem. There was another elephant at the end of the pile whose job it was to push the errant log into its proper place. At the end, the pile of logs was as neat as it could be. All the time I was wishing you all were there because you would have loved it. And the elephants were smiling and waving their trunks in the air.

Then they demonstrated how they raise one leg so the mahout can have a step to step on for getting on top of their backs. Or they would put a back leg up so the mahout could stand on it to get down. But the best part was the elephant painting. The mahouts set up an easel and the most talented of the painting elephants took some paint brushes and painted a real painting, choosing the colors and the brush and making the brush strokes with its trunk. Ruchi said they have been known to actually paint flowers! The paintings were for sale but we never did have an opportunity to buy one. Look up elephant paintings Chiang Mai on the internet and see what you find.

Then it was time for our elephant ride. We climbed up some steps so that we wouldn’t have to climb the elephant and stepped into a howdah which is the little two-seater car that is strapped to the elephant’s back and off we went. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be to hold on and keep my balance. I kept thinking I was going to fall out of the howdah. That would have been so embarrassing! The first thing they did was go downhill and that’s the hardest part. After they leveled off it was a piece of cake.

Pretty soon we were old pros and a group of about 15 elephants each with its mahout and two of us greenhorns were lumbering through the jungle, sometimes on very narrow passageways and sometimes uphill or downhill. As I said, downhill is the hardest because you think you are going to be thrown forward, but we weren’t. Finally, we got to the river and the elephants walked through the water back to the camp. The whole thing took about an hour. We looked for gibbons (large monkeys) along the way but we didn’t see any.

The end of our visit to the elephant camp was a ride on a large bamboo raft down the river. The raft was propelled by a rower with one pole and we each had a turn at poling down the river. It’s not so easy because you have to stand up and move the pole from one side to the other just like on a canoe but it’s much wider and the bamboo slats are very uneven. I only tried for a minute or two, but Granddaddy was a pro in no time! It was a long ride, at least another hour, and we had time to reflect and be lazy and wonder at how beautiful the graceful beasts are and how much like humans they seem. While I was floating down the river, I imagined the following story.

About a thousand years ago, in an ancient Thai village, when the elephants roamed free and life was even more simple than the life I just described, there was a very kind and benevolent king, King Michael, who was the ruler of that part of the jungle. His people loved him very much because he took care of them and was careful to be sure they always had enough to eat and work to do building grass huts and growing crops. The animals in the jungle loved him too and the elephants and the gibbons and the beautiful colored birds would all flock to the village to be near him. King Michael had three beautiful daughters, the Princess Avery, the Crown Princess Jessica, and her Royal Highness the Princess Cassidy. Because the elephants were always there visiting and had nothing else to do, the princesses would ride all day on their backs across the river and up and down the jungle paths.

Eventually, His Majesty decided that since the elephants were spending so much time in the village, they could help the villagers cut down trees and carry logs so that the villagers could build log houses instead of grass huts. And in return he would be sure they had plenty of bananas and sugar cane to eat. But the elephants didn’t know how to do the work. So King Michael appointed three villagers, Br’er Dylan, Br’er Hunter and Br’er Holland, to be mahouts to train the elephants to work. Pretty soon the three mahout chiefs had recruited lots of other junior mahouts in the village to help and in time they taught the elephants how to carry the logs from the deepest parts of the jungle to the village. And then they taught them how to stack the logs to build houses that were much more sturdy than the grass and thatch huts that the villagers were used to living in. The three princesses were a little annoyed, because now the elephants didn’t have as much time to play as before.

As time passed, the village grew more prosperous and people from neighboring villages wanted to come there to live. Three lovely maidens from a nearby community came with their parents to reside in the now prosperous village. Their names were Savannah, Maile and Ella. They were not princesses like Avery, Cassidy and Jessica—they were only poor children whose parents were peasant farmers. When they arrived at the village, they wanted to help their parents build their new house and so they asked the young mahouts to show them how to direct the elephants.

Dylan helped Maile, Hunter helped Ella, and Holland helped Savannah and before long they were having a lot of fun riding the elephants while the elephants pulled the logs. They even taught the elephants how to pick up babies with their trunks and carry them gently to the river’s edge for a bath. Maile and Ella had a baby sister named Caroline and Savannah had a little sister named McKenna and the babies loved to be lulled to sleep cradled in an elephant’s trunk while Maile, Savannah and Ella kept a protective watch over them.

One day the three princesses were riding on a raft down the river while a boatman poled them over rapids and through eddies and another servant fanned them with banana leaves. Maile and Savannah were on the shore directing their elephants when they noticed the princesses sweltering in the summer heat in the middle of the river. Hello! they cried. Come over here and help us cut logs for houses, they called. The princesses were shocked! They didn’t do the work of mahouts, they thought, and so they continued down the river. Finally, Avery sat up on the raft and said to the others, “This is really boring—riding back and forth on the river, but if we help those girls we will get to ride the elephants just like we used to and we can have fun again.”

The others were not convinced, but after some discussion, they decided to give it a try. They were princesses, after all, so it wouldn’t do to just pitch in and work like common ordinary villagers. They would watch for a while and then maybe if they felt like it…

So they ordered the boatman to pole to shore and let them off of the raft. After disembarking, they stood and watched while the villagers and the elephants worked.

Br’er Dylan, who had recently been promoted to chief mahout, said to Her Royal Highness, the Princess Cassidy, “Ma’am, if you’ll just jump up on this elephant and help her pull her log, I’ll be able to go into the forest and cut down another tree.” HRH was quite indignant, but what could she do, so she did as he instructed. Then Princesses Avery and Jessica were instructed to do the same. At first, they couldn’t quite get the hang of it, but Dylan, Hunter and Holland, and Maile, Savannah and Ella were laughing and joking and making a game out of what the princesses had thought of as work. And with the help and gentle instruction of the mahouts and the girls, the princesses began to get the hang of it. So pretty soon they were all talking and laughing and working and the time was flying by.

Just then King Michael happened by in his royal coach and saw all the children working together and the elephants behaving like well-oiled machines and he was puzzled. Are those my daughters working with the peasants and the mahouts, he thought. My goodness, they are my daughters and they are having so much fun! I have never seen them laughing so hard. Because he was such a wise king, he quietly moved away and did not intervene or interrupt the progress of the work.

At the end of the day, the girls and the mahouts took their elephants to the river’s edge where they allowed the elephants to bathe in the river and wash away the day’s grime and the aches of the long haul. The mahouts showed the princesses how to take grass brooms and sweep the dirt off the elephants’ backs while at the same time giving them a gentle massage. The children bathed in the river as well, and they felt refreshed and cool.

When it was finally time to go home for the evening, the three princesses looked with wonder at their new friends. Princess Jessica said, “I must say I never knew it could be so much fun doing so much work!” Princess Avery and Princess Cassidy agreed. Savannah smiled and said, “Having something important to do is the most fun one can have.” Maile came forward and said, “And if your work is helping other people it is even more fun.” And Ella, the youngest of the three, said, “And if you are having fun, you will do your job well, and doing a job well is the best fun of all.”

The years passed and the village grew and King Michael had descendants that carried on his tradition of love and kindness and the children in this story grew older and married and taught their children how to work and the village grew and grew and today it is called Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and sits on the banks of the mighty Chao Phraya River where the elephants once roamed.

Good night my babies, I love you all, love, Grandmommy