A Rambling Writer Rerun: Thailand, part 6: Farewell to Bangkok

Join Thor and me for a last ramble around Bangkok — the snake farm and Wat Pho.

NOTE: Due to health issues, Thor and I haven’t been able to do much travel the past few years, so here’s our Thailand trip from 2020. We were lucky to squeak through the pandemic flight closures that February of 2020 as we returned from our three-week trip. Crazy times just keep getting crazier. So escape for a few minutes from our new American dystopia to a country as beautiful and colorful as a dream! I’ll interrupt the reruns with occasional book reviews or Geezer Adventures…. (This blog series began 3/15/2025.)

Before the trip, we’d been advised to get an inoculation for Japanese encephalitis once we got to Bangkok, as U.S. clinics aren’t equipped with the vaccine. So we visited the clinic near our hotel, which happened to be connected to the Snake Farm, where venomous serpents were raised and “milked” to create antidotes to snakebite. The staff were putting on a show, so we got to see quite a variety of these creatures up close and personal, some very deadly and some not venomous, just large.

Then we headed across the river again, this time to visit Wat Pho and the famous Reclining Buddha. Officially titled Wat Phra Chetuphon, this temple complex is the oldest and largest in Bangkok, originally built in the 16th century and later remodeled. Today it’s a traditional medicine center as well as a monastery, and home to the respected Institute of Massage.

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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the breathtaking wilderness of Sara’s native Pacific Northwest. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com