On Monday morning I was still so sore from our hike up to the Tiger Temple I decided to go for a massage. She combined Thai with traditional massage- pressure points, stretching and rubbing. It was one of the best I have ever had, and the most painful since my calves and quads were so sore!
We spent the last few hours by the pool and then headed to Phuket via boat. We had such a wonderful time at Phulay Bay, it actually exceeded expectation. So many great excursions with afternoons at the pool and loved sitting at the seaside bar on the sand watching the sunset. Loved being with Sydney and Austin. Syd is so darn funny, she had Sam and I almost in tears the whole time laughing. Love that although she is beautiful she can totally laugh at herself and make ridiculous faces and just doesn’t take herself too seriously.
We arrived back to Bangkok and by the time we got to our hotel we opted to just settle down and eat at the hotel. It was a newer Marriott that was contemporary and had an incredible open air bar on the top of the hotel, although sadly we couldn’t eat there since Sam was under 16. We enjoyed another restaurant at the hotel and then headed to bed, since we were waking up at 5:30 a.m. and the girls had to leave at 4:30 a.m. for their flight back to Denver. We said our farewells at night and got a decent nights sleep before heading to the airport.
Sam and I were off to India. We changed flights in Delhi and then who knew, we didn’t, but our flight stopped another time - almost like a bus. Some people got off, which we almost did and then they said, “you are the next stop.” We got off in Varanasi and were greeted by our guide who told us about Hinduism as we drove to our hotel. He did a good job explaining the three main gods: G for generator or ceator which is Brahm. O is for operator- the god that rules the earth- Visnu and then D for destroyer- the most reverenced god since he is the most powerful Shiva. There are many incarnations of these gods and they consider Buddah as one of the incarnations of Visnu. He explained that Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India and Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism all find this as a holy center. Buddhist believe that Buddhas first sermon was given here. Hindu’s believe this is the holy placee of Shiva, the destroyer god. Jainism is also centered here and their holy men can be seen going between temples on a regular basis, naked- dont’ believe in clothes. We were swerving around cows as we drove to the temple. They are considered sacred and one of the incarnations of Shiva. They have free regn all over the streets and no one eats meat. They all feed them and again consider them sacred and the females they get milk from.
At the Gateway Hotel, more of a traditional Indian hotel with a lovely 45 acre garden, we went to our room and then right to dinner. We had an early wakeup call the next morning since we came here to cruise along the Ganges, the sacred river that will take the dead to salvation. We will be rising at 5 a.m. tomorrow. Been so excited to visit Varanasi for years. Looking forward to the experience.
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