We just got back from a Chinese New Year Vacation to Thailand (Okay so we got back on Monday). It seemed like a good thing to do especially since we spent a long weekend in HongKong last month.

We spent the first full day in Bangkok, touring the city, seeing the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Keo, Temple of the Emerald Buddha. These are amazing structures decorated with Gold, gold leaf, Chinese porcelains, mirrors, crystals, semi-precious stones and jade. It is very opulent and beautifully maintained. The Emerald Buddha is actually made of Jade stone, one single piece 31" in length. We saw that Buddha and several others but almost as many sites were closed to tourists as they were considered too sacred. Like our White House, most of the Palace was closed to tourists too although the king no longer lives there. SO much for the city...it was time to find the water! So we toured the canals in and around the city of Bangkok and then off to our real destination, the beach on Koh Samui. Wow! The beaches were white, fine grained sand and the water was seductively warm and inviting. We spend the next four days seriously relaxing, and eating as the good was excellent.

Thailand is a country that is about 95% Buddhist and about 4% Muslim. Both groups are sincerely religious, but the Muslim extremists in the south part of the country have declared war on the Buddhists and things were pretty ugly in the southern part of the country. In fact, while we were there, travel by British and Australians was being discouraged. Americans had been told long ago to stay away due to the fear of terrorist attacks. We saw no sign of violence and a large number of Muslim tourists were enjoying the sights as much as we were. However, as a precautions we also didn't wear any symbols of our Christianity as we normally would. I understand that Christians are not suppose to wear a cross because it is offensive to Islam as a reminder of the Crusades. It is so sad that intolerance by just a few people can hold the greater population hostage. How did I know that some of the tourists were Muslim? By the conservative dress of the women and the religious symbols they were wearing. I wasn't offended.