The Thai rival just about anyone in their presentation of food, let alone their culinary skills. They managed to turn simple carrots into exotic looking tropical flowers! Fifty or so different plates, each with its own color, flavor, and texture. Salads of tomatoes and other greens, dried apricots with nuts, whole, raw green beans, toasted soy nuts (if you’re vegetarian, this spread will have you doing summersaults), rice, noodles, and broth with several small plates which accommodate your soup ingredients.

Center stage are the sweetest fruits, and my favorite area of all. Melon, cantaloupe, mini bananas, pineapple, black grapes, fresh watermelon slices form a circle around a lovely celadon vase with a simple flower arrangement, as well as a gilded praying figure. Continuing on, you will find rolls, toast, croissants which are not soggy, and surprise of all surprises, brioches made to perfection. The ubiquitous egg is also here in all its forms, and Chuck would not be the same without his favorite: the omelette. I also managed to find sliced cheese with a variety of cold meat cuts; the cheese was a bit bland, but for lack of another, I took pleasure in savoring it with a croissant and black tea.

You have a choice of eating in or outdoors; we always opted for the outside. The seating arrangements are a bit too close to each other in a long and narrow veranda like setting. Table linen is a crisp egg pink and the armchairs, though rattan, are quite comfortable and cheerful. Overhead are planters displaying some of Thailand’s reputedly famous orchids. The first morning was a bit overwhelming, as there was too much nature to absorb in one sitting; looking below was a huge, sparkling clean pool which no one seemed to ever use, but it was constantly being cleaned by the staff. The tall trees and floral islands are well positioned so as to hide the very banal street scene behind the hotel.

Here again, we encountered the Western male/Thai woman-child couples that proliferate in this country. It is very unsettling to me to watch the body language of the couple, and the apparent dominance of the male in all cases. More on that in another journal.