Pools, Ganesh, Orchids oh my

Today's adventure took us out of Bangkok, about 2 hours to the South. For your math geeks, or people who like to play with metrics, about 150+ kilometers. It took us a while to get out of the area of Bangkok where our hotel is. Traffic here is a nightmare. The mopeds, motorbikes and motorized bicycles have the right idea. They weave in and out of the stationary cars. Still, every time I find myself in a car here, I think it would make a fabulous video game. And I am not a big gamer. It just feels like something that would be the perfect dodge and weave....
So we get out of town, and drive. And drive and drive and drive. Suddenly, we are in the country. There are hills, and fields. And for my friends back in WashMo, some of the roads we were on make Augusta Bottoms look like a paved highway! 
The pools were nice. Warm- about 40 degrees centigrade. It comes out of the mountain like that. Unfortunately, there were no falls, it is winter and not the rainy season....We soaked a bit, dried off and headed to the Orchid farm. 
On the way, we passed some gorgeous retreats. Resorts. Some with grass huts, some with earth buildings, one with buildings designed to look like Fred Flintstone!!! I did not get a picture of it, there was also a sign we saw 4 times that read:
Feel free to Pray and Meditate at any time.
and we did.
On our way to the Orchid farm, we passed a huge statue of Ganesha. Ganesha is the Hindu God of Success. He was next to a very large Buddha. They share the same grounds. We stopped just for a photo, and found we could go down on to the temple square. There, we were able to purchase a gift for the monks. There was a whole process for this. First, a monk had to come out to receive it. He came out, and dressed himself, using 3 very large orange pieces of cloth. He wrapped the cloth precisely and elaborately about his body. He then sat, and welcomed William and Suni to sit as well. Suni read, in Thai, a prayer, and then the monk began to chant. It was truly amazing. I stayed to the side, having read something about how it was not acceptable for a monk to receive anything from a woman. Although I was not going to hand it to him, I still felt that I did not want to push it, so I asked if I could photograph it all. He said yes, and in the end, invited me to the mat so that I could be blessed with the water as well.
On out way out I saw a large rectangular box with pink pieces of paper stuck on the plastic wrap covering the box. For a donation, one could write the name of a dead relative, as well as ones own name on the paper, (that also had a prayer written on it in Thai), and attach it to the "coffin". I did. Both for Jay, and for my Dad. Quite emotional....
We then went to the orchid farm. Again, I am grateful for the sense of sight. To be able to see the colors in the universe, especially those of the orchids grown here. The photos, do not do them justice. And, I learned, Orchids do have a scent. And it is lovely.
Oh, and on our way home we stopped to eat. Four people, 1 curry,  1 pad thai, 1 pad sey yew, 1 tom kai ka soup. 200 baht. About 7 dollars. We pointed to the prices in the menu, to find out that was the large size (family) where we had single portions. The woman laughed and told us "this is not the city!". We ate for 7 bucks. With tip and drinks, 10. And it was so good......
On a personal note, I am really missing Jay. I cannot even picture him here. I try and try and I can not manifest it in my mind. I know we would have never come to this part of the world, not even for NA. I just miss my friend. My companion. So damn much.....
Now, photos.......