105 
look much alike, as the Siamese country woman close-cropped 
hair, and her sarong is tucked up between her legs to give an 
effect of baggy trousers. 
July 20 - 
While we were having breakfast we had a glimpse of the 
sea, and learned that we were at Hua. Hin, a famous seaside 
resort. Later in the morning we stopped for some minutes at 
Petchaburi, long enough to see the temples high on the hills 
sbove the town, and to notice the curious bicycle-rickshaws 
that furnished transportation. 
The Siamese countryside is a land of spires - the rocky 
hills, the temples, even the huge termite nests have a. similar- 
ity to each afchwcx to the other. 
And always and always there are rice fields, where 
men and women toil under huge hats that look like inverted 
wastepaper baskets. Egrets, marabou storks, and brilliant 
fairy blue birds fly over the flooded sawahs. 
It was just noon when we pulled into Bangkok. From 
pictures, I had imagined the whole city to be one of spires, 
and from the railroad Bangkok is a disappointment, for ?fje 
sees nothing but one-story wooden shacks, some of them thatched, 
but many with the inevitable corrugated iron roofs. ihe 
American charge d'affaires met us at the station, as did a 
half dozen newspaper photographers. How funny to have one's 
picture in a Siamese peper, with that curious language Making 
square-cut decorations above and beneath it that are illegible 
to usl 
We drove to the Oriental Hotel, which has the most 
unprepossessing approach of any hotel I have ever seen. One 
turns off New Road, which for the Mam Street of Bangkok is 
sing larly unattractive, down a narrow gravel road called a 
lane, and stops at the hotel door before one can eyen see the 
hotel, so hemmed in by luxber yards and silver smiths is it. 
The hotel itself is large, airy, and opening onto a green l.wn 
that runs to the river's edge. Upsta.ris a ^ verandah runs 
completely around the building, and the big, high-ceilinged rooms 
open off this - a cool and pleasant arrangement. 
Lunch at the Legation took a long time, and was very 
nice. The Chapaans are most hospitable, and offered to do 
anything they could for us. After we had left them we called 
at the shop bf P. Siah, a taxidermist, who has a few animals 
in his back yard, one monkey, a few birds, and quite a number of 
snrkes, including two huge pythons, a king cobra, and an albino 
cobra. 
Mr Minnigerode, the Consul, came in to call about 
six o'clock*, and took us out to the Sports Club for dinks - 
a big, old fashioned building, with a. beautiful swimming pool 
and I cool lawn where we lay back in rattan chain and drank gin 
slings and wondered how people ever settled down to life at home 
after being spoiled to depth in the East. 
