This country is perplexing and challenging in so many ways. I’m trying to keep an open mind. But after being told to put on a long-sleeved blouse instead of the 3/4-sleeve blouse and long pants I was wearing in 111-degree weather — because I wasn’t covered enough, I got a little ticked off. Well, maybe more than a little. It was hot. And I wanted to see this gynormous mosque and really didn’t want to troop back to the car to dig out another blouse from my suitcase.

But I did and I got to see the lovely mosque where the women get to pray. And the even larger and more elaborate mosque where the men pray. When I asked why the men got such a nice place, I was told that the women don’t have to come to the mosque to pray. They can stay home and pray because it is so difficult for men to concentrate and pray when women are around. This from a country where the men can easily go without eating for 12 hours every day during Ramadan. But they can’t control themselves around women.

Of course I keep telling myself that progress is slow. Heck, they only began getting universal electricity and water here in the mid 1980s. Most women still stay at home and lucky for them their yards are surrounded by 8-foot walls, so they can come outside in the evening with normal clothes on and their hair uncovered.

The countryside is vast, mountainous, dry and sandy. We actually got two days of raindrops — which we are told is very abnormal.

So, that is my first post-India illness cohesive thought. More to come if India stays away. Back to the capital, Muscat, tomorrow and then on to Abu Dhabi.

If there is a better place to stay, I’d love to find it.

Ken and I have fallen in love with this place and now Kelly is a raving fan, too! We have stayed here on every visit — except for once when the Peninsula hotel was brand new and was offering some crazy cheap rates. Ken will be sure to tell you that the phones were so new they rang all night long. We haven’t been back to the Peninsula.

Why is this hotel number one?

It starts when you walk in the door. The doorman bows to you and offers you a flower as he escorts you to your greeter.

You don’t check in at a counter. A beautiful lady in a pink Thai silk suit takes you directly to your room and fills out all the necessary paper work for you. She shows you around your room and introduces you to your butler.

Every floor has its own bulter, who brings you a welc0me drink and asks if you would like him to unpack for you. I’ve never had the nerve to ask him to unpack for me, but how decadent is it to be asked?

The rooms are not large but elegantly decorated with Thai silks, of course. Every detail of the room and bathroom is carefully designed. Oh, how I love a good design! The hallway to the room has a knee-high shelf that is roomy enough to open two large suitcases. There is a compartment to put your shoes at night so they will be shined in the morning and another compartment where a newspaper is delivered to you every morning.

There are orchids everywhere. On the desk (which has lots of plugs for your electronics), in the entranceway, by your bed and in the bathroom.

Every day you get a different fresh fruit with a little card explaining what the fruit is (sometimes exotic), plates, forks, knives and napkins.

When you leave your room, the butler rushes to the elevator to push the button for you! Whew.

There is ice in your ice bucket all the time. Fresh. Perfect and never melted.

Lights are easily controlled from your beside. There is even a night light so you don’t trip when you are getting up in the middle of the night.

One wall of your room is glass from ceiling to floor so you can see the incredible view of the Chao Phraya river below.

Everyone smiles and asks you how your day is. And they are sincere and happy to see you!

If you have laundry done, it comes back looking better than when you bought it. Here’s the beautiful box, lined with linen with your clothes.

When you use the pool, you have your own little cabana. The pool attendant brings you a cool cloth, fresh towels, ice water and mango sushi to refresh you.

It is a bit of a splurge to stay here, but not crazy expensive. On this trip, I rationalized by saying, “this could be my last time in Thailand and Kelly needs to stay here at least once.”

Besides this wonderful hotel, the people here are the sweetest and kindest anywhere. They smile, bow and are all around happy and accommodating. Taxies are much less expensive than in Tokyo and pretty much everything else is less expensive than Japan.

The food is incredible, beautifully presented and flavorful beyond description.

And of course the shopping is world class. Suffice to say we bought a new suitcase to take home our treasures.

We’re off on the bullet train back to Tokyo after spending three days in Kyoto. I gotta tell you I am still in love with these trains. They are just amazingly efficient, fast and smooth.

But enough about the trains. A bit about the city of Kyoto. Home to 1.5 million people, this is the old capital. You can’t throw a stick in this town without hitting a shrine. I mean it, there are shrines all over the place. Big ones, silver ones, gold ones and small ones. There are actually 1600 shrines and 17 are world heritage sites!

My favorite day was walking the Philosopher’s Path — a narrow paved trail along a crystal clear creek elevated a bit above the city. It was peaceful and quiet and the neighborhood of the silver pagoda — which really isn’t silver — they just call it that because the guy who built it was going to cover it in silver leaf. We spent the day wandering around and had lunch at the cutest little cafe with a husband-and-wife team who ran it. (or at least that’s what we told ourselves).

Kelly led me all over the city and we saw many, many more shrines and walked miles and miles. It was beautiful and exhausting. But fun!

We stayed in the Westin hotel, which I had selected because they had a deal on bed and breakfast and it was located near a lot of shrines. The location and the clean PJs every morning were the best things about the hotel. Oh yeah, they did have a great hamburger and french fries, too! The place looked like it had been built in the 80s and then added onto again and again and again. It was so chopped up looking that we even had a huge pillar in our room. The beds were nice and the room was fine, but if you are looking for charm or a bit of Japanese history, this isn’t the place to stay. I’m not really sure where is good, but a little research should give you some other options. There is a Ritz Carlton, but it is located out of town and I was afraid that location would be problematic for walking around.

On our last morning before returning to Tokyo for our flight to Bangkok, we stumbled upon the Kyoto Ceramic Arts Association store. It was full of gorgeous pottery and we found out the neighborhood around this store had lots of other cute pottery shops. This was near the Kiyiomizudera shrine.

This is our last day of our JR train pass, so we are heading back to Tokyo and then out to Narita Airport to spend the night at the Airport Hilton before our morning flight to Bangkok. Thailand here we come!!