Saturday January 5:Bangkok Arrival in Bangkok is a chaotic frenzy of people, customs officials, shoppers, greeters, taxi and limo drivers offering a “good deal” ride to the center of Bangkok.The guide books and GAP (tour company) information sheets advises you to pass them by and head for the government-run taxi stand where you get a slip of paper written in Thai telling the driver where you want to go.You have a choice of the regular road or the faster toll road.The toll road is good during rush hour.Even though I arrived at 11am, I took the toll road. The hotel was in the heart of Bangkok with banners strung across the road proclaiming “Long Live the King” complete with photos of him at every age – he is now 85.The king’s sister had died on December 10 and the country was still in their official mourning period – virtually everyone was wearing black.
The Bangkok hotel overlookiing a busy street
Archway in tribute to the king - in front of hotel
The view from my hotel room
Bangkok street - traffic circle
I spent the morning visiting the Giant Buddah and the GrandPalace followed by a foot massage that brought me back to life. Applying gold leaf to the statue is an act of devotion.
Gold foil being applied as an act of devotion
The Giant Buddha
The temple cat cleaning herself
The walls around the Grand Palace
Gardens of the Grand Palace
The Grand Palace
Statues of giant guards
An act of devotion
Thai statues supporting the building
Huge groups of tourists - mostly Thai
And always the souvenir shop
Model of Angkor Wat
Sunday, January 6:Bangkok I found an Internet shop and tried to figure out how to write this journal and how to upload photos - The size of my photos at 6MP was too large so I went down to 3.1MP, which made for faster uploading. I also took some photos vertical - trying to rotate them was a bit hit or miss until I figured it out.
A huge model of the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia reminded me of my trip there two years ago.
to continue, go to Asia 2008 and click on Thailand 2
