Day 7 Bangkok Thailand

Today we are getting to visit Bangkok.  The port is about a 2 hour drive from the port in Laem Chabang, to Bangkok.  We are going as part of a group of 10 people that are on a tour booked privately, always a much less expensive trip than those organized through the ship.  A few days ago we found out that it is a big holiday today in Thailand and we would not be able to visit the Grand Palace as it was going to be closed to the public.  We also found out that one of the couples originally booked on the tour had cancelled their cruise due to health reasons, so a little scrambling from Cyndi (who we affectionally called our tour leader) another couple did join us.  Again, we should have known what was to come...

Laem Chabang Port

After going through immigration, getting our temps taken we are off on shore.  Our passports were also taken here so that when we visit other countries we don't have to do face to face, our passports are just reviewed.

Our tour van for the next 2 days, this was quite the party bus, all those lights go off inside, and the mirrors on the ceiling.  We were with a great group of people and had a fantastic 2 days touring with Sam and Sung our driver and guide

Bathroom break on the way to Bangkok, love the sign

Long tail boat cruise on the Chao Phraya River and canals

Royal Barges, not open today because of the holiday

Waterfront property, can't imagine what it is like in a storm.  Some homes were just left after storms, not worth even fixing them up

Vendor comes over to our boat to try to sell

Many different temples along the temple/canal

Our tour group of 10

We stopped and bought bread to feed the fish at the turnaround point on the boat tour, we were told these fish are not fished they are sacred

Wat Arun Ratchawararam Temple, the Buddhist temple we visited since Grand Palace was closed to tourists today

Sam our tour guide giving us some history and details on the temple.  He had been a monk, so interesting to speak to him

We were only able to climb part way up, top closed because of the holiday

View from as far up as we could climb

Lotus flowers and incense 

Lunch was a stop with free wifi, which everyone was excited to get on after being a couple of days off on the ship.  A great small buffet.  Discovered papaya salad, I will look for this for the rest of the trip, spicy!

Grand Palace, no visitors today, unless you are Royal

Drive through Bangkok market street on the way out

Our next stop is at the Wat Po reclining Buddha behind the Grand Palace.  It is 46m long. The soles of the feet are made of mother of pearl and are 3 metres high and 4.5 meters high

Feet of buddha

close up of feet, mother of pearl

Locals were putting something in every one of these pots on the far side of the buddha, it looked like coins

On our way out of the complex we watched these musicians playing traditional music

How many boxes can you carry on the back of a motorcycle? 

Next we are off to visit Golden Buddha (Wat Traimit) This buddha is made of solid gold and weighs about 5 tons.

The drive to/from Bangkok was not all that interesting, this is the only picture that made the cut.  We saw a few temples from the distance but mostly highway driving.

Back on the cruise ship, good dinner tonight again and off to the show