9th December 2014 Bangkok THAILAND

Bangkok - Thailand 9th December 2014

Today started fairly badly - Steve, whose status as serious professional photographer, famed for attention to detail, had brought three flat camera batteries and no charger so our first mission was to go to a camera shop.  We figured that Bangkok might be OK for camera gear but Burma was going to be a challenge. The largest shopping center was our location called MBK with many hundred of shops and team adopted the "all for one and one for all" strategy and headed of by cab to get Steve's missing gear.
With mission completed and successful and another £3 worth of taxi fares there and back, we then resumed our day - The Royal Palaces and we headed with dignity and sophistication on two Tuk Tuks !!!
With Paul hanging out the back of theirs, desperately trying not to fall out and at the same time  tying to capture a picture of Steve with his head jammed in the roof of a much smaller Tuk Tuk ...not a pretty sight for anyone to have to endure.

The first half of the team boarding their luxury transport!

Bloody nutcase !!

Some people are better not being associated with !

Thai Porn is provided for passenger comfort and enhanced ride experience !!!

So having survived that experience we were at the front door of the Royal Palace.
Some bright spark (Janette) suggested that we would benefit from a guide and so we enlisted the assistance of a tiny Thai woman who was an official guide. Steve struggled with this and he requested an interpreter from Thai English to English English !!

The Royal Palace complex - more than a mere palace. By any standards its the most impressive place any normal mortal would see with so much architecture coated in tonnes of gold, mother of pearl and painted tiles.
Built in 1782, it consists of not only the Royal residences and throne rooms but it also houses a number of government office all of which is an unbelievable 2 miles in length.
After King Rama I was made king in 1782 and clearly not short of a bob or two, this meager offering was constructed,
Now, it is mainly used for ceremonial purposes and the government ofices are elsewhere in Bangkok but this has to be one of the most spectacular sites in relatively modern times.

Royal Palace

Constant maintenance

The Royal Monetary of the Emerald Buddha is still a religious site and photography and hats are not permitted ??.  This is one of the most important
sites in Thailand and where Buddhists  come to pray and celebrate the teachings of the Lord Buddha.  The green stones inside and on the statues are Emeralds now discovered to be from  1434.

  

Janette and Mandy with the incomprehensible English speaking tour guide. Janette was just laughing to be polite because we are sure she didnt have any clue as to what the guide was talking about !!

It looked good but nobody had a clue what she was talking about - thank god we had the English speaking one

Hello Sailor !!!

The Reclining Buddha - Wat Po.  Reclining Buddha ( the largest in the world) is laying down to pass into Nirvana. (obviously !!). This is about 50 metres long and probably 10 metres tall.

The Reclining Buddha - Wat Po

Yet more gold and more Buddhas. There are literally hundred of these around the site and photography can be quite futile !!!

After a serious overdose of Buddhism and enough Gold to make photography difficult we set off for our base back at you hotel. Apparently, our own hotel restaurant requires a one month lead time to book but we were already booked as resident with our riverside seats and a most fantastic backdrop across the River Chao Praya river.
If this is real Asian cooking - we will live happily for the next 40 days with utterly fantastic dishes for £20 including drinks 

                             

Beautiful food at every turn in Bangkok

                                                              

Rest after dinner. We had stunning with a very busy river in front of us.

And to end a perfect day - drinks in 30 degrees at night under moonlight.
Paul had mentioned that the Thai produce whisky that is very cheap and so Steve, ever the eye on quality scotch asked the girls to get some as they were shopping. Obviously, the request for whisky was not fully understood as they came back cheap with cheap brandy but only because the shop keeper said it was whisky really... they have since been dispensed with as spirit buyers suffice to say that i the face of adversity, Paul and Steve drank it.

Tomorrow we will have lunch with an old friend of Janette's meeting us in Bangkok and then we fly to the first main leg of our trip - Cambodia and Siam Reap.