Bangkok,Thailand

Sharon and I were a little uneasy about this port. Sharon always worries when we change countries and I was worried because of the stories associated with Bangkok. But what an adventure we had!

Dennis had signed us up for a over night tour. There were two bus loads of people going on this trip. The tour guides had to rearrange the tour because the Grand Palace was going to be closed on the second day when we were suppose to go. We think that it is a little strange but they were holding a "rehearsal cremation ceremony" for Princess Galyani Vadhana Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajangarindra (the king's mother) who died in April. This was just a rehearsal and the cremation won't take place until next month sometime.

I wasn't sure what this country was going to look like after just leaving Vietnam. It surprised me because it reminded me a lot of Hawaii. They had modern roads and cars. Some of the people had motorbikes that live in the city. There was new high rise buildings intermixed with poor shacks and street markets. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive into Bangkok. Every country has a Chinatown section. (even China had one) That was our first stop in Bangkok. We stopped and looked at Wat Tian Fah. Wat means temple. Then we drove pass the flower market that is open 24 hours a day. Our next stop and the most exciting was at the Grand Palace. In Thailand they have over six hundred temples. There is one in every community kind of like Mormon churches in Utah. At the Grand Palace the temple known as Wat Phra Keo is next door. This temple is meant to be used for the royals. I have never seen so much gold and glitter. I know my pictures will never do it justice. We needed to wear long pants, shirts with sleeves, and socks. We had to take off our shoes when entering the building where the Emerald Buddha was at. What is funny about this Buddha is that it's not realy made of emerald. Many, many years ago it was discovered by accident. No one knows who made it but to protect it from invading soldiers someone covered it with clay. One day someone noticed that part of the clay nose had broken off. That was when they could see the green color for the first time. Everyone calls it the Emerald Buddha but it is made from jade. We really didn't get to close to it and of course there was no picture taking.

In Thailand they practice Theravada Buddhism which is different from China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea. All young men have to do a once-mandatory 3-month service. The "novices" dress and live as monks while they study Buddhist principles. After the Grand Palace and temple, we went to a riverside restaurant for a Thai buffet lunch. Sharon still does not enjoy Thai food.

Once lunch was finished we checked in at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel. Our tour guides offered to take anyone that wanted to go to a tailor store. Dennis and I went with a group to the store. Dennis ended up ordering six shirts. He got them the next day at lunch before we left Bangkok.

That evening our guides took us by water shuttle across the river to the Sala Rim Noam restaurant. No one told us that we had to take off our shoes and sit on the floor. Sharon and Dennis were having a very difficult time getting down to the table. Two waiters finally came and lifted the table up and they slipped in. Thank goodness there was a open space under the table to hang our legs over. We were not the only table that needed that kind of help. Some of the food was not to our liking. There was a dinner show after the meal.

We were sitting at the back of the room, so as the show was going on, we gracefully worked our way out from under the table while everyone was looking at the show. It took Sharon a while to get her shoes back on without a shoe horn but she did. We took the water shuttle back to the hotel just as it started to rain. Sharon had a hide away bed in our room. It was on the 22nd floor and had a beautiful view of the river and lights below. We enjoyed a regular size bathtub and great air conditioning.


The next morning we woke up to monsoon like rain!!! We had breakfast in the hotel and we had to be ready to go by 8:15 am. We were not sure if we wanted to go on tour or not but we all did. The bags were put on the buses and we were loaded onto a boat for a canal tour.


Lucky for us, the rain stopped in about a hour. We were able to see how many people live on the river. There was a man in a small boat that stopped at different houses along the river selling ice coffee and other goods. While traveling on the boat we went past where the Royal Barges are located. The barges are fabulously ornamented boats that are used during festivals and processions on the river. We couldn't get too close but we could see some of the front ones.


We were given bread to throw into the water just before we got off at the Temple of Dawn. The catfish would fight over every piece of bread thrown in the water. We decided that we would never want to swim in that water because the fish would eat us.

The Temple of Dawn was nice but nothing even close to the temple at the Royal Palace We had a lot of hard getting on and off boats on this trip but Sharon was a trooper.


We had another Thai buffet lunch at the Fisherman's Seafood restaurant. The best part of lunch was the air conditioning and the diet coke. The heat and the high humdity is very hard to take. After lunch we took the boat back to our buses. We stopped at a jewelry store before we left Bangkok. Thailand is famous for their sapphires, rubies, and gold jewelry. I bought me a sapphire ring and Dennis bought me some earrings. I am spoiled. We were very tired when the bus finally got back to the ship.

We still needed to get ready for another tour the next day. Sharon and I have a new motto: I Survived!