Day Two - Bangkok

In common with many cities the river in Bangkok is a major focal point. It may not be as grand as the Seine in Paris but provides an important thoroughfare for the city.Our hotel is situated on the opposite bank from the main city and therefore most journeys require the assistance of the hotel ferries.There are three of these in operation;one takes you to the Sky Train station another to the river boat quay and the third to the Peninsula’s own jetty.It was here that we were dropped off last night from the airport saving our driver the problems of crossing the Taskin Bridge at rush hour.

Our room overlooks the river and we have been passing some time just watching the assortment of river craft plying their trade.These photos illustrate what I mean.

 

It was therefore fitting that our first trip should be on the Choa Phraya river, the appropriately named “River of Kings” taking us to the Grand Palace.We took the public river boat from opposite the hotel disembarking at pier 9 near the palace. After a short walk through a local market we arrived at the main gate of the palace.They must of been expecting us because this was the greeting we got.The palace itself is no longer used by the Royal family and is a very popular tourist attraction,in fact Sylvia commented that there were far too many tourists making photo taking very difficult.We still managed to take about 50 and here are a few examples(plenty more for people to see when we get home!!!).  

After spending a few hours walking around we decided to return to the hotel and get some lunch.Sylvia decided to chose an egg noodle and duck soup for which she was given chopsticks and a small spoon to aid consumption.Eventually she resorted to borrowing my knife and fork to cut the noodles.

  In the afternoon I took a trip to view a geek’s paradise ,the emporium MBK which is a seven story department store containing every electronic device you could want, including a whole floor of mobile phones.In addition to the devices every DVD ever released (and some that haven’t yet been)were on sale.On my return to the hotel I picked up Sylvia and we spent an hour in the Pat pong market,a rather seedy experience but one that had to be done.

Tomorrow will be spent shopping.

Just for information if you click on any of the photos in the blog they will be enlarged.