16. Bangkok, Thailand.

The ship docked in Laem Chabang which is the main seaport for Bangkok, about 2.5 hours drive from the capital. Thus it was another early start.

The journey in to the suburbs was on a six lane highway and not too difficult. The views along the way were of a rather built up countryside, consisting of light and heavy industry, warehousing, housing and the inevitable shops and stalls along the verge. The closer we got to the city, the more dense this became.

Bangkok is a big city, and when I say big city, I mean a very big city and with a traffic problem to match. The endless skyline is one of tower blocks and skyscrapers which hide most of the narrow streets, apartments, and slums. It is certainly a city of contrasts. Approaching the city and throughout downtown , the motorways become "double or even triple deckers", but this does little to alleviate the congestion. For the pedestrian, there is an overground rail system known as the Skytrain which appears to run efficiently over a wide network. The city centre is therefore a concrete jungle in every sense.

Our main purpose of the city visit was to go to Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. Now, I am not always a great one for culture but the main temple and its surrounding ones were something to behold. The Buddha is easily 30 metres long and painted with gold leaf. There are also hundreds of smaller icons, also all gold leaf and the towers pointing skyward are incredibly intricate and ornate.

After our visit we then ventured into the city centre proper. Many of the routes were lined with yellow flags, flowers and pictures of the King as it was his birthday just a few days ago. (In Thailand each day of the week has a particular colour). Unfortunately time was short as it was a long drive back to the ship so we only had time to have a brief look around some of the local streets where the vendors and small business owners were hard at work. This being Thailand, we did however want to have time for a bit of lunch and enjoyed a local Thai green curry with rice and pad Thai noodles with chicken. Very tasty indeed! 

To make things a little more comfortable on the return drive, the seats on the coach came with built in back massagers....I expect the nearest thing I will ever come to a Thai massage!