BANGKOK

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The great city of Bangkok. A catch up blog on a city that we visited three times.

We spent a fair bit of time here as it was a hub for other travel in the region. We both arrived there on May 25 after leaving KoTao and from the fishing port of Champhon after travelling all day on a very nice bus.
We were incredibly lucky to have some good friends Scott (an old Architecture school buddy) and Tiss, living in Bangkok in a very swank apartment on the river. So nice to have all the amenities again for a bit. Many thanks to our gracious hosts.

It is hard to highlight anything in a city as diverse, chaotic, wonderful, affluent, poor, sinful, righteous and such a visual, sensual banquet. The river and canal ferry systems are marvellous and used to great advantage by everyone to get around. We went up to the far end of the city by riverboat to Ko Kret (Pottery Island) a very cool little artisan village that produces vast numbers of pots from the clay deposits that it sits upon. The Chatuchak Market (the largest market in S.E. Asia) is a mind blower and takes all day to see - if you can last that long. Of course there are temples everywhere including the mother of all Thai temples - Wat Phra Kaew at The Royal Palace. It looks like they sucked out the wealth of all SE Asia to do this one. And oh the food.

On June 1, Robin and Al split up. Yes but only for 6 weeks. Robin going to Bangladesh and Al going to Indonesia. Al came back to Bangkok briefly staying with another old University friend Randal and to get organized for some more island hopping and snorkelling around Ko Chang and Ko Samet. Then back to Bangkok to meet Robin on July 16 and connect with our Intrepid Tour - Bangkok to Hanoi. We both have other blogs on these adventures if you care to check them out. We also touched back into Bangkok, on September 13th, after Vietnam and Cambodia to catch our Sept. 16th flight to Hong Kong and then on to Manila on Sept. 19th.

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