Or first ever travelblog from Bangkok Thailand

---

Hello everyone.



After successfully enduring the 22 hours of flights plus two airport layovers we arrived in Bangkok. We went to sleep.

When we woke up it was time to start exploring. After arranging some out of town excursions we headed out into the big city. Our hotel is quite close to a major canal and river system so we walked down to the river and caught a boat to the temple of Wat Arun. It was very cool. We climbed to the top. It was very steep. At the top you get spectacular views of the city, river and surrounding temple grounds. Also at this site was an area with rows of golden Buddhas which Lisa found very exciting as she has always wanted to see it. After leaving Wat Arun we headed across the river to some other large temples. Unfortunately They were "closed" according to the "helpful Tourist policeman". "Fortunately" he said " there are other temples nearby. This tuktuk driver can take you to them and as a bonus she will take you to a good jewelry place for only 500 Baht." 500 Baht is about $15. We declined the offer but didn't think to check if the temples were open. We should have checked as he had lied to us. Instead we went shopping at a famous amulet market. There are thousands of merchants on the street and Lisa was very careful to give each one a fair amount of attention. She picked up ten amulets from one vendor for the sum of $1.50. It was getting late in the day so we started to walk towards the national museum. The museum was great but we didn't have a lot of time there.

On day 2 we went to the Floating market. It's a famous market about 90 km north of Bangkok. We went with a small group in a mini bus. The bus took us two blocks and our guide said "Everybody out." It was now time to move to the second bus. WE all moved to the second bus and the guide and driver walked away with no explanation. The trip was off to an unusual start. About ten minutes later they returned with one more passenger. We are always a bit hesitant about taking the pre-arranged tours as you have little control over them. Eventually we got to the floating market. The market was built by Chinese people fleeing the communists. There are hundreds of canals and, although we initially thought it seemed very touristy it actually turned out to be a great experience. We have to catch a plane to northern Thailand now so we'll sign off. We have attached a few pictures some of which have stories we will tell you about later.

---

Photos

Floating Market
light traffic- usually bumper to bumper

Elephants walking by
cause elephants are just cool
they walked by while we were visiting one of the temples

Thai kick boxing
stories about that later

The rows of golden buddhas
probably boddhavistas (sp?) actually

Comments

[Patrick and Carol]

Great Report
Was wondering if you could make it work. We enjoyed it and are looking forward to more. Glad you are having a good time. Be safe.