Thailand Trip day 3 - Gold, so much Gold !!

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Today was all about Gold.
There was no shortage of other precious metals and stones, but nothing could outdo the Gold.
We started the day at the Grand Palace and temple of the Emerald Buddha.
Next was Wat Pho - the temple of the huge reclining Buddha, after which we took a boat trip past Wat Arun (had wanted to see it from close up, but it was on the other side of the river, and we were told that it looked better from the river).
Words cannot describe the grandure of the Palace and the Temples - they are really beautiful, and Jerry (our guide from the previous day) gave us some excellent explanations.
When we were finished at Wat Pho, we walked to the place where the late Princess Galyani, the King's sister, was cremated. We missed all of the ceremonies (see here ) for pictures, but we did see (and wait with) thousands of people, walking past to show their respects.
Next on the agenda was the Pak Khlong market - a very large and busy wholesale market for fresh flowers and vegetables. The flowers were really beautiful. After that, a boat up the Chao Praya, with Jerry telling us that the forecast is that within the next few years, the river will overflow its banks so badly that parts of Bangkok will be completely flooded. I don't know how real the threat is, but I'm glad we had the chance to visit Bangkok before that.

OK - So I'm only 14 months late in updating this blog, so what?
Actually, I got a reminder from our Australian friends Renate and Alex that they look at my blog every now and again, to see whether I wrote anything more about this trip, but didn't see anything. I must admit to having been rather busy since then, but it really is time for me to add a short writeup, as I have a few more trips to add since then !!

So, back to day 3. We had planned to visit the Golden Mount in the afternoon, as there was a festival going on while we were in Bangkok. However, in the end, we changed our plans, and went to Jim Thomson's house. We had a light lunch/high-tea while waiting for our English language tour, which was very interesting, if a little challenging English-wise ;-)

The rest of the day is a little fuzzy - we said farewell to Renate and Alex at some stage, and spent time at a couple of markets (don't remember which ones). I think that was about it for that day.

The rest of our trip is going to be on the next post. I hope it won't take another 14 months to write it :-)

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