Touring Around and Riding Away

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We started touring Bangkok early morning with the group. The Itinerary was to see the Grand Palace, the Jade Buddha, the Reclining Buddha and have lunch at the floating market before heading to the train station.

Grand Palace
Ahh yes, the opulence of monarchies well spent. The grounds built upon the original China Town rivals Buckingham palace. The possessions of the royal family on display go on and on. Pictures do better than words.

Beautiful Jade Buddha
They must love their Buddha’s, cause this one is essentially priceless. It is made entirely of pure unadulterated jade stone it measure about 3-4 ft high.... so yeah, its one big rock.


Running out of time and steam, to say the least, after touring the palace we decided to "make one" with commercialism and headed for the BMK (still don't know what it means exactly, aside from it being the Largest mall (or series of) I have ever visited.
It can be best described by Boxing day on speed and acid. Just to give you an idea, one floor was completely dedicated to cell phones and cell phone accessories. I kid you not, it must have been close to 500,000 sqr ft of commercial space chalk full of communications technology.... I was in heaven.
But wait it didn't end there, we made our way across the street to the Siam Complex, which did a great job reflecting the socioeconomic structure of Thailand.
The Siam Center was for the "have lessers”
The Siam Tower was for the "have a little bit mores'
And the Siam Paragon was difficult for even the tourists to get into. It was graced with white marble 10 stories high, it was abound with Armani, Gucchi, and Chanel.... no knock offs here!
I was even served a drink while I waited for my cell phone to be serviced!!!

After our dive back into unadulterated commercialism we took a quick cab ride over to the train station to meet up with the rest of the group for our overnight ride to ChaingMai.

The Train Ride Sleeper car-
Being in such closed quarters we had an opportunity for the group to get to know each other a bit more. I retired a bit early and tried to get some extra shut eye, which later turned out to be rather futile. Regardless I was able to fit in few hours of “interrupted” sleep prior to arriving in ChaingMai 7:00 the next morning.

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Photos

Dunkies
This is for you Kelly

Comments

[Phill]

Mall Pic
FYI, the pic is posted upside down. Cool effect.

[Kevin Galley]

Dunkin' Donuts
They have that in Aruba too. It became a breakfast location of choice...

[Tom]

Cell phone mall
Andre Did you get the cell phone keys replaced by little jewels? T