Bangkok
Eastern Time plus 12 hours (Liz thinks 11 hours)
We arrived in Bangkok and met Liz and Tim at the airport for our transfer to our hotel. All went well, although everyone was a little bedraggled after a day of touring in the heat. Liz and Tim were in Cambodia and we were in Vietnam. They say they have 3 seasons…hot, hotter and hottest. They aren't kidding. People wonder how we can stand Florida in the summer, but it is nothing compared to this.
We were up early for our 6:30 AM pick up by Tong, our tour guide. Tim was sick due to something he ate in Cambodia and I twisted my ankle on some weird steps getting into the van, but we were off!
We had a luxury van which was very plush and wonderful to ride in. Liz had set up our tour and decided it was worth the extra for a really nice van for our long day ahead. We were really able to spread out and relax.
Our first stop was the porcelain painters to the Royal Family. Porcelain painting is one of the crafts of Thailand. It is absolutely beautiful! I kept waiting to find just the right piece and somehow ended up without a piece when we left Thailand. They are all so different.
I couldn't take a picture inside with the young artists, but this is some of the finished product. They work full time on pieces for the Royal family to use and gifts for the Royal family to give. Right now they are working on pieces for the Crown Prince.
There were many beautiful orchids and other flowers outside.
We finally arrived at the floating market which was about a two hour drive out of town. Yes, it is a little touristy, but I wanted to do it and everyone else was willing. We all had breakfast and Tong had coffee in a bag!
Next stop was to buy monkey food for the wild monkeys. We bought enough bananas and cut watermelon to overfill a large wheelbarrow!
We climbed into the low, long boat (with a makeshift Bimini top!) and set off down the river. We passed through this remote village that had a lot of activity. The river narrowed and we entered a mangrove area that looked a lot like home.
We entered the bay and drove around checking out the stilt houses and “seed gardens”. The seed gardens were areas where seed shellfish and clams had been set out to grow until large enough for harvesting. These huge areas were partitioned off by the fishermen and they know who has what area.
We also “talked” top a man fishing for or harvesting cockles. There were many people in the water doing this or something that looked like this and almost all were wearing this type mask. Many of the women seemed to be floating on a board for part of the time. Next we checked out the oyster farm.
Next stop was the wild monkeys! A man Liz knows from Fodor's wrote this description of the Monkey visit. I have changed it just a little so it is accurate for our experience.
We went to the other side of the river and entered a larger mangrove area....the boatman yelled out and oh my god they responded....soon there must have been 100-200 monkeys all around us...they can swim btw...they were in the trees, they were in the water, they were jumping from tree to tree...they were overhead in the trees...they surrounded us....so out came the bananas...the boat man had purchased 500 Baht worth of them....this is a ton of bananas!! For about an hour we sat there and fed them...they became more aggressive as time passed.... were old men monkeys, mothers carrying babies, and every sort of monkey you have ever seen....it was so much fun...and it was the unique experience we were looking for...
I think this is the write up hat sold Liz on the unique tour to “the secret place"! Wow!!!!!
At one point we decided to throw to the monkeys in the other side and that is when they decided to swim.
Next we went to the largest of the stilt houses for lunch. The first step was to climb up a huge bamboo ladder/stair thing to get into the house. The tide was extremely low so the ladder was extremely high. I did haul myself up even though my ankle was really starting to bother me by then.
We had a wonderful lunch followed by a nap. We fell asleep in the gentle breeze on cots and reclining chairs. Unbelievable experience. The woman who made our lunch (Tong told us we could call her Champion) was the boatman's sister-in-law and a masseuse! She worked on my ankle. It helped a lot. They even mixed up a concoction to cure Tim of his ailment.
We got back into the van and headed back to Bangkok and the traffic! We explained that we are used to traffic from FMB. We sure were glad we weren't driving!
We had a very unique and enjoyable day I will always remember. Thanks Liz for the great planning.
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Day 2 Bangkok
Tong picked us up at 8 AM and made very sure the driver did not park near the stairs I fell down. She wasn't taking any chances.
We toured Bangkok in the morning and then headed back to the ship about 2 PM.
Most of the day was taken up with Buddhas and the Grand Palace. The Golden Buddha is solid gold. It was found in an abandoned temple covered with concrete to mask its value. The only way it was discovered was that a piece of cement broke off to reveal the gold.
We also saw the Reclining Buddha which is covered with gold leaf and the Emerald Buddha.
The Emerald Buddha is much smaller and inside but pictures had to be from outside and the pictures didn't turn out.
We spent most of the morning in the Grand Palace. The complex was built in 1782 by King Rama. Most of the buildings are decorated with spires, gilt and mosaics.
We spent a lot of time in the museum and learned so much from Tong. The people absolutely love the king, but do not care much for the Crown Prince. She really brought the country and history to life. I even cried when she was telling us about the death of the King's sister and how great their mother (who was a commoner) was.
After the Buddhas and Palace we had a great lunch that Tong ordered for us.
We had a great time in Bangkok thanks to Tong and Liz and their collaboration!
Jeff and I were picked up by a private driver and headed back to the ship.
We had a great train ride. It was great to see bright blue skies. We haven't seen much of that in months! Italy was welcoming us back. I was grinning ear to ear. It was so great to be there!
Our landlady was nice, but didn't speak English. We managed to work everything out with sign language and my Italian phrase book. When I asked to take her picture she ran off to primp a little.
This is a picture of the train station from the window.
We joined into a free tour given by a young guide from Louisiana who was really good. We got his contact info and will definitely contact him the next time we are in Rome to join one of his paid tours. I am reading The Ruby Ring by Diane Haeger about the life of Rafael Sanzio, the artist. He is buried in the Pantheon. I was interested in the facts about him. Jason was an excellent guide and really brought the Pantheon to life.
We continued over to Piazza Navona to wait for Colleen.
