After a very long sleep we descended to the Mezzanine level for a fantastic breakfast - there's a personalised omelette service - you just tell the man what you want in your omelette and he cooks it in front of you! There's also a good selection of breads, cereals, fruit. Anyway, then we met Kaem at 8am for our first tour. We had a private long boat which was fun but really splashy! On our trip down the river we saw lots of houses along the riverbank, many with little shrines the size of bird houses, or washing hanging outside, or even pots and pans on the outer walls. We stopped at a pier and bought bread to feed the fish - the fish were very hungry! They were some sort of carp, but looked a bit shark like to me. They would fight each other to get to the bread. We got out at Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) but Alice slipped and her foot went over the side into the river. Oops. The only injury was a big bruise on the opposite knee, and luckily she had sandals on, so they dried out quickly.
The Wat was very beautiful - lots of towers and statues. There were gold buddhas everywhere. We climbed some very steep steps up to a sort of balcony at one point. They were even steeper than Macchu Pichu!
Next was a gem factory which was interesting, then back to the hotel. Had a nap, then went to Siam on the sky train, which was interesting - good view of various buildings and gardens. Siam was ok but the most exciting thing was the band playing in the shopping centre with lots of teenage girls screaming!
This evening we decided to have dinner at the Oriental hotel which is on the river - it was really nice food, and cheaper than where we are staying, and had a nice view of all the boats going past with their lights on. After walking back via the crowd of Tuk tuk and taxi drivers trying to convince us we needed them, we went up to the Sky Bar in our hotel. It's on a sort of pier that juts out over the city from the 64th floor and the bar itself changes colour constantly. It was very busy, but a good view, although they seem to have some staff who's sole purpose is to tell you to mind the step (you can't see the steps very well in the dark).
Things we have learned today include that the King is very popular - he and his entire family do a lot of work for the Thai people including running several experiments into what crops should be grown where, and employing farmers to run these experiments. The King's colour is yellow, and many people wear yellow shirts in his honour. The King is in hospital at the moment, but reports say he has been doing well, so hopefully he will be out soon. |
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