The next morning, we had our
breakfast at the River Café and Terrace and we boarded our tour bus.
We did a sightseeing drive
through Bangkok’s Old Town. As we drove through the Old Town we passed the
flower market. It is stall after stall of fresh flowers. They are open 24x7.
Our first stop was to visit Wat
Po (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). There are a lot of these reclining Buddhas
in the area. This one is made of cement, and then covered in gold leaf. Our
guide pointed out to us he is reclining, not sleeping. This Buddha is over 200
years old.
We then drove across the town to our next stop.
The ever-present jewelry
factory.
We had lunch at the Royal Princess
Hotel. It was a very good lunch and we had a nice table of friends to eat with.
We then took a tuk-tuk to our
last stop the Royal Palace.
Normally the Royal Palace is
open to the public all day. Today, though, the Royal school was having their graduation
ceremonies at the palace in the morning, so it was closed.
So, everyone and I mean
everyone, went in the afternoon. There had to be at least 30,000 Chinese visitors
there as well as all the Viking and other excursions. It was a mad house, and
it was hot. It was very beautiful, but that was not the day to see it.
We headed first to the Temple of
the Emerald Buddha. It is next to the Grand Palace and was built 236 years ago.
It was erected so the king would not have to walk far to go to the temple. The Buddha
is very small and is made of jade, not emeralds. But, back then they mistook
the jade for emeralds.
The buildings where the family
resides are off limits, and you can tell as there are not tourists there.
And then there is the Grand
Palace itself.
We were then off to our three-hour
bus ride back to the ship. It had been a long two days. But, we are not done,
tomorrow we are riding elephants.
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