Our side trip to Bangkok had a single purpose.  In 1987, shortly after Tom and I first met, we took a dream vacation of a six-month “Circle Pacific” tour from Japan through southeast Asia and Australia.  One of our most memorable highlights of that trip was the Grand Palace in Bangkok.  We wanted to see if/how it had changed.  It’s been maintained, and even grown, and still very, very impressive.  But with a LOT more people today.

Because of the small flights out of Heho, the long drive, back, and the connections, it took all day to get to Bangkok.  The photo of the ATM is to remind us of our frustration with our inability to find any ATM to accept any of our cards.  See our summary on the last day’s post for our money issues.  Yes, Burger King was my dinner of choice that day.  The pool is below our hotel at the Riva Sulya.

The second day started at 8:30 with our guide, Om, walking us to the Grand Palace (almost hitting my limit of walking in the heat).  But the palace was gorgeous, as you’ll see from the photos below.  The highlight of the palace for Tom was the set of murals that have recently been restored that surround several of the buildings of the palace.  They tell the story of Ramayana, an epic Indian poem.  You’ll see some of the paintings below. Another famous sight is the Emerald (Jade) Buddha in the main palace hall. We liked the tall and colorful demon guardians and the half-woman and half-lion ‘apsonsi’.

After the palace, we walked through the largest wholesale flower market we’ve ever seen.  They do amazing things with every part of every kind of flower.  After that, we went to the Wat Pho Temple to see the reclining Buddha.  This was also one of the things we had remembered from 30 years ago.

Our hotel had only an outdoor restaurant and we needed air conditioning, so we ate in our room, and I gleefully found a cheese quesadilla on the menu.  I was one happy girl!

Tom was still a little sick with a cough that has come and gone since the Mekong and I didn’t want to go out in the heat again, so after over four weeks of “vacation”, we both finally took a day off and read.  It was delightful!

Cheryl

This is Om, our guide.