What A Day in Bangkok!

By the time we got to Bangkok, we had spent almost 24 straight hours in airplanes or airports. We were able to get some sleep on the 9 hour flight from Frankfort but as the plane made its approach, we were both pretty groggy. But as soon as we exited the plane, the adrenalin began to kick in and we were ready to tackle Bangkok.

If you don't know, I like to plan my own trips. I never use a travel agent or a tour company and I've spent a year planning this trip. Vietnam is pretty intricately planned but for Bangkok, because of having only 12 hours it was going to be a "cram as much in as we can" kind of day. But not a single thing followed any planning I had done. I had planned to take the express train from the airport into the historical district and then had mapped out a walking tour to take in the larger temples (called "Wat") and also some shopping.

We got onto the train well enough and made it to our destination of Makassan. I had planned on catching a taxi to the Grand Palace and then walking from there. But as soon as we were in the taxi, the driver told us that there was some special event going on around the Grand Palace and we couldn't go there until after noon. He then suggested taking us to some floating market about an hour out of Bangkok. Red flags went up and I decided to say goodbye to "Joe" our taxi driver. Had him drop us off on the river so we could go plan B and cruise the water and see a bit of Bangkok that tourists don't see. What a great turn of events! We had a boat all to ourselves and spent an hour or so cruising through the canals of Bangkok watching the everyday lives of people and snapping a 1,000 photos.

But the highlight of cruise had to be the stop at a snake farm and Mr. "I don't like snakes" Lalor getting wrapped up with a 15 foot python.

We then headed to Wat Arun... a magnificent temple and had to do the obligatory climb to the top. It wasn't as tough as the Great Wall in China, but this was almost straight up. I would have taken pics of Sonja coming down but I had to go back up and rescue her.

In one day we ended up riding on a plane, a train, a subway, 2 tuk-tuk's (3 wheeled motorcycle taxi's), 2 taxi's and a boat.

We're in the hotel in Hanoi now and absolutely dog tired. So, I'm going to cut this short and grab a shower. I'll post a ton of pics to picasa tomorrow.

Good Night All...