One Day in Bangkok

Arrived safely in Bangkok before midday on Sunday, all luggage intact. Decided to go into centre of Bangkok to see the sights. This involved an hour's taxi drive during which we got caught up in the red shirt protest. Managed to finally escape and get to the Royal Palace where there was some ceremony involving the King and Queen which meant no entry for a couple of hours. Somehow we were bundled into a strange vehicle - front of a motor bike with the back of a trailer, a motorised rickshaw that emits an awful noise - called a Tuk tuk. We understood that the driver was to give us a tour and then return us to the Royal Palace - Tuktuk driver's have minds of their own. We visited the Standing Buddha - a huge golden statue outside a temple. The place was heaving with people and as we were wandering about trying to make sense of the place we were collared by a Thai man - a teacher employed by the Government to give free tours as this was a special Buddhists' day and people were doing a lot of praying. We removed our shoes and entered the temple and sat on the floor to the side of the praying area where this nice man explained a lot to us. Mainly he seemed to be saying that The Thai Government wanted us to reassure Irish people that Bangkok is safe to visit - the red shirt demonstration might suggest otherwise. Back to the Tuk tuk - getting in and out of a tuk tuk is quite a feat for me and quite a strain on my clothes - and next visit jewellery number1 where we dismounted. This was followed by several more jewelleries, a tailor's, another tailor's, more jewelleries etc. It seems that the Tuk tuk driver was entitles to free gasoline if he broufght us to a number of places. When we showed little enthusiasm for these places he told us to "slowly look, try on, ask for price ..." otherwise he would not get his free petrol. This approach was successful as I found myself increasing my ring collection! Having finally seen the Sleeping Buddha - a huge golden statue lying in a Temple - we decided to give the Royal Palace a miss as the driver had shown great reluctance to return us there anyway.

Travelling by Tuk tuk is just as much an exercise in trust as is travelling by cyclo in Vietnam. During the first leg the wind took Jim's hat - it was restored to him several minutes later by a very kind motorcyclist! On the second stop the engine would not start so we had to be pushed by some obliging passer-by. There were quite a few of these as the engine refused to start after each stop. Then we ran out of petrol and were abandoned alongside some buses as driver went to call for help. Meantime the buses pulled away leaving us stranded in the middle of the street! Finally we got towed by another Tuk tuk to a filling station and after another push-start we were on the road again.

We returned to the hotel after these adventures in Bangkok and took it easy over a nice meal and some drinks. At an early hour there were 2 large sleeping (one snoring!) buddhas in room 418.

Goodbye Asia! Next stop Sydney then Brisbane.