27. Bangkok - Thailand

Although it is a 2.5 hour drive from the port up to Bangkok, we decided to get up early and make the trip anyway. The route itself is pretty straightforward, a four lane highway in each direction, but it resembled the M25 on a good day as we drew closer to the city. All the land between the port and the city seems to have been developed in one way or another and we passed everything from oil refineries to fish farms, fruit stalls to elaborate temples. Closer to the city centre the many modern apartment blocks and office buildings sit uncomfortably alongside corrugated iron built shanty towns and slums. (But having said that, many of the ramshackle dwellings did have a satellite dish attached to the roof.)

Once delivered safely into the city centre we set off to do a bit of exploration by ourselves. We had been advised that it would be best to avoid the area around the Grand Palace as the book of condolence for the late King had just been opened to the general public the evenings before and over 100,000 people were waiting to sign. We wouldn't have been able to move, yet alone get a taxi.

It is almost as if much of the city is built on three levels. At the bottom is street level, in the middle, the walking level and at the top, the highways and Skytrain, so we made our way along the walkways to the Erewan shrine, the shrine of the four faced Buddha. (I will have to check but I think this is the shrine that was the subject of a terrorist bomb attack a couple of years ago.) There were many people paying their respects, the shrine was covered in bright yellow garlands, girls in traditional dress were performing dances and the scent of incense hung heavily in the air. 

We continued our walk at street level, passing many vendors selling deliciously smelling street food and avoided the temptation to buy as our eyes did not recognise the fare and our stomachs would probably reject it anyway. One narrow street that we turned up was just a seething mass of people, cars, bikes, stalls, scents and colours...almost impossible to walk along....but a great experience!

The thought of the street food turned our attention towards lunch, so we went into one of the large and air conditioned malls and found the food court. I opted for some Thai noodles with spicy chicken and egg, whilst Claire found a mango salad with lots of spicy prawns and garlic. This was washed down with some iced tea and some lemongrass lemonade. All very delicious indeed!

Several of the shopping malls had their own books of condolence...the one that we went into for lunch had a queue going out of the entrance, along the walkway and around the corner...at least 400 metres for those joining at the end. Also, during this period of public mourning, the locals were being asked to wear dark clothes...and this request was being followed almost without exception. Black trousers, shirts, and skirts were everywhere to be seen on the streets and the local stores were selling very little else, at least in the shop windows. As we saw in Phuket and Koh Samui, the outward signs of how much the late King was revered were everywhere.

We finished our brief Bangkok experience with very refreshing fruity icecreams. Well, we did need to be fortified for the long drive back to the port. Thankfully the forecast thunderstorms held off for the entire day and the traffic coming back was not quite as heavy as on the way up, so we were back on the ship with 45 minutes to spare. We watched the returning coaches deposit the other day trippers at the  gangway from the comfort of our balcony, glad to avoid the wrath of Third Officer Susan as she hounded the last stragglers from the cruise terminal gift shop.