Bangkok - March 18th

Ever since watching the James Bond long boat chase scene in “The Man with the Golden Gun” (link here), we have wanted to come to Bangkok and ride those boats. The local waterways are very much just like the movie, though we didn’t go nearly as fast as 007 (they wouldn’t let Joani drive). Here is our long boat coming to pick us up:

And here we are starting our ride:

And here is another boat passing us going the other way:

In Bangkok a modern citys rises next to quiet canal communities and alleys crammed with shops, houses and markets. And an opulent Royal Palace and many ornate temples displaying gold figures of Buddha.

One great stop was the Giant Golden Reclining Buddha at the temple of Wat Pho:

The head of the giant reclining golden Buddha. The Reclining Buddha is 150 feet long. It was made of brick, then plastered, then gilded with real gold.

The temple was built by King Rama I the Great who in 1782 established Bangkok as capital of the Chakri Dynasty. Some of his ashes are kept here. The current king, Rama IX, ascended the throne in 1946 and is the world's longest-serving head of state. 

Here is Joani at the mid-point of the giant golden reclining Buddha

This temple complex features over 1,000 Buddhas; here are a couple:

Khao San Road

No trip to Bangkok is complete without visiting Khao San Road, which bustles and rocks until 2:00 or 3:00 AM. Yes, the scorpions in the green plastic tub below are being sold as a snack to eat. Very popular with the male 20-something back-packers who come here from all over the world:

But Khao San Road is not the red light district of Bangkok. That would be Soi Cowboy. In the clubs there it’s hard to distinguish the girls from the lady boys and you can do or buy anything you could possibly think of; as well as many that you couldn’t even imagine. We did not go there.

Tomorrow: a second post from Bangkok featuring the Royal Palace, the Emerald Buddha, and the Temple of Dawn at Wat Arun.