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Sawadee (Again) !

We just returned from our 5th trip to Thailand for some r&r--in a warm climate.  It was our 3rd trip to the island of Samui but we scheduled in a full day in Bangkok on the way, so that was something new!

Bangkok is Huge.  Diverse.  Noisy.  Smelly--both good and bad.  The word teeming totally applies.



This post will be all about Bangkok.

We hit the public transit first thing as traffic is just too grinding to get anywhere in a timely manner.  We began and ended the day on the sky train with a canal taxi in the middle (who knew Bangkok has 3 big canals running through it?).  --and LOTS of walking.






Did I mention the walking?  See if you can find the common denominator in the following pics:





...like, Randy's back???  His daughters have lots and lots of memories of Randy Myer Walking Tours.  Where we only see the back of his head.  For hours.

But we did see some sights!

 A disclaimer here.  This is the Grand Palace where the King still lives.  We got close.  We got in through the front gate that funneled 1,000 people through a little tunnel, 2-3 abreast.  I even rented the required lovely blue polyester button-up shirt to cover up my immodest shoulders.  Alas.  It was VERY hot and VERY humid with crazy LONG lines.  Everywhere.  Don't let the above photo fool you--the place was packed out--that's just the line to get a ticket.  We decided to walk around a bit and then exit.  No regrets.  Not one.

 A bit of contrast


oh, and the markets!  The Indian Market was chock FULL of fabrics!






Next, a visit to Koh Samui !

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