Flight to Bangkok - return to the ship

Breakfast at 6:30 AM this morning - so we can make a morning flight to Bangkok at 9:50 AM. The flight is delayed a little, but we leave on Bangkok Air, “the boutique airline”.  For a 50 minute flight, they manage to provide us with a cold towel to refresh ourselves, and then a box with juice, water, and two small sandwiches. We meet our guide, and drive to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for lunch. Traffic is practically grid lock - as we have to cross the river to reach the hotel.

Bangkok River

Lunch Buffet 

The lunch is elaborate - more than 50 Thai dishes, from delicate crab curry custards, to prawn lemongrass soup, fish in red chili sauce, deep fried mushrooms, and mango with sticky rice. Each dish has a Thai name, and some English translation. I finish the meal with fried banana in a sweet coconut milk.

Palace Buildings

After lunch, and more traffic, we arrive at the royal palace and temple of the Emerald Buddha. The palace is brightly colored, with towers and domes and many building

















We take off our shoes to see the Buddha - he is dressed for Summer. His clothes are changed three times a year. The Buddha is not actually emerald, but green jasper. He is the most important Buddha in Thailand. Some of the buildings were built after the King’s visit to Europe, so they combine both European architecture and Thai in a single building.

Thai-European Architecture

Our Guide with pictures of the Emerald Buddha

The bus, which had dropped us off at the palace, is lost and delayed in the traffic. By the time it arrives to pick us up (another day of 98 degrees), we are too late for a scheduled shopping stop. We have at least a two hour drive to the port where the ship is docked. The traffic leaving Bangkok is moving at a glacial pace. We were scheduled to be back at the ship by 5:30 PM. We actually arrive close to 7:00 PM. Once we are aboard, the ship sails almost immediately. We have missed our normal seating (6:00 PM), not that we need to eat. In the end, we have a light meal on the Lido Deck - one of the other alternative dining venues. We shower and retire right after dinner - Our ship will be in Ko Samui the following morning. A Thai island that is developing as a beach resort destination.