Thailand Day 2

We all waoke up early as we were still on Japan time (2 hours ahead). Went to breakfast at 0800. They had excellent buffet with real crispy bacon, something we don't get in Japan. Yum.

As we were finishing breakfast John (not his real name but no-one calls him by his Thai name) came to introduce himself. He was waiting for the rest of the tour to arrive from UK. Two families both with kids around Felix and Neve's age.

In the morning we planned to go to Chatuchak Morning Market and then headback to hotel for 1400 to meet the rest of the tour. The market was about 30 minutes away by taxi. It was huge, the first thing we can across was a shop selling bronze sculptures of various animals including a horse and bear that were close to life size. We wandered through the market for a few hours. The market is covered and you can walk for mile sup and down the narrow ailes between the stalls. We managed to find a number of things to buy including silk purses, necklasses, splat toys, and a rubber rat.

We then headed to restaurant for lunch and had more spicy Thai food washed down by a couple of beers (or Sprite in the kids cases). I think this is going to be a good holiday for food and also cheap. Lunch cost £15 for all of us.

We then jumped back in a cab to get back to hotel to meet the guide on the rest of our tour. When we arrived John explained that no one else had arrived that day. They were all stuck in the snow in the UK. We are hoping they arrive tomorrow otherwise we will have no one else to share our tour with.

In the afternoon John took us on a tour of the waterways of Bangkok. We took a river taxi from a nearby pier and headed towards the Royal Barge Museum. The river boats are amazingly quick. They are long and thin and typically have a dirty great truck engine mounted at the rear of the boat. They drive a long shaft and propeller that go few metres out behind the boat.

The Royal Barge museum is full of the Kings boats which he takes out on the river every now and then. Each boat has 30-50 oarsmen plus crew and passengers. It seems that a proper procession with have dozens of fancy barges accompanying the King, the Royal Family and lots of governement officials.

After this we zoomed off again to see the houses built on stilts all alongside the river. Little tricky to take photos when the boat is doing 20 nights along these narrow little inelts to the main river. We went on a circular route which eventually brought us back to where we started.

On the way we stopped to feed the catfish from the side of the boat. The catfish live outside a temple so no one is allowed to fish for them. It seems the monks do a good trade selling stale bread with which to feed the fish.

We then returned to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool. Then John took us out to a restaurant on the main backbackers tourist street. End less shops and stalls selling souvenirs. We avoided the urge to have our feet nibbled by fish, to buy a bucket of cocktail and have henna tatoos.

The far end of the street we hailed a Tuk Tuk for the white knuckle ride back to the hotel. Great Fun.

PS we bought new camera before the holiday. Steve made us do it because he had just bought new camera just before visiting in Japan. He then impressed us with the quality of the photos he could take. Not sure if it was the camera or Steve's skill as a photographer. We should know by the end of the holiday.

Quick Cola stop before serious shopping started

Plastic flower seller

Pleased to meet you...

Felix in skull and cross bone heaven. He negotiated hard to get one of these for his bedroom door

Lots of plastic fruit

Meet 'Spit' the rubber rat

Thai style speed boat. Check out the huge engine strapped on the back

We counted 46 dragon heads on the from of this Royal Barge

Speed boats wizzing past on the river

The view from the front of our boat

Feeding the Catfish in front of the Temple

Stlit Houses

This dog was sitting happily in the middle of the road, seemingly not worried about the traffice

Not even the road sweeping lady could get the dog to move... Very funny to watch her trying though

This was the backpackers favourite street

Bug seller

Arty picture taken from our Tuk Tuk (cross between car and motorbike)

This is the main street in the old town. Its decorated with lights for the Kings birthday on 5th December. Yesterday Mark Webber was racing his F1 car up and down here