Mackens in Japan: Thailand Day 4

None of the other people on the tour have made it to Thailand. It seems they have accepted refund or rebooked for another date. This is a bit of a pity as one of the main reasons for booking on the tour was so that we were part of a bigger group and the kids had someone to play with. Never mind it much better to be in Thailand than stuck in Heathrow or missing your holiday altogether.

This morning John the guide suggested we should visit China Town. The Thai King has been encouraging Chinese to settle in Thailand for many years and as a result there is a thriving Chinese community here.

First stop was the temple of the Golden Budda. This combines a museum about the life of the Chinese in Bangkok with the temple in which the golden budda image is kept.

The story of this budda is really interesting. The budda was created 700 years ago and was kept in the old capital. In the 1950's they decided to move it to Bangkok. They have always assumed that the budda was made of plaster and covered in gold leaf. However part was through the move they dropped the budda and cracked the plaster. This revealed that underneath was real gold covered in a layer of plaster and gold leaf so they decided to remove the rest of the plaster. This revealed a 5.5 tonne, 15ft high, 23 carat gold budda.

It's in the Guiness Book of Records for the most expensive religeous artifact, in 2003 it was worth £35M. It sits all day in a temple with no real sign of any security. Would be good for a Thai version of the 'Italian Job'

Next we walked around the streets of China Town. The Chinese were avid traders so many arrived with no money or posessions and built up successful businesses. As a result the streets were full of people seeling all sorts of stuff. It was packed. At one point we walked down a narrow alley full of stalls, people and motorcycles and trolleys all trying to get through the tiny space.

There were also lots of gold shops, The Chinese traditionally invest their spare money in gold. This is apparently a very good place to buy gold.

We they walked down to the river and caught the river express. This is a river taxis service run for the locals. The guys on the boat were expert at mooring and unloading passengers at supper speed. They used a whilstle to signal to the captain when to reverse, stop engines etc...

After a 20 minute journey we hopped off and walked back the hotel.

This was our last day in Bangkok. We went to the main railway station to get the overnight train to Chang Mai in the north. The seats in the train converted to beds and we have a reasonable nights sleep before arriving at our destination at 0700 in the morning