If you ever think about what to take with you for such a long time.. i had the same problem and ended up with this:
I arrived at Bangkok at the day where the king celbrated his 80th anniversary (december 5th). And it was not only the king.... many many people around the streets. Nearly all of them weared yellow shirts, some pink ones. With this pic you could imagine how it was looking like:
These are the colors of the king. I was lucky to arrive early. If it would have been later I really would have been problems to reach my hotel. It is close to the place where all the ceremonies had happened.
Yesterday i wanted to visit the kings palace but it was closes. This happens when officals visit the king. And of course yesterday that happened. So I only was able to see the temple close to the kings palace. This one was very beautiful, it has a small green jade buddah inside. This one protects the monarchy and the kings family.
Today i visited the palace and some other temples. Its really amazing how detailed crafted and beautifull they are. I meet two guys from australia and we visited the temples together. We wanted to meet tonight again for the entertainment street Kaosan but i missed them because i stuck in the traffic with a taxi. The traffic here is really bad. You can either choose to ride a bike, this means to sit behind a driver. This is the fastest way to get from one point to another. But also the most dangerous one because these guys drive like crazy. They also have some special family bike as you can see here. Now a riddle for you: How many people can be transported with a bike.. Have fun counting:
Up to now i have not used them. The other possiblity is to use a TUKTUK which is a three wheel bike, the driver in front and a bank in the back for up to three persons... or up to 6 Thais :-)
The tuktuks could bring you to the place where you want to go but possibly with some stops at souvenir shops ....
I was lucky so far, no stops....
The last option is to go by taxi. This is good if you insist that they put on the meter. Very cheap. 1 Euro for the first 2 kilometers.
I saw nearly no trucks inside the old town. I really was wondering how all the supplies come to the houses.
On tuesday i did a boat trip with a long boat. This was funny. They charge for the boat not by person. I did it until i found 3 other people to join me. From the boat you see how people live in there houses. This is really interesting.Very small houses!! You also see some very nice temples.
Bangkok is very interesting for me. I never have been in asia and here many things are really different. The way they speak english is sometimes hard to understand. For example if they dont have the thing i want they say: No have..
That it so far.. Tomorrow is my last day here in bangkok then i will fly to Ko Samui to meet my friend Ralph there. Dont know if i will write something tomorrow, unfortuantly i dont have internet in my hotel so I have to write from an internet cafe.
Greetings to all of you!! Michael
