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View of River from Restaurant |
Early in
the morning, we depart our hotel in Cambodia and fly to Bangkok, Thailand. A tour guide, “Matthew”, meets us at the
airport and whisks us off for the hour drive to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel,
right on the river, for a buffet lunch.
This place is luxurious and the buffet tables are loaded with amazing
Thai food and desserts with amazing flavors and interesting textures. There is a cooking school associated with the
restaurant – might be worth coming to visit!
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Cooking on the street |
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Foreground are the slum areas |
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Tuk Tuk Taxi |
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Various Buildings at Grand Palace |
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Emerald Buddha Palace |
We next
bus around the city with Matthew explaining different sights. First, there are numerous slums located
between modern buildings. It turns out
the government can’t make the people move because of land rights – families who
have been on the land forever. It’s a
city with lots of history, smells, sights and sounds.
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Old Guard at Palace |
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New Guard at Palace |
Our main
stop is the Grand Palace. This is an
amazing array of temples erected by various Kings of Siam (including the Yul
Brenner “King & I” king, Matthew repeatedly assures us). There is also a temple here that houses the famous
Emerald Buddha (which is really made of jade but is still priceless). There is so much gold, colorful tile and
mirror here it is almost too much to take in.
Unfortunately, with the heat and the crowds and limited time, we are not
able to explore as much as we would have liked.
It is a huge complex.
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Wise Guy |
Back on
the bus for the two-hour drive to the Queen.
We see lots of trucks heading to Laem Chabang (which has interestingly
designated itself as “the Detroit of the East”) – the port where our home, our
room on the Queen Elizabeth, is waiting for us!
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I'm loving it! |
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