THAILAND TRIP
6 - Bangkok 21st - 24th February
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Thursday 22nd February

Our main visit this morning was to the main Royal Palace. The King and Queen don't normally reside here, but there are rooms for visiting dignitaries. The whole place was most elaborate and consisted of a variety of Buddha temples, burial places and state rooms. We saw so much and were told so much that we became completely confused, so I won't try and give any descriptions to these pictures.
 
 
 
 
 
 
When we left the Royal Palace we visited a temple with an enormous reclining Buddha. The second biggest in the whole of Thailand. He did have ten toes even though you can only see three on the right of the picture. Then flat feet all inlaid with mother of pearl.
Then Martyn and Padoong took us to the British Club. Andy insisted on wearing his Regimental tie.
Inside the club it was all cool and peaceful apart from the fact that most of it was going through a major refit and redecoration. Here we sat on comfortable chairs for drinks and lunch.
Nigel decided to embarrass Joyce.
Our final visit was to a very small temple where they had a golden Buddha statue. Made entirely of 24 carat gold and weighing some five and a half tons. It was originally discovered after the war encased in concrete. Presumably to conceal it and prevent it from being stolen. Some of the concrete fell off and they discovered the solid gold underneath.
Friday 23rd February

A very early start to get to the famous Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. When we arrived we were taken on a boat to the market area along the maze of canals.
Not all came on this trip. Only nine of us out of the 21 total, plus Jume our guide.
On the way back we stopped off at Nakorn Pathom where there is an enormous pagoda. The largest in south east Asia.
We stopped for lunch at the Rose Garden which is a wonderful resort. After a splendid lunch we were given tickets to the cultural show.
Just inside the gate we met a baby elephant who gave Judy a kiss.
Then Raymond,
and finally Andy.
The wedding scene from the cultural show.
Dancers from the cultural show,
The finale of the cultural show.
Our last evening we held a party round the swimming pool. David organised the entertainment which went on until 10.00 pm when they wanted to shut the bar
Saturday 24th February.

Our very last day and Martyn and Padoong took us to see the Suan Chatuchak Weekend Market. This is the World's biggest weekend market selling practically everything under the sun. There are almost 9,000 individual booths overflowing with every imaginable type of wares to catch your fancy.
Although we walked for simply miles and miles we hardly saw more than a small fraction of the whole market. After this it was back into the bus for a short drive to a restaurant for lunch, then back to the hotel to do our packing.

This evening we leave the hotel at 6.00 pm to go out for a final dinner before catching our plane back to England.
We had dinner in a lovely restaurant by a lake.

Jume, our guide for the two weeks.
Final group photo before leaving to catch the plane home.

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