Bangkok 19-20 March 2013

The ship docked about a two and a half hour drive from Bangkok so our tour spent a large part of our day driving on a highway.

Our first stop was to the Royal Palace at Bang Pa-In. There were not a lot of people there when we arrived and the grounds are huge so it felt very serene compared to our earlier journey to Angkor Wat. The gardens and grounds are beautiful and the architecture very interesting. Although it was hot there was plenty of shade and a light breeze which made it very pleasant.

From the Royal Palace we went to a restaurant for a Thai buffet lunch which was a fantastic array of food. The fish curry was excellent and had plenty of spice (as did most of the other dishes) which was a great change from the non spicy food that we have had so far on the ship.

After lunch we visited Wat Logayasutharam. As well as a huge reclining stone Buddha, the temple has a magnificent Pagoda and dozens of Buddha statues. The statues were all dressed in orange robes and were a spectacular sight.

Our last visit was to the ruins of Wat Mahathat (The Temple of the Great Relic) from the Ayutthaya era.

The main attraction here is the head of a statue of the Buddha that rests in the climbing roots and vines of a tree.

There are many other interesting statues at these ruins as well

We elected to not go into Bangkok on the second day of our port visit as it was a five hour round trip before we did anything.  Instead we stayed on the ship and spent the day relaxing.

Just before we left Bangkok, some Thai dancers came aboard and put on a show of traditional Thai dancing.

For more pictures click here to open a new window.