Thailand Travel Journal

Another day in Bangkok, Nov 6th We walked down to the waterfront and negotiated with a driver of a long tailed boat to take us down the canal. I bought a fancy rice paper umbrella from a vendor on the canal and a coke for the boatman.
	Click images for larger versions of pictures. On the canal we saw some of the Royal barges that probably will be used to carry the king in the festival parade on Nov 7th. We then proceeded back down the river toward the Sheraton Hotel.
	There are many interesting buildings along the waterfront and lots of traffic on the river. We met many police boats and barges being towed by tugs.
	There are many longboats and passenger boats sipping along also on the river. It was quite rough and the spray started flying onto us. We did not want to get any of the water from this river in our mouths as it was probably very polluted.
	We suspect the many police boats we saw cruising the river are checking out the security for the big parade on the water scheduled for tomorrow.
	Just as we got to the wharf at the hotel the heavens opened up with a torrential downpour and a lot of loud thunder. Gave the driver a 20b tip. Thailand pretty expensive after Nepal.

After we left the long tailed boat we waited outside the hotel for the rain to stop. As we walked down the street we were approached by a man who had a badge on saying he was the tourist police. He asked us if we wanted to go to a good shopping place. It sounded interesting so he hailed a tuk tuk and sent us to a so called government store. We ended up in an area not so great. People in the store came right out of the store to greet us. It was a store where they made clothes to measure. Probably a good deal but we were not interested in that kind of shopping

We didn’t know just where we were so we took another tuk-tuk back to Rama I, the area where our hotel was. We stopped at the Liberty travel agency and booked a night train to Chaing Mai for Nov 7th. (750B each).We can pick the tickets up in the morning. We will save on a hotel room to-morrow night. It should be an interesting trip. I came back to the hotel to cool off. So Hot. Pauline kept shopping.

I went back out to get money at the ATM and to buy a bag to store my extra things in until we get back to Bangkok. Bought some Rye in a little store next to the hotel.

We went for a walk around the block and found a great restaurant. Had mushroom and shrimp on a bed of rice. Yummy. “Suda’s Restaurant” Lots of Farang’s eating there. It is back in off the main street.

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