January 22,2025

Symphony docked in Laem Chabang. It’s a super busy port, and about a two hour drive to Bangkok. Because the ship was docked overnight, and to optimize our time, we planned to stay overnight in the city.

Here’s the view from our balcony

That’s Timmy in the background …our guide Pok greeted us and went off to fetch our driver Sayan.

We’ve seen some crazy traffic In our travels, but nothing like Bangkok…

Exponentially worse than Lima, Peru. Really, really worse.

Arriving at the Grand Palace, we saw groups of school children.

.
.

The Grand Palace is only used for ceremonial purposes, it’s the city of Bangkok’s largest attraction and home of the Emerald Buddha.

.

The grounds are enormous and the scale is just breathtaking.

Guards have 48 hour shifts and stand guard for two hours at a time.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

There is no way for me to convey the scale…and beauty

.
.
.
.
.
.

Pok is an absolute treasure …we greatly appreciate his beautiful personality and vast knowledge base😊

.

These are the seven kings of Thailand …the first three Kings are shirtless…

Please note the neck fans that we are wearing…they actually work really well in the heat and humidity. (Kept us from melting)

.
.
.

With these photos, I’m trying to impart a sense of the scope of the Grand Palace

.

We covered a lot of ground…but barely touched the surface

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Here’s the entrance to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. All devout Thai Buddhists are expected to make a pilgrimage here at least once in their lifetime.

Cameras are not allowed in the holy space.

There was a line …but it moved quickly

.

Pok explaining the history of the Emerald Buddha

.
.

More Palace grounds

.

An unsmiling guard

A smiling guard

.
.

After our visit, we walked along the street…stopping for a refreshing coconut drink

Here’s Pok ordering the drink

It takes some strength to hack the thing open

.

We walked a bit, then Sayan picked us up and drove us to another area of the city…

…where we walked along back alleys …

…arriving at our restaurant for lunch

We opted to dine inside with the a/c …still able to enjoy the activity on the river

Mango smoothie and strawberry daiquiris

.

We shared two dishes: Pad Thai and a lamb curry

.
.

That’s the Wat Phra Kaew in the background.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while…you might be thinking that at this point in our day, we’d be heading to the hotel for a nap…well, no …we set off for a boat ride…

Thanks for following along ♥️