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Today after a very lazy breakfast we visited Wat Arun (Temple of the dawn) and the Royal Palace. Wat Arun involved the hotel ferry, the river taxi and a further ferry to cross the river. The temple was quiet, which is unusual in this hectic city. We climbed up the temple, a steep climb but a steeper descent. Geoff coped well despite his fear of heights.
Then we hopped back on the ferry to get to the Royal Palace.
It was a bit of a walk, through a flea market and into a food market, but it was all very interesting especially as there were more Thais than tourists.
The Royal Palace not only holds the place where the new Kings come to be inaugurated (is that the right word, hmmm, made into real life Kings and Queens is what I'm hoping to say). It also holds the famous Emerald Buddha, which is actually made of solid jade, but when it was discovered within a plaster cast of another Buddha, it was first thought to be made of emerald. The Buddha has a change of clothes for summer, the rainy season and Winter, which is done by the King in a special ceremony. The place is really quite breathtaking and much more opulent than the temples I saw in China, but the huge throngs of tourist and the heat wore us down a bit today so we flip flopped over to Khaosan for a spot of lunch, Pad Thai Chicken, garlic and chilli morning glory and pork in garlic with rice, all wash down with a Singha.
We return to the river taxi, the driver of which, seemed to be in training as he was a bit of a speed freak and liked crashing into the jetties (and other boats).
Back at the hotel we arranged our taxi to the airport for tomorrow and took a dip in the plunge pool which was mildly warmer than the freezing cold pool; I think we'd missed the optimum time earlier in the day when it was searing hot.
We're now in the process of packing as we leave Bangkok tomorrow and head for Siem Reap, Cambodia and meet up with Jon and Scott for the rest of the holiday.
We've really loved it here but four days is just about enough. The mix of heat and fumes can get a little oppressive at times. Fab people here though, we'll definitely be returning to Thailand.
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