Friday, Dec 8. We flew from HCMC to Bangkok, Thailand. We were bussed from the airport to our hotel, The Peninsula. The routing gave an excellent chance to view and enjoy the amazing skyline of Bangkok. The city is full of skyscrapers designed with very beautiful architecture. For the next two days, we used The Peninsula as our HQ and visited some of the most beautiful temples, palaces and, yes, street scenes.

Saturday, Dec 9. In the morning we boarded a local water taxi and cruised upstream on the Chao Phraya River. The river is extremely busy with tourist boats, commuter water taxis and commercial shipping carrying all sorts of goods in towed barges. The river is lined with luxury hotels, businesses, temples and lavish homes. During the cruise, we took a side trip up a canal to see how people live along the water. This excursion also took us by the Golden Buddha at Wat Pak Nau Temple. At 64 m, it is the tenth tallest Buddha in Thailand. Later in the morning, we visited Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) with its absolutely jaw-dropping beauty. Covered with jewels and mosaic tiles, the intricacy of the temple is simply stunning.

In the evening, we took a tuk tuk ride through China town. We walked down about 3 blocks of street vendors selling street foods of all descriptions. A few we tried as our tour director assured us we could eat them safely. After that jaunt, we took tuk tuks to a very small restaurant recognized by Michelin for its Thai noodle dishes. Following that we went to the city flower market. An amazing display of floral products, 80% of which sell out everyday.

Sunday, Dec 10. In the morning, we toured the Royal Palace, an expansive compound of gilded and bejewelled temples, shrine and palacess. In the complex was the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, a religious artifact discovered by accident in the 13th century and thought to be made of plaster until an observer saw a glimmer of emerald (or jade) that was below the coating. We next used tuk tuks to get to the nearby Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha). The Buddha is gilded and 15 m high by 46 m long. In the evening, we took a dinner cruise which showed us the beauty of the lighted buildings along the river. The dinner? Not impressive.

Monday Dec 11, we were bussed to the airport for our flight home. Another long day. 31 hr door to door.