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| Grand Palace |
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Day 1: Bangkok
Arrive in Bangkok where you are transferred to the comfortable and centrally located Hotel.
A pre-trip briefing is held in the evening, to meet the other members of your group and discuss the trip itinerary. Please check for a Welcome Notice on the Peregrine noticeboard located near the hotel lifts which will provide your tour leader's name and the exact time and location of your Welcome Meeting. Until this meeting we encourage you to get out and discover the delights that Bangkok has to offer, including trying some of Thailand's famous cuisine. After the group meeting in the evening we may adjourn to a nearby restaurant and enjoy a meal together (this is optional and at your own expense). The rest of the evening is free - perhaps a quiet drink or a visit to the bustling night markets of Bangkok.
A pre-trip briefing is held in the evening, to meet the other members of your group and discuss the trip itinerary. Please check for a Welcome Notice on the Peregrine noticeboard located near the hotel lifts which will provide your tour leader's name and the exact time and location of your Welcome Meeting. Until this meeting we encourage you to get out and discover the delights that Bangkok has to offer, including trying some of Thailand's famous cuisine. After the group meeting in the evening we may adjourn to a nearby restaurant and enjoy a meal together (this is optional and at your own expense). The rest of the evening is free - perhaps a quiet drink or a visit to the bustling night markets of Bangkok.
Sunday, February 10, 2012 - Happy Chinese New Year
Day 2: Bangkok - Chiang Rai
Meals included: 1 breakfast
Activities
We enjoy a city tour of Bangkok. This morning we board the public ferry and visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha), a must for first-time travellers to Bangkok. We also visit Wat Po, home of the famous Reclining Buddha. (When visiting temples and palaces in Thailand, please dress conservatively in order to respect the local culture). We then transfer to the airport and fly up to the northern city of Chiang Rai.
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Today, Bangkok and Temples were crowded because of Chinese New Year Holidays. Our group took a Ferry to Wat Po where we had visited ourselves earlier in the week. Moh told us more about the temple. The four spired monuments that are decorated with pottery are called stupas and are trbutes to dead kings, holding some of their prized possessions. Their ashes may or may not be in the stupas.
The beautiful floral designs on the stupas and temples originated when Chinese pottery was sent to Siam and when it got to the destination, it had broken into pieces. The people reclaimed the broken pottery by recutting and then using the pottery to decorate the stupas.. They were so pleased with the outcome, that they continued to use the high grade pottery recut for decorative tiles.
The main Temple of Wat Pho was crowded with Buddhist, tourists, and Monks. It was quite beautiful and filled with people.
We also visited the Emerald Buddha which is only emerald color......carved from a single piece of Jade. It is small in comparison to other Buddhas, about 18 inches tall, but is very revered and valuable.
This Buddha is a part of the Grand Palace Grounds. The grounds and
architecture are stunning. Teams of Thai artists work continuously to
repair and refurbish statues, paintings, and sculptures, not only in the
Grand Palace but throughout Thailand's 30,000 temples. This is good
job security for artisans.
After visiting the Grand Palace we took our first Tuktuk ride back to the hotel several blocks away. Moh negotiated a price of 80 Baht for three of us in a Tuktuk, direct, no stops. That's less than three dollars per person. The driver wove through traffic at crazy speeds. People would step off the curb and he didn't even brake. Yipes! It was like Mr. Toad's wild ride at Disneyland.
After visiting the Grand Palace we took our first Tuktuk ride back to the hotel several blocks away. Moh negotiated a price of 80 Baht for three of us in a Tuktuk, direct, no stops. That's less than three dollars per person. The driver wove through traffic at crazy speeds. People would step off the curb and he didn't even brake. Yipes! It was like Mr. Toad's wild ride at Disneyland.
The day was hot and steamy after a morning rain.
After cooling off at our hotel and having lunch, we made our way in a taxi van to the air port anf boarded a plan for Chiang Rai. We were on Nok (bird) Air.Our flight was just a little over an hour. We checked into our hotel, regathering for a walk to the clock tower to catch the 8:00 pm light show and to the night market for some shopping and a late supper. The market area and food court hundreds of tables and chairs in a large open air patio with food vendors on the two long sides of the rectangle, a stage with musicians and dancers on one of the short end with the opposite end being the entrance through an open air market. For five dollars, we got three large platters of deep fried prawns, chicken. spring rolls , and vegetables. We could have had crickets, water beetles, worms, or grass hoppers.
Every table was packed. Moh said the market was open seven nights a week and was always busy. The quality of the products in the market was better and the prices cheaper than Bangkok.
We leave early tomorrow morning to head into Laos and then float on a slow boat on the Mekong River for two days, spending the night in a guest house along the way.
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