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April 28, 2006
Thailand Part 2: Amulet market and dinner cruise--Bangkok
After we left Wat Pho, we decided that the last tuk tuk ride was so much fun that we took another.
This time, we went to Amulet Market. At this market, the main theme was religious amulets. Of course, there were plenty of other goods available. Even though we didn't buy anything, the people watching was fascinating. Here are a couple images of the food market portion:
Eventually, wandering though the market, we wound up at the river. Here is a quintessential Thai boat, the long-tail.
More images from the market:
After we had our fill of Amulet Market, a canal tour of Bangkok sounded like a good thing to do. So, we hired a long-tail boat to guide us through some of the city's canals. Here is a sampling of the images we found there.
Perhaps because it was Sunday, or perhaps for no reason at all, there were numerous children playing in the water.
Also, the contrast was often sharp, as there were some very nice places like this temple, and others that were barely standing above the water.
This woman was carrying food to either sell somewhere or bring home for a very large family.
We liked the scaffolding (bamboo is a very useful plant).
After our tour of the canals, we were dropped off by Chinatown. Not surprisingly, the market looked very similar to the others we saw.
Here is the view of the city's skyline from our Bangkok hotel, the Novotel in Siam Square.
That evening we went back to the river for a most enjoyable dinner cruise. The best shot from the night was of this engineering marvel, the King Rama IX Bridge. Our guide said it's the third longest in the world, after the Golden Gate and another in the USA. However, looks like it's about the 14th longest cable stayed bridge (also the longest is the Tatara Bridge in Japan).
The next morning, we packed up and flew one hour to the north to explore the Chang Mai province.
--Jim
Posted by jim at April 28, 2006 04:13 PM