day 1 in Thailand

Slept well in my onderful room last night until about 2.30 and by 5 a.m. there was no more sleep to be had so a quiet morning until down to breakfast and most of my kittens were already there. Breakfast was excellent and already most have commented that our first hotel has set very high standards for all the rest to live up to now.
At 8 am we headed off for what was going to be a very full day.  Forecast is for 36 max, no rain but about 80 per cent humidity. In high spirits we make our way through central Bangkok until we get onboard a motor boat for a delightful hour and a half cruise on the Chao Praya river, up and down various canals checking out all the scenery, buildings, watercraft and even a short stop on a canal to feed the fish, seeing the biggest carp ever, at least one was a metre long!!! There is very stark evidence of the very rich and the abject poor. it was a lovely start to our morning.  We are then back on the coach for a short ride to Wat Po to see the temple of the Reclining Buddha which is the largest and oldest in Bangkok.  Couldn't get any decent photos of it though as it is simply too huge to try and fit in one image.  I think it is more than 34 metres in length.  Quite jaw dropping to consider how it was made and the gorgeous temple it is housed in.
As it is a Sunday and the end of a long weekend, there are very few people about at the time so traffic is good and no crowds, however our next stop is at the Grand Palace and the crowds are building up now. Everything is simply grand and there are so many wow moments with the work that has gone into creating the magnificent temples and buildings.  The Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) is quite gorgeous but that is the only thing we arent allowed to take photos of. The buddha is about a metre high and carved from a single piece of jade.  Initially when it was found they thought it was emerald, but only later realized that it was in fact jade, however kept the title of Emerald buddha. My tour brochure tells me that it is considered the holiest and most revered of religious objects in Thailand today. Taking shoes off before entering temples is a bit of a nuisance but we even got a bag to carry our shoes in when wandering around this temple. I'd already decided that if my shoes were stolen I was simply to going to find an even better pair amongst the stored shoes and take them!!!
We also see the Grand Palace built by the 4th king of Siam (the one from the king and I story, you know the one with Yul Bryner) but no one ever lived in it.  Then the 5th king, Yuls' first son, because he had learnt English as a child under Anna's tutelage, travelled to western countries and came back to build his own palace that is very western on the lower 2 floors but traditional Thai on the top and roof line.  Also saw the Royal Funeral Hall and Coronation hall but only from the outside.
Then back on the coach to be taken back to the river for ourm buffet lunch at a floating restaurant. The boat was huge and the food choices plentiful.  Lunch was great and I even made up my own pork   noodle soup (minus the pork because I don't like pork...) and it was very yummy.  Might have gone a bit heavy handed with the chilli as it most definitely cleared my sinuses and made my eyes water!!! No room for desserts although most of the rest of my kittens managed to stuff them in. All have agreed that it has been a great day so far and it is only just after 1 p.m.
Back on the coach to go to the flower market to have a walk through.  Very interesting and so very beautiful.  The orchids and lotus flowers are simple magnificent.  Too bad we cant send them home. Next stop is a visit to Wt Trimitr, the temple of the Golden Buddha.  The statue is made from gold and weighs 5.5 tons.  It was discovered by chance just after the end of world war 2 and at the time was all that remained of a bombed out temple region.  None of the monks wanted to go back to the region and no one claimed this huge cemet covered buddha so it was eventually taken to Bangkok where it sat for a few years before a temple was built to house it and they tried to move it with a crane but it dropped to the ground where it was left until the next day when they planned to come back and have a second go. As  luck would have it very heavy rains overnight caused a lot of the plaster to wash off and when one of the workmen went to try and clear away a lot of the mud and run off from it saw that there was a deep crack on one of the choulders which when he kept washing away saw a bronze colour unerneath.  was then fully 'cleaned' and they thought it was a bronze statue so they began to polich it but found it was quite glossy, so kept polishing the damn thing until it was finally realized that this darn things was SOLID GOLD!!!! Amazing... as no records of its history could be found it is thought that during the way the monks plastered over it to hide it from the invading Japanese and none of those monks survived to know its true identity.  Whether that is true or not I reckon it still makes for a jolly good story.  My only complaint is that it is now house on the top of a 3 story building and we had to take our shoes off on the ground floor.  Walking across the bloody hot marble floor on the roof top has all but given me blisters on the udnersoles of my feet. Ouch!!!
Anyway time for our next bit o9f today's itinerary and we have a wander trhough Chinatown which has some 100 plus gold stores.  No one asked to stop to go inside any of them though!!! Back on the coach and then finally bck to our hotel.  We have had a jam packed day but it isn't over yet.
Time to have a drink upstairs in my room and then head to the pool for a refreshing ip.  The spa jets are super and give a fabulous massage to my back and sore feet.  Just what I needed.
Then back upstairs as it is now scotch o'clock and a chance to get today's adventures on the blog. We are all meeting for dinner at 6.45 when we are heading off th a Thai dinner dance.  Should be fun. We have an early start in the morning as we head off at 7 a.m. and have to book out of the hotel too. 2 nights at the Felix River Kwai resort await us so if I get a chance Iwill try and upload some photos tomorrow, but that's your lot for today.
No, on other though i will give you one little gem, as i was so tired last night when I finally put myself to bed i couldn't for the life of me work out how to turn off the light at the door entrance.  I simply couldn't find a light switch for it so in the end determined to keep the darn thing on all ngight, not tht it bothered me at all.  It wasn't until this morning after I had my shower, got dressed, put my glasses on and saw an electronic pad the size of a saucer on the bedside table on the otehr side of the bed that i slept on, that had not only the one and only switch for that light but the air conditioner control, the tv and dvd control and every other light and power connection in the room! What a numpty I felt.  That  was however, only until I was chatting to a couple of the kittens who are sharing a room who told me that they couldn't work out how to turn off the light by the door in their room so had to keep it on all night.  they thought I was so clever when i told them where the light switch actually was lcoated... until I finally confessed and told them I'd had my door light on all night too! Clearly a man decided where to put the light switches panel..... grrrrr.