Big Bate Adventure: Birthday in Bangkok

And a surprise birthday present - I was working late at the theatre, and Bob showed up, handed me my passport, and said "Let's go!". With a bag packed by the girls, and a bottle of wine for the trip, Bob and I spent a quick weekend in Bagkok. We stayed at the Marriott, thanks to Bob's friends, and had a wonderful couple of days away.

Bob took me into the city, and we went on an incredible canal tour - the city is built along the river, and it was really amazing. The water level was high due to the start of the rainy season, and heavy rains up river, dragging vegetation with it, that the boats simply went through. All of the major hotels (not ours) are situated along the river, and each of them have their own river boats, to ferry guests up and down the water.

Our tour guide's name was Tip Tip (perhaps Hint Hint would have worked too!) - very nice, very easy to talk to, and told us a lot of the history of Bangkok, and pointed out the sights along the way.

The weather was hot, but the wind was great, and a perfect day to be out on the water

Boat traffic was very heavy, and so much to see on the edges of each bank.

Had to put this picture in - we thought it was a huge sea snake, but turns out it is a Thailand monitor - a huge reptile that lives in the river. Didn't stop the children along the canals from swimming....

Lots of chinese temples, some of them right next to muslim mosques

Many delivery boats simply pull up right in front of the stores -this one is like a 7 -11 - all go to this store to pick up supplies

Temple

And then, our boat turned into the narrower channels, and we literally floated past homes and businesses, with so much to see

Some homes were much better kept than others, but all were really charming. We could hear music playing in some, and shrines at the end of the docks, as you can see here

Lots of tourist traffic that day

The yellow flag is the queen's flag - the blue, for the king, and all citizens alternate the flags depending on whose day it is. They love their royal family, and there are signs and posters literally everywhere

Along the way, a floating convenience store for the tourists - coke, beer, snacks and souvenirs - very resourceful!

Took this one for Mummy - tons of orchids hanging everywhere - the vegetation was extremely lush, and colourful

The boys were jumping in and out of the water, laughing and joking - not paying attention to the tourist boats as they went by

Bob had gone on a canal tour the last time he had been to Bangkok, and knew that I'd love it

Amazing how some of these homes literally stretched over the water

We stopped at a floating market - climbed over the docks and into a small, busy market. In the water below are hundreds of catfish - you can buy loaves of bread to feed to them. Amazing

They literally piled over each other - the water was thick with fish - very cool

Lots of local food being cooked and served up

After the canal tour, we made it to the world's largest market - and immediately got swamped with the hundreds of people and thousands of stalls. We took a shopping list with us, but the market won that day - we stayed for an hour, and then it was too hot, so we headed back to the hotel

Bob took me to this fabulous restaurant, only about 10 minutes from our hotel. Conceived and built as by a local Thai politician, this restaurant was built to raise awareness about Aids and safe sex. It truly is a fascinating place, and ALL of the decorations are made out of condoms. The food was incredible!