Bangkok on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday

First, a bit of history: Bangkok dates at least to the 15 th Century and nobody can pinpoint the meaning of the word, although historians love to guess. Located at the mouth of a strategic river, the city thrived.

You may already know that Thailand was once called Siam. The country and its capital, Bangkok, have
bounced from various occupations, but has a fairly consistent reign of many kings dating to the 1700S
with those in late 1800s allowing international trade and the introduction of the industrial revolution.
There was some bombing of Thailand in WW2 because they allied with Japan, but because the US sent
aid post-war, the attitude toward Americans seems to be quite amiable.

We had visited Bangkok 30 years ago; it was our first of 3 destinations as we left China and took three
months to work our way emotionally and economically back to the West. This HUGE city can be
traversed by boat (rivers and canals provide a stable means of transport for people and goods), an
underground Metro system, a skytram (train in the sky) and a wide, covered walkway above traffic
called the skywalk. It connects mall upon mall in the downtown area and is utilized by all. “Yet we still
have traffic jams,” our guide admitted. And only those of you who have seen big city traffic jams can
fully understand. There are tuk-tuks, motorcycles, and all the requisite any-size four-to eighteen-
wheelers going everywhere. At least here most seem to honor the traffic lights.

The Imperial Palace

Our tour was titled Imperial Treasures. This means that we saw a significant Buddha (was supposed to
be the acclaimed Golden Buddha, but by the time we got through other parts of the day, it had closed.
So we saw a lesser Buddha that was 33 m high), we were able to take a boat ride on the grand Chao
Praya River to get to the Grand Palace (a memorable event to any traveler), a refreshment stop at a
fancy hotel called the Royal Princess, then home to the ship by 7:45, a full hour later than planned and
in full darkness, thanks to getting a late start, schedule weirdness and traffic jams extraordinaire.

A special note for some unusual photos you will see: We hadn’t been warned to wear appropriate
clothing for the Grand Palace (women have shoulders covered, men and women cannot wear shorts),
and it was to be 92 degrees, so we wore our casual summer clothes. I had two scarves to cover myself,
but was told they were too sheer and to go into the nearby shop to get something to wear over the top
of what I have. Jerry also had to get temporary pants. You’ll enjoy the look of our elephant clothing, I’m sure. Most in our group also had the elephant look, so we all stuck out as tourists=-even more than
usual.

We docked overnight in Bangkok, and we tried something new for a tour the next day: “Bangkok on

Your Own” which meant the ship would take us on the nearly hour drive to downtown, drop us off with
maps, then come and get us four hours later. Except that I’d not remembered that it was Black Friday.
In Downtown Bangkok. That has blocks upon blocks of shopping malls of all kinds. It reminds us of Las Vegas with the look and feel although gambling palaces is not part of the equation here.

The four hours went by quickly but we find that we are no longer as able to spend that length of time on
our feet as we used to be. We petered out after about 3 hours and made our way back to the meeting
point getting there a full thirty minutes early. We were successful on the shopping trip replenishing
supplies such as Kleenex packs and polish remover and finding some fun gifts. Back to the boat and off
to a beautiful sunset.