Day Two in Bangkok

On Saturday, we decided to see the tourist attractions near the river. The nice, pretty Thai receptionist to the left let me climb out onto her balcony and take the picture above. It is looking left from the balcony and shows the river on the left which winds about the city buildings straight ahead.
We used the very efficient River Boat Express system. The boat to the left of the picture on the left is the boat we took that morning. It had to gingerly back into the dock and stay there just long enough to allow the passengers on the dock to board. This was often a ticklish situation. The next three pictures shows the entire crew of the boat.
The Thai girl below jingles her change tube reminding the person to pay the required 6 B, about 15 cents.
Above, at the front of the boat is the gent at the helm. He can hardly be seen sitting on the right of the picture and consequently, he has a very poor view of the back of the boat, where the whistle blower stands, pictured to the left. He is perhaps most important since he signals whether to back toward the dock, or leave it because all the intended passengers have boarded. It's often a real trick to jump on before the thing leaves. Not too much time is allotted to the boarding process.
The boat sped along very fast splashing water on both sides. But there were calmer moments when I could get some great pictures at the side of the river. The one to the left is a beautiful temple right at water's edge. We never got to this one, but saw it several times a day
On the other side of the river, the scene was not so resplendent. many shacks which must have housed some poor folk were everywhere. But, even though we knew the water was polluted, there was not much obvious trash and bottles around. The poor persons living there didn't trash up their surroundings.
The Grand Palace is the place that was featured in the film The King and I and is positively stunning. It is an area of 218,400 square meters and is surrounded by walls built in 1783. Inside the walls, resides government offices and royal residences. The beauty is unbelievable and is only approximated by these pictures.

These are two pictures of the magnificent ornate building that houses the Emerald Buddha. I couldn't photograph the thing, but the I scanned the bottom right picture from my guide book.
These funny looking creatures were everywhere; on images, pictures, silk screen, and on postcards. I will probably read up on this place and give some more accurate verbiage later. Incidentally, I'm talking about the two large critters in stone, not the critter at the bottom center of the picture in a blue tee shirt and baggy pants. That is me wearing the pants I borrowed from the temple keepers. Shorts were definitely banned.

Spires, like those to the to the left, were supposed to house the remains of ancient dead. Some of them were decorated with cute critters which I photographed below and the closeup to the right.

 
 
This will have to be all for the moment. Goldie and I (left) think it's time to be leaving this fantastic palace. Too bad he can't leave. We spent the rest of the afternoon of Day 2 touring some official government houses and royal residences which were very interesting. These are on the page DAY 2; Continued. I hope you enjoyed the travelogue so far.

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