Yesterday we did the tourist thing and spent the day visiting the Royal Palace, Wat Pho (the reclining Buddha) and Wat Arun in Bangkok. We travelled into the city on the very efficient Skytrain and had lunch at the excellent Royal Thai Naval Club 77 – just down the road from the entrance to the Royal Palace. It’s the King’s birthday tomorrow and the whole place was being given a sprucing up. The trip on the water taxi was particularly enjoyable – Bangkok certainly has an interesting river front.

A few pictures which fail, I’m afraid, to capture the sheer scale and splendour of these traditional cultural sites:

First, views of the inside of the Royal Palace grounds

 

In the foreground, a model of Angkor Wat

 

The ‘reclining Buddha’, Wat Pho. You can get an idea of the scale from the person seated at the head!

 

…and finally, some pictures from Wat Arun, which is decorated with pieces of pottery

 

This is our last blog before heading south for the ‘bank holiday’, some intensive Thai birding and our quest for the last ‘must see’ species of the trip, the near extinct Spoon-billed Sandpiper!

Bye for now.