Long Tail Boat

Today we had a personal guide showing us round Bangkok. We gave him our itinerary, and he added to it. So we saw the Grand Palace, Wat Po and went on a Long Tail Boat. All of which he explained brilliantly and put up with Will's rather random questions about everything he saw and also life in general! He also showed us other things he thought would be interesting in the same areas, so we caught a ferry across the river to visit a local market, where we saw a huge pig asleep on someone's doorstep. Apparently it belongs to the local Wat, so it is allowed to roam freely. We crossed back across the river to the Amulet Market, which was only just opening up, on the way to the Grand Palace.

Once we came out of the Grand Palace (in which Geng, the guide had done a great job of explaining everything) Geng decided we should try a Tuk Tuk, only a small way to Wat Po but an experience he said the kids should have. So this we did. He went with the kids and Jim and I followed. Will loved it, said his driver thought he was a race driver!

I love Wat Po, it's relatively peaceful despite the huge draw of the Reclining Buddha. The kids learnt about the various statues and how to identify the building in a Wat that houses the Buddha. The reclining Buddha is huge and impressive, but it's feet are my favourite, inlaid with mother of pearl.

From here we walked through some real back streets near the river, it was good for the kids to see the contrasts from the clean, golden Wats and the reality of life for some people in Bangkok. We came out at a very nice restaurant directly opposite Wat Arun, where we stopped for food. Then we had an hour on a long tail boat around the Klongs of Thornburi, looking at all the river based houses and stopping to feed the fish at one of the Wats.

It was a really good day and Geng was a very good guide and good company at lunch, discussing British and Thai politics amongst other topics. I'm glad we booked him, because I learnt things today so the kids definitely did.