Our hotel is on the edge of Chinatown so had a wander around the market this morning. It's just like in China, funnily enough - one section selling clothes, one bit for stationery, rows of stalls with identical shoes (wholesale only). Stalls piled with crabs, shrimps, cuttlefish &unidentifiable seafood. Many warehouses selling polypropylene sacks, others with jute sacks, hemp rope, polypropylene rope... And sugar. Vast white sacks of sugar being load...

Our lovely hotel staff invited us to go to the Maka Bachu ceremony with them this evening. Our hotel is inside a temple complex but the temple itself isn't usually open to the public. They made us a posy of flowers each and we had a candle too. We stood listening to the monks chanting then our candles were lit and we followed the monks in a procession, 3 times around the outside of the temple. Then shoes off, into the temple and shuffle forward on our knees up t...

Nothing to do with the Night Garden. Today is an important holiday for Buddhists, celebrating the first monks to be taught by Buddha. We went to the Reclining Buddha temple and saw the statue which is 46m long and 15m tall. The ferry was crammed, but more relaxing than yesterday's tuk-tuk ride with the advantage of clean(er) air. Having been very hot & bovvered earlier, we're now chilling by the river with cold beer. Sadly, we're still red-faced English!

Sightseeing in a water taxi this morning. There are numerous canals intersecting the river.The first stop was the Royal Barges Museum wheree these spectacular barges were being prepared for a Royal Procession very soon. We saw detailed carvings being painted & repaired with gold laquer and mirror mosaic. The barges are powered by 44 oarsmen and have cannons pointing forward through the prow carvings. We then visited the Artist's House, a series of canal f...

We're in a lovely little hotel on stilts over the river. The staff are friendly. Party boats provide a soundtrack but apparently they stop at 10pm.