Arrived in Bangkok Tuesday night 23rd april after a pleasant 7 hour flight on Thai Airways, I managed to watch 3 movies while in flight. Got to the hotel room about midnight.

Wednesday 24th. Having No plans set for today we thought we might walk to see the Royal Palace, it didn't look far on the map! The little hotel guy said aaagghh! "Take 2 hours or more up, over, around". So we got a taxi - thank goodness.
The Royal Palace is stunning, amazingly ornate and decorative, gold, gold and more gold sparkling in the sun. Gold is the lucky colour in Thailand as they mine it, along with sapphire and ruby. When visiting the palace we were advised to dress from neck to ankles so that made it hot, it is also very humid about 34*c, then one had to negotiate hundreds of people.
After the palace we walked around the corner to see the big sleeping Buddha, to be told by local guy in the street that it was shut for 2 mores hours due to big Buddhist festive, true or not I'm not sure! Anyway he talked us into taking a Tuk tuk ride around some Bangkok sites for 40 Baht ($1.40). A short while before this Rob wasn't sure about getting in one of these, so with no time to think about it in we hopped and off we went weaving in and around traffic. We saw some beautiful Temples - Marble Temple, tallest Buddha & and sitting Buddha - with very few or no people around. However we did encounter having to be taken to various outlets, such as jewellery shops & tailors. Apparently the drivers get given fuel vouchers for bringing in the customers, difficult to say no but you do get to see a lot of Bangkok.
Finally we get to see the Big sleeping Buddha, which is massive in length. There was a festival happening inside the complex so we sat and had some Thai food for tea, served by a "lady boy". After this it was time to head back to the hotel buy taxi this time.