Breakfast at BelAire I must admit is really good. Great buffet with lots of options including dragon fruit. I really miss this in Australia as it is so expensive at home.

With Philip, Marie, Mum and Dad organised to do a tour of the Grand Palace, Wat Po and a boat tour of Chao Phraya River we decided it must be a day to go to the Aquarium (Sea Life Ocean World). The driver dropped us of at Siam Paragon, one of the biggest shopping centres in Bangkok where the aquarium takes up the entire basement floor.

It is a popular place with at least 10 different schools there. The kids were all immaculately dressed and lined up, boys at the front and girls at the back and all held onto the child in front as they walked to their next point. We learnt most of these kids were between 3 and 6 years of age. They basically start a kind of preschool at 3 years of age and do lots of excursions. It's truly amazing how different our societies are. I can't imagine Miss A's childcare centre taking her whole class to the zoo or similar!

And into the Aquarium we went. This place is massive! Awesome number of fish, frogs, seahorses, penguins, otters and the list just went on. I particularly liked all the gorgeous little bright poison dart frogs.

Even a little playground was built half way through, with a couple of slides and rockers. Ideal for those under 5.

A Starbucks caramel macchiato for Phil and then it was onto the Skytrain for our trip back to the hotel. The Skytrain really is one of the best public transport we have used. Simple to use once you know which station you want and it is really quick.

Miss A decided a sleep in the backpack was the go so we decided to stop off an have taco's at which point she woke up. American Mex taco's were delicious and it turns out Miss A loves them.

Walking back to the hotel through market stalls selling pretty much everything from clothing, to toys and 'marital aids'. Didn't feel the need to get any of them though ;).

A relaxing afternoon at the hotel so I decided to try out the local massage place across the road. Traditional thai massage for an hour, 300baht or about $12aus. Walked out feeling great with my headache finally gone.

Mum, Dad, Marie and Philip had returned from their tour and they all loved it. Dad particularly enjoyed the boat ride, which was about 50 minutes long and took them past a lot of the temples.

The Grand Palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam (and later Thailand) since 1782. The king, his court and his royal government were based on the grounds of the palace until 1925. The present monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), currently resides at Chitralada Palace, but the Grand Palace is still used for official events. Several royal ceremonies and state functions are held within the walls of the palace every year.

 Wat Phra Kaew or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (officially known as Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram) is regarded as the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand. Located in the historic centre of Bangkok, within the grounds of the Grand Palace, it enshrines Phra Kaew Morakot (the Emerald Buddha), the highly revered Buddha image meticulously carved from a single block of jade.
 
Wat Traimit temple is well known for its 3-metre tall, 5.5 tons solid gold Buddha image, constructed over 700 years ago during the Sukhothai period. Originally the gold image was covered with plaster to conceal it from the invading Burmese and was just rediscovered accidentally about 40 years ago.

 A peculiarity of the statue is that it can be taken to 9 pieces. The purity of gold is 40 % from the base up to the neck, 80 % from the chin to the forehead, and 99 % for the hair and the topknot, weighing 45 kg. It was estimated that the gold Buddha was built in the Sukhothai period (1238-1438). But there are no written records of its origin. Towards the end of the 18th century after King Rama I established Bangkok as the new capital, he ordered the removal of all important Buddha images from the North to Bangkok lest they might suffer damage since the northern region was not yet pacified. And among the statues moved to Bangkok was this gold Buddha. But it was covered with stucco and placed at Wat Phraya Krai without arousing any special interest among the worshippers.

Later, Wat Phraya Krai became dilapidated and was ordered closed by King Rama V(1868-1910). And this statue was moved to Wat Traimit. The abbot of the temple then asked other monasteries for a possible transfer. But nobody was interested because of its huge size and plain look. So the abbot decided to keep the statue in his own temple and built a special vihara to house it.

On the eve of its scheduled removal, a heavy rain soaked the stucco covering. In the act of moving, the statue was accidentally dropped and the stucco cracked, revealing the shining gold inside.

Nobody knows the true reason for the cover-up of the gold Buddha. It was presumed that the statue was covered up just before the invasion of the Burmese in the mid-18 century, so as to conceal its true value from the enemy.

Marie wanted to see the Moon Bar which is 60 floors up. We took a taxi over to the Banyan Tree hotel, wow our peak hour traffic has nothing on theirs. Open from 5pm we still had to wait a few minutes before going up. The views were amazing. 360 degree views of Bangkok. Philip doesn't do heights so Miss A and I returned to the ground floor with him while the others took some photos.

Returning to the hotel via the skytrain we decided to have tea there. Well the food was good however the service was truly shocking. I have never seen service in a hotel where when you present them with the 15% voucher the hotel gives you they told us that they had already done the bill and we could use it tomorrow. Bit of a problem as we were leaving in the morning! When the point was pushed they took the bill back and changed it but then literally threw the bill on the table! As this hotel was recommended by a reputable travel agent I was shocked by the attitude of the staff. The tour lady was lovely as was some of the staff and the rooms were good, with great blockout curtains.

I am still trying to work out how someone so little can take up so much room in a king size bed?!

Tomorrow we are off to Kanchanaburi, one of my all time favourite places.