Bangkok is a vibrant and colorful city and for us it was love at first sight. To get an overview in the short time that we spent in Bangkok, we have treated ourselves to a private city tour. This was not much more expensive than if the five of us had joined a group. But this tour was perfectly tailored to fit our family.
The guide picked us up at the hotel early in the morning. He asked us what we would like to see and he then planned a tour according to our wishes.
It was great that our hotel was right on the river Chao Phraya. The boat dock was just in front of our hotel and there a typical longtail boat was waiting for us. We started with a boat ride through the klongs (canals ) , visiting places with hardly any tourists around. Similar to Venice, the waterways pass through the original area of Bangkok.
Unbelievable how many people still live with the river like in the old times. In visibility of the modern skyscrapers that rise into the sky. A city full of contrasts. Here, more than two -meter-long monitor lizards can be seen sunbathing lazy between the houses. The kids loved them and the billions of catfish in the river.
The guide told us with a wink, that due to the amount of fish one can walk from one shore of the river to the other. In fact, the river was so full of fish that it seemed to boil.
After the tour through the klongs filled with great impressions we headed towards the Chinese market. There we found food that we didn`t even know it existed, such as dried jellyfish. Exciting, unknown odors and sounds surrounded us as we strolled through the market hall.
We headed towards the flower market. Colorful flowers everywhere. What a sight!
A short drive with sixth people and a driver in a tuk-tuk took us to a restaurant near the river. Here we had a small lunch and after that we enjoyed the most delicious, cool glass of freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Very refreshed we started the next part of our tour.
The next place to visit was the magnificent Royal Palace and the Emerald Buddha, the National Shrine of Thailand. Then we went to see the What Poh, the royal temple with its impressive, lying Buddha. The impressions were overwhelming for all of us. The temples and palaces are so magical designed that we we felt like being in the middle of a fairy tale.
After that we crossed over to the other side of the river. Here as we could see from far the Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) was rising in the air. Countless very steep steps and 79 meters higher, a magnificent view of the city was waiting for us.
When we were back down our legs were tired. We had been walking almost the whole day and it was very warm. We took the Expressboat back to our hotel. In the boat, that resembled more a bus than a boat all the seats were occupied. Our youngest could barely stand on his feet. A young and pretty Thai woman probably noticed that. She grabbed him and put him on her lap. She very happy smiled at the little blond boy and he very happy smiled back. There it was again, that very special magic moment. That is why we love to travel with our children!
Tired, happy and full of wonderful impressions we arrived back at our hotel. What a great city!
See you soon! With sunny regards,
Yours Patotra
