48 Hours (Tampa to Bangkok)

Bangkok, Thailand

Up at 5AM and off to long term parking in the Tampa airport.

We fly to New York on a bankrupt airline and get our seats on China East to Shanghai. Its a 15 hour flight. Our seats are the two middle seats in a four seat row. There are five Chinese babies in the row directly in front of us. Apparently they all have colic. The flight goes over the North Pole and down though Siberia.



In Shanghai we meet customs and immigration inspector #03893. He is very nice compared to American customs and immigration. Red China has changed. The Shanghai airport had free wifi, but Google was pretty much blocked out except for Gmail.

We planned to visit the palace complex in the old city but it was closed for the King's birthday. He is 87. He was also the king when I was here 45 years ago. The King was born in Cambridge, Mass. I would tell you more but his wiki page is blocked in Thailand by royal decree. It must be good to be a monarch.

Instead we grab a Tuk-Tuk (motor scooter with two passenger seats) and see a temple, a jewelry store and a tailor.

Later we go to the Temple of Dawn and take a long boat cruise on the river.

This is called the Floating Buddha as seen from the river.

The floating market is down to just one boat because of the flooding. We buy water and a beer for our boat captain from the floating vendor.

We nap a few hours in the afternoon and in the evening we have Mojitos and dinner on the 64th floor of our hotel.



Mrs. Phred climbs the Temple of Dawn.

Parts of the City have been flooded and show damage but the water is receding now.

The Temple used a lot of English china that was recovered from a ship wreck.

The bow of our long tail boat. After the river tour we get dropped of near our hotel.

All in all, more stimulation than we normally get in 48 hours.