Saturday. All day tour day. M arranged a special tour that we joined. 8 of us.
First stop the Royal Palace. No Feng Shui by in my views. Far too many ornate and beautiful places stuck together. No gardens. Crowded with tourists like us. About 2 million square fee of palace grounds.
Discussed with the guide how the opulence reminds of the West with big palaces that led to revolutions when the poor saw how the royalty lived and took their money. Not here, “the king has his own money, people are happy to give, from wars…. “. No concept of distributing the wealth.
Visitor from Saigon was queried by me. How do you like it here. Too hot, not like Saigon. So the world turns.
Gold leaf being put on a Buddha by QB. Traditional in Thailand at temples. One buys a small gold foil and applies it. The one pictured has many, including the one by QB.
Long tail boat ride among the canals. Some slow riding and some fast riding. Great way to see the diversity, both of the wealthy and mostly the poor living along the canals.
See additional pictures here.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rXKPCraurEbybKvs6
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Sunday morning, very early, trip to the floating market in Bangkok. Now quite a way out of town. Used to be close by but faded away when farmers distribution changed to trucks and roads. The market now is far away and mostly for tourists. Maybe 80% tourists. As a side note, 80% of population is still agricultural.
On the long boat on the way to the market. Through many such canals with houses built right to the water way. Canals under flood control.
Drove through miles and miles of salt pans and coconut farms. In parts of Thailand they use Malaysian trained monkeys to harvest. Here farmers climb up. Now introducing a new variety that is just 2 meters tall and provides fruit in the fifth year.
At the floating market street food. Tom Yum pictured but also had fried bananas, covered with rice, and mango slices with sweet rice.
Campaign slogan developed by Michelle and QB: Drain the swamp, flush the toilet.
Cloud photos from today. https://photos.app.goo.gl/h5d7eZidbq8xKCTs7
Boog's Blog 
Lovely pics. How nice to be part of tradition with the gold on Buddha.
Yes, This is the only country that I have observed it. Tradition in Thailand. Surprisingly inexpensive, about 15 cents per small piece. Other larger pieces available. Very popular tradition.
Am amazed that monkeys can be trained to pick and give the coconuts to the farmers…
What’s your sense of the quality of the water in the canal system?
The water quality would be excellent compared to Vietnam and poor by our standards. People still wash themselves in the canal. One big difference in Thailand is that the canals are for public and tourist transport, no private boats permitted.
Yes, I also found the monkey labor interesting and, from what we heard, well managed. They stay in the tree tops while working and do not need to keep coming down. Trained on fresh versus not yet ripe. Shorter trees, a more recent species will likely un-employ next generation.