Today we are doing a private tour through Tour With Tong. www.tourwithtong.com We are joined today by Rick & Janie and Marianne.
The Fab Five are still going strong!
I decided to do something a
bit different here. There were a lot of choices, but this tour sounded great to
me. Here is a
description the tour:
Palace
and Temples and Bangkok Thai Fishing Village Tour
“Go to Bangkok to see part of the
city and visit the Grand Palace & the Royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha
and Wat Pho.
Get away from the hectic pace of
Bangkok and escape to a world unknown to the tourist trail. Spend a day
relaxing with our local fisherman Reid and his family along with your
experienced guide. Explore a beautiful place full of wildlife, traditional Thai
agriculture and view how the locals really live on a daily basis....
A true piece of heaven, a hidden
paradise only one hour away from Bangkok.
- Cockle, Mussel and Oyster Farms. Get to taste oysters fresh from the sea.
- Experience various methods of Thai
fishing.
- Rare birds, herons, hawks, water
monitors.
- Feed swimming wild monkeys.
- See mud-skippers and preserved crabs.
- Cruise the mud flats in an authentic Thai
long-tail boat.
- Relax in a bamboo stilt house in the middle of the bay and enjoy a beautiful authentic home-cooked seafood meal”
Seriously, who doesn’t love a
swimming monkey?
We were up early for our 7:00a
tour time. Our group was first off the ship and we were met by Jerry and a
driver and quickly we were on our way for the just over 2 hour ride into
Bangkok. Very different from Vietnam, in that here most people had vehicles vs.
scooters and there were jam packed 4 lane highways. Very much a huge bustling
city.
Our first stop was the Grand
Palace which was established in 1782 and it consists of not only the royal residence
and throne halls, but also a number of government offices as well as the
renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It covers an area of 218,000 square
meters. This palace was amazing. The gold plating is all real 24k gold and the
inlaid work was so intricate and beautiful and of course all done by hand.
Everywhere you turned it was just WOW! The Emerald Buddha Temple was
spectacular. We saw the Monastery and many of the great halls and courtyards. There
is constant renovation going on to preserve its beauty.
Jerry gave us cold wet towels
after we returned to the van. That was a nice touch!
Then we went to Wat Pho which
houses the HUGE Gold Reclining Buddha. The statue of the reclining Buddha is just over 45 feet
high and just over 130 feet long with his right arm supporting the head with
tight curls on two box-pillows of blue, richly encrusted with glass mosaics.
The just over 9 feet high and 15 feet long foot of Buddha displays are inlaid
with mother-of-pearl. They are divided into 108 arranged panels, displaying the
auspicious symbols by which Buddha can be identified like flowers, dancers,
white elephants, tigers and altar accessories. Over the statue is a seven
tiered umbrella representing the authority of Thailand. There are 108 bronze
bowls in the corridor indicating the 108 auspicious characters of Buddha.
People drop coins in these bowls as it is believed to bring good fortune, and
to help the monks maintain the wat. Though the reclining Buddha is not a
pilgrimage center, it remains an object of popular piety.
Then we drove another hour in the
countryside to visit the Thai Fishing Village. It was very interesting seeing
the mud flats with all the crabs and the mud skippers. We even saw one small
water monitor. There were lots of houses on stilts and many long tail boats.
The farmers often stay in the houses all night during harvesting time. Our
driver even scooped up some cockles so we could see them since we had heard of
cockles, but had no idea what they actually were. Pretty shells like mussels or
clams.
Then we found the swimming
monkeys. They are Macaque monkeys and we tossed them bananas. There were many
mothers and babies. Some rode on their mommies backs, but most were hanging on
underneath their mom, some nursing. They swim right up to the boat and swim after
the bananas. The large males were fighting. Most were quite docile and excited
to get bananas. I repeat, “who doesn’t love a swimming monkey?” Wait until you
see the pictures.
Then for the best part of the day,
we climb a big ladder to the stilt house of the Reid family where there was a
table set with a spread of seafood. A whole red snapper simmering in spices,
crabs, shrimp, fried fish with dipping sauces, veggies, rice and a very tasty
and slightly spicy soup with shrimp, mushrooms and lemon grass and watermelon
for dessert. There was a nice breeze as we ate our feast. Then it was time to
board our boat for the ride back to the van. We had about a 3 hour drive back
to the port and we had a bit of time left to shop at the port for a few quick
souvenirs.
What a fantastic day! Jerry was a
perfect guide and our driver dealt with traffic like the pro he is.
We ate upstairs at the buffet for
dinner since we were back too late for our 6:00 dinner time. We showered
and went to the show which was Michell Bell. He is a Tony nominated Broadway
singer.
If you remember the singing group The 5th Dimension, he was
part of that group. (Up Up and Away in My Beautiful Balloon and Age of Aquarius) His wife was his pianist. The show was OK, but I think they need a larger venue
to play as they were a bit loud for the space which kind of distorts the voice
and the piano overpowered as well.
Well, we have 2 sea days to rest
up before we have 4 ports in a row. So, I’ll get behind again with the blog
until we finish those ports.
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