Arrival in Thailand

After a brief hour flight to LAX, a 4 hr layover, a 14 1/2 hr flight to Taipei, 2 hr layover, & a 3 1/2 hr flight to Bangkok, I arrived without any incidents! 1st things I noticed: airport very clean, although it was the middle of the night, no one tried to haggle me, fluorescent pink taxis!

Got checked in late, a few hrs sleep, then headed down to breakfast where i met a few others from the tour. A Canadian gal, Carly invited me to join her on a tuk-tuk tour of the city. We 1st were taken to a gem shop so the driver could get a gas commission (something I had read about), then to a temple with statues of Buddha. We went on a longboat tour to see the city by the river, I really enjoyed it. There are so many temples in the city!! I have read that there are more temples than homes. A woman rowed up to us to sell souvenirs from her canoe but we only bought a beer for the driver as tip. After this we were taken to another gem shop & a tailor-more commission for driver, then to another temple. Afterwards we walked quite a bit around the city on our own & shopped the street markets & tried some of the unique foods including: rasputans & mangosteens, & rose apples (all fruit); thai iced tea with some kind of weird jelly balls, plantain fried in batter with honey & sesame- so yummy!, then some sweet bread.

I hope to be able to download some pics soon...and write more, however so far all is excellent!