Our flight was fine, nothing exceptional (except the pretty
constant topping up of our glasses!) the food was nice and the lie down bed
appreciated although neither of us managed to sleep more than an hour or so.
The Novotel at Bangkok airport is excellent, connected to
the airport terminal by an underground walkway its just 10 mins away,
alternatively there are courtesy taxis running on request Lovely rooms, pool, all the amenities of a
luxury hotel and a far cry from a European Novotel.
After a shower and a 2 hour power nap, we walked back
through the underpass and got the Citilink train into Bangkok (20 mins) and
then the Skytrain down to the river.
Cost of airport train 95 Baht = c£1.80 and c£3.00 for a 24 hour rover
pass on the Skytrain, so excellent value.
We then took a 2 hour ride on a Long Tail Boat around the canals to
the west of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya, surprisingly choppy so most things are out of
focus. There is a wide mixture of modern buildings, old wats and building sites.
The Long Tail boats all had these lovely flower decorations on the prow.
Once we got to the quieter canals, small vessels and village life
We thought the water was far too dirty to sustain life but after seeing this couple throwing food into the water we realised it was in fact teeming with wicked looking cat fish.
We stopped off at a floating market but it was quite late in the day (4:45pm) so things were beginning to close up and not a lot to see.
On the way back we were waiting for the lock to fill when we saw this huge water monitor, it must have been about 8ft long. It was sitting on a rock sunning itself then suddenly another one appeared and they preceded to fight. Unfortunately they kicked up so much water I couldn't get clear shots of them both
The Royal Palace
The taxis here are beautifully coloured, my favourites were the bubble gum pink ones.
Then the Skytrain and Citilink trains back out to the airport, short walk to the hotel and we both crashed out.