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Congratulations! You’ve made it to the FINAL chapter of this travelogue. It’s only taken me 14 months to finally reach the end. The way has been fraught with distractions, like our annual trip to California and Cabo San Lucas in Feb/March, then a 10 day trip to Alaska in May, followed by 2 weeks in Cozumel in June. Then we had our annual two week trip to Aruba, and in October we spent two weeks at the beautiful Palm Beach Shores resort on Singer Island in Florida. And who could do anything during the holiday season whig only added more distractions. Staying focused was next to impossible. I hope the long delays between chapters didn’t cause you to lose interest. So with that being said, lets finish this travelogue of our Magnificent Mekong adventure with Viking River Cruises.

The Kingdom of Thailand used to be called Siam. Their history goes back more than 700 years. Thailand literally means “Land of the Free”. Headquarters for the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) are in Bangkok. It’s major river, the Mekong, begins its expanse on the Tibetan Plateau. It is considered the 4th most important river in Asia. As it flows through China it is known as the Turbulent River. It then enters Laos where it is called the Mother of Waters, and for the Cambodians it is simply known as the Great Water. In Vietnam where it flows into the South China Sea it becomes known as the River of Nine Dragons.

When Thailand was still Siam before WWII, it actually sided with Japan, thinking it had chosen the winning side. When it became clear that the country had actually picked the loosing side, the resources of Thai diplomacy were skillfully used to make the county’s peace with the Allies while taking care not to offend the Japanese unduly. After the war the United States decided that the Thai regime had acted under duress and no objection was raised to the change of name from Siam to Thailand.

We stayed at the Millennium Hilton Hotel, located on the edge of the Chao Phraya River, and enjoyed breakfast before our tour began. It also has a very nice outside eating area overlooking the river.

Viewing the hotel tower from the outside eating area. I think we were on the 13th floor, but not exactly sure. We had a great view though.

We could see lots of high rises. The Chao Phraya River is quite large, and we would be traveling it by boat most of the day.

Our tour guide presented each of us with a very beautifully made flower arrangement which we were to present to the monks at one of the temples we would be visiting as an offering. I’m not sure what the monks do with them. Possibly they sold them to the next hapless tour guide to give to their tourists to make the offering. I’m such a cynic. We treated them with great care. ;o)

These offerings were very well made, and because of the type of flowers used, they were actually quite heavy. Such patience.

I wish I could grow orchids like this. Never have had luck with them. Here is a view of the Millennium Hilton from up river.

Our guide was very informative about the sights we were seeing along the river as we made our way to the Grand Palace.

We shared the river with lots of other boats, and huge barges. There were several amazing bridges as well.

This is the Museum of Siam, and would have made an excellent stop. But that was not part of our tour. I couldn’t help but

think of the Arizona Memorial in Pearl as we passed this interesting structure. I never did find out what it actually was.

This rather tall pyramid shaped building we will be visiting later on. It’s a really awesome climb which I did not do, but Pete did. As we approach the Grand Palace we see the ominous pronouncement “LONG LIVE THE KING”.

With the entry tickets in hand, we begin an amazing journey through a fairyland of very distinctive Thai creation.

It was a fantastic day for this tour. We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. The Palace must have an army of gardeners.

The beautiful structures were breathtaking, and screaming to be photographed, and we certainly did our part in that vein.

The amount of gold leaf was staggering. Talk about sensory overload. I walked from one awesome scene to another.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much gold leaf, at least not in recent memory.

Apple can be proud. look at all those iPads and iPhones capturing scenes in zillions of pixels in their memories.

The gold serpents slithering down the staircase reminds me of Angkor Wat and those magnificent temples in Cambodia.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok dates back to the 1700’s. It is a walled complex, featuring golden pagodas and spires, and has been the royal family’s main residence for more than 150 years. It also houses the entire administrative seat of government—military headquarters, the state department, even the mint. As you can imaging, the complex is huge.

On the heads of the five-headed serpent slithering down the staircase are topped with the typical Thai spired head gear.

Everything was very compact, with the buildings close together, yet it all seemed so artfully done. It is as if the creators had a lot to express, and they performed the task of expression masterfully.

At every turn there was so much to see, and it seemed to go on and on. They didn’t try to hide the surveillance cameras either. We knew that our every step was being watched. There was no defacing of these fantastic art treasures.

Everything seems to point skyward, the temples, their hats, the corners of the roof peaks, literally everything.

The huge mural that Pete is standing next to in the photo above, culminated in this huge tiger, mouth agape, and apparently stuffing people down his gullet. It was pretty graphic, and would easily scare little children into obedience.

The royal families residence was guarded by palace guards, just like those at Buckingham Palace in London, but their dress was more tropical, with pith helmets rather than the warm bear fur hats of the British Royal Palace guards. And of course they were fair game for tourists to take their photograph beside them, since they could not move or bat a eye, but had to stand perfectly still.

Pete with the beautiful residency in the background. I’m not sure I would enjoy being the King of this country, and have all those tourists parading outside my home every day of the year. There must be enough other benefits to overcome this slight drawback. ;o)

We leave the palace and make our way to the shrine of the reclining Buddha. I had been looking forward to this part of our trip, as I’ve read a little about this Buddha. I was surprised to find that it was not easy to get a good full view photo of it. They had build a shrine over it, which really restricts your ability to photograph it.

As you walk down the length of it there are these huge pillars which obstruct the view. It is huge, and very impressive.

At the end I could get a shot of the full body, but at such an oblique angle that it is not very interesting at all

There was quite a crowd vying for a good shot as well.

I thought it was interesting how they gave the toes what appear to be toe prints, as opposed to finger prints.

The guy in the white shirt above was selling coins for the faithful to deposit in the bronze bowls which lined the wall as you walked down the back side of the Buddha. Each pot represented a specific prayer. I thought it was rather a unique concept.

In the large patio area outside we came upon two statues, and discovered that they were of Marco Polo. He was an Italian traveling merchant, born in mid September of 1254. His travels are recorded in a book, The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300, which book introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. Marco Polo was not the first European to visit China, but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience.

The Buddha has many poses, and this pose with the hands upraised, signifies the gesture of Calming the Oceans.

We board our water taxi and head for that very strange temple I mentioned earlier. It is very high, and it is possible to climb to the top for an amazing view of the surrounding city scape.

As you can see, it is a very steep climb, nearly vertical. Pete did the climb, so these are his photos.

My hats off to Mik, who braved the climb as well. You can tell it is taking a tole on his normally robust countenance.

Even at the half way point the views are exceptional. I’m sure Pete is catching his breath at this point.

I remain happily on terra firma, and wait for him to return to earth. There are more Buddha shrines than you can shake a stick at.

This particularly large Buddha sits upon the backs of 3 elephants. Our trip is coming to its conclusion.

After a nights rest we have a leisurely breakfast on the terrace before leaving for the airport, and our flight to San Francisco. Our view is a last look at the skyline of Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River.

I look a little bedraggled here as I was not feeling well at all. It is the 15th of December, and after a few days stop over in San Francisco, we arrive home on the 19th. By then I was feeling so ill that Pete went with me to the hospital on the morning of the 20th, and I was admitted with double pneumonia, and I spent the worse three days of my life in the hospital. I definitely do not recommend pneumonia to anyone. Poor Pete was feeling as sick as I was, but without the pneumonia, thank heaven. He was a true savior. I probably would have died had it not been for him.

But all of that is well in the past, and we are happy to have had this wonderful adventure. I hope you have been able to enjoy it as well, at least vicariously. Thanks for bearing with me to the end. Cheers! Ron & Pete