Oct 20- pinch me, we're in Bangkok!

My wow-meter is being challenged. Hardly have we left behind the "wow" of the Hilton delights in Kuala Lumpur when we are faced with the "wows" of Bangkok.
The first "wow" came on arrival at the state of the art airport (and all airports here in Asia are state of the art, one more beautiful than the next), when the 45  minute taxi ride stretched to an hour and a half in rush-hour traffic. The King and Queen greeted us on many billboards into town.
 The second "wow" came on arrival in our hotel, especially after we changed rooms this morning...we're directly on the river, across from the Temple of the Dawn with endless boat traffic. Here a view from our room:

 The hotel is in old Bangkok within walking distance of Wat Po, the famous temple, the Grand Palace, which is considered a must see and the flower market...



Last night, after our stomachs settled a bit from the taxi ride, we went to visit the flower market which is not far from our hotel ...warned about strangers and unsavoury characters, we were a bit apprehensive walking through the relatively dark streets at night, but the flower market was not far....and worth the shiver.
It must be seen to be believed....bags and bags of flower heads, mostly marigolds used in leis, were being bagged for shipping.
Flowers are widely used in temples, so floral offereings, most intricate small arrangements and necklaces were being fabricated in innumerable stalls. 

 On the other side of the street were the flowers that are packaged here for shipping all over the world: the orchids and roses, mums and gerberas.

And interspersed with all of this is street food of every description....not for us, for the vendors, that seem, all over the Bangkok we have seen, to live their life on the street.

Am not sure if this is a Siamese cat, but it certainly is a cat in Siam, one of many short-tailed ones that haunt the markets and the temples.

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