Bangkok in magical Thailand (part two)

Seeing as the people who helped us out at the airport were the same company, our first stop was at their travel agency, to arrange the rest of our trip in Thailand. We had plans to go to the south of Thailand and spend some time there on a beach. There is nothing I love more.
Once again we experienced magical Thai manners beginning with our tour guide who explained to us prominent parts of Thailand including the King's palace. Very knowledgeable she was to, being a lawyer who was taking a sabbatical to try something new and different. So in typical Bangkok traffic we arrived at the travel agency and once more I was spellbound by their courtesy and smiling, informed service.
When my wife informed them we were thinking of going to Ko Phi Phi. It began again,"whooee, very difficult to find accommodation in Phi Phi this time of year. Let's see what we can do." I had to start smiling and before I knew it tea and water were being offered and our trip was being assembled, including taxi drive to airport, another awaiting taxi in Phuket to take us to the ferry terminal, tickets for the ferry and our accommodation. Each particular part sealed in an envelope and numbered so we wouldn't mix them up and easy to find. The same for our return journey. Amazing.
In amongst all this we were chatting about where we came from and also having some good laughs. I loved it, it was so enthralling to be spoilt again. I mean really spoiled.

In fine fettle after our James fashion encounter our next stop was the temple of the reclining Buddha. All in all it comprises about the size of a city block. The first question our guide asked me was, " what is your birth day?" So I replied,"the twentieth." Horrified, she said we had to know which day as it was extremely important. According to their beliefs, you get given a colour depending on which day of the week you are born on. Which is why all the yellow flags we had been seeing were a tribute to the King who had has his birthday a few days before we arrived. As already mentioned, she was very knowledgeable and very religious. She filled us in on a lot of their beliefs which were fascinating.
Prior to entering the temple we had to remove our shoes and whilst doing this I said with twinkling turquoise eyes,"but I have smelly socks." She gave me a thoroughly bewildered look and a shake of her head. Exasperated, my wife said,"just ignore him." Whereupon the guide beamed me a radiant smile and said,"smelly socks is OK but no shoes." Ah, when Irish eyes are smiling, sure the whole world smiles with you.
Apparently Buddha has many different poses and in each one he is contemplating something different. As best my memory serves, here he is resting or reclining. It was a fascinating experience and a lovely temple with beautiful tapestries and each one tells a story along the lines of a sort of bible in pictures. Once again we got lucky here as later on in our tour here I managed to get a photo of all the monks coming into the complex from their monastery. Beautiful.

This was a lovely way to cool down in the heat of the afternoon. The dragon boat consists of wood and a mounted diesel engine on the back with a long pole leading down from this to the propeller and the pilot steers it as such. They also have a canopy overhead to protect you from the heat and wooden seats normally with a cushion on them. A lovely way to spend a couple of hours seeing Bangkok from the river and seeing how people live right on top of the river. You might be surprised to know that these houses have electricity and satellite dishes on many of them.
Our first stop here was another Buddhist temple. Because the monks believe in the sanctity of all life, no fishing is allowed outside of any of these temples. So we bought some bread from them and started feeding the fish. At first I thought our guide was pulling my leg, but once I had tossed the first piece of bread overboard, a seething mass of fish appeared, so many that they caused their own waves and whirlpools. Fascinating and another magical experience. I'm going to show it all to you again in pictures because that is the format I prefer using best.