Jean had suffered a minor indisposition overnight, but we made it down to breakfast OK. We did have some quite exotic food last night – for us.

We had a quick look round the hotel. It’s actually a large resort.

We had a chat to one of the many concierges who were hanging around, and eventually decided to visit the Royal Palace, getting there by boat along the river.

The hotel offers a free shuttle service to the main transport hub further up the river, so we availed ourselves of that.

The concierge had told us to get tickets at the hub for stop number 9, very near the Royal Palace.

When we got to the hub, the puzzled Brit look attracted a representative who took pity on us, showed us where to get tickets, but also informed us that today was a special day at the Palace and it was closed at the moment, but it would be open after 3 p.m. and entry would then be free, as opposed to the 500 baht it would normally cost.

The question then was – what to do in the interim? Our informant proposed a couple of likely experiences in the area, and even scribbled them down on a piece of paper.

As we were leaving the hub, we were accosted by another gentleman who was even more helpful. I did have the feeling that we were being set up here, but he suggested the same two places to go and even procured a tuk-tuk to get us around.

The deal was for Kim, our tuk-tuk driver, to take us to these two places and anywhere else we wished to go for 60 baht per hour. He would wait for us and take us further if wished, as long as we were back at the hub to purchase our boat tickets by about 2.45.

So off we set.

Kim certainly knew what he was doing. Very skilful driving at breakneck speed – excellent fun.

As I suspected, however, both stops were sales operations. I just kept well out of it all, but Jean ended up with some bits and pieces for the grandchildren and herself. The pressure to buy was immense, although we did get to a third “souvenir shop” where we weren’t hassled quite so much. For this period of retail therapy, I was bored out of my skull, to be brutally honest.

Thankfully, we got back in plenty of time to purchase the boat tickets to get us to the Royal Palace.

We boarded a bloody great hop-on-hop-off ferry, which stopped at various piers on the way, but we had to ask one of the onboard staff which stop it was for the Royal Palace.

Off we got. By now it was very hot and I was short of temper after the sales pressure.

Matters were not improved when we discovered that the Royal Palace was closed! Duff gen from too many people…..

I was about to give up and go back at this point, but a nearby Brit, sensing our frustration, told us that the nearby Wat Pho temple was open until 6 p.m. Jean had read good things of this, so we walked the half-mile or so to get there.

The 200 baht entry fee presented us with an astonishing spectacle.

It’s an enormous complex. Pictures really can’t describe it – or mine can’t anyway. And the piéce de resistance was yet to come.

Jean had read something about the Reclining Buddha at this site. We caught a glimpse of it through a wall and decided to pay an additional 200 baht each to see it.

Breathtaking in its sheer size. Must have been at least 80 metres long.

Absolutely extraordinary.

Jean made the perfectly valid point that, if we’d visited the Grand Palace (which is another colossal site) we would probably have been too knackered to visit Wat Pho. We have a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam planned for March 2025, which includes a stopover in Bangkok on the way back, so maybe we can visit the Grand Palace then.

Tantalising glimpses of the Grand Palace on the way back to the ferry, though…..

The journey back to the hub was uneventful, and the video below shows a bit of one of the huge barges that are towed along this incredibly busy river.

We caught the hotel shuttle boat back to the hotel with little trouble.

Quite a day.

After showering and changing, we repaired to the Trader Vic’s restaurant on the resort site for dinner. And very nice it was too.

Tomorrow is our last day in Thailand ☹️☹️☹️. We plan to do nothing more than laze by the pool and eat dinner at the Brio Italian restaurant. As we have to be ready to be picked up at 5 a.m. (!) on Sunday morning, it may have to be an early night. Join us tomorrow for the final leg of this amazing journey.