Tom's parents recently finished a three-week holiday in Thailand and they seem to have thoroughly enjoyed it. After a few days in Bangkok, they embarked on an extensive tour in the north, followed by a few days in the south and another two days in Bangkok. To celebrate their wedding anniversary and birthdays, we went to the rooftop restaurant "Zense" on top of the Zen/Centralworld shopping center, which offers fine views of the commercial heart of Bangkok. We also managed to pay a visit to Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn) on the Chao Phraya river. This temple is decorated with Chinese porcelain and offers great views of the river and the Royal Palace on the other side. On the way to the National Museum we got into busy traffic caused by a demonstration of the anti-government "red shirts" who took over from the previous anti-government "yellow shirts" protesters... Thai politics are complicated. It took us 2 hours to get back home.
This post also contains some additional Bangkok impressions and pictures from the last couple of months. You can see some curious creatures roaming around in the parks of Bangkok. One of these fellows is the monitor lizard, a massive reptile populating a number of park ponds and often walking around with an attitude. These animals can be quick and reputed for attacking dogs and other small domestic animals in rural areas. They are related to the famous Komodo dragons in Indonesia. The one pictured above was spotted in Dusit Park, where there are a number of attractions. One of these is the big building behind the sunflowers, which is a ceremonial throne hall, now home to an impressive exhibition called "Arts of the Kingdom". There is a lot to do and see in Bangkok so we recommend all visitors to Thailand to spend at least a few days here. The noise and traffic can be tiring but there is more to Bangkok than that. The rainy season has just started in Bangkok, about two weeks too soon (yes, it is that predictable here). The "Songkran" festival and holiday from 13-15 April marks the "Thai New Year" and usually also the start of the rainy season, which ends around Loy Krathong (see earlier posts). Between Loy Krathong and now, it has indeed hardly rained at all in Bangkok. We were also treated to some great sunsets in the last days of March as one of the pictures shows. The top picture is the famous Erawan shrine, a popular Hindu worship spot in the commercial centre.
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