chinman.com

In the summer of 2008, my family went to Thailand for the summer holiday.

We first spent a few days in Bangkok visiting the typical tourist traps, then went to Krabi for the sun and beach.

I have been to Thailand many times, and at one point in my early working life, I went to Bangkok every other week for a few months working on an M&A project. However this was my first time touring Bangkok as a tourist.

Our hotel the Peninsula Bangkok is right on the river with its own pier to ferry customers across the river. My kids had lots of fun riding the ferry.

During the few days in Bangkok, we hired a local guide with a van. It was arranged via the Internet and it worked really well.

The first day was packed with visit to the water market, tiger temple, etc...

I saw these nice orchids during a toilet stop.

I did not know orchids grow in the "air"!

The toilet stop was in a ceremic factory. Our tour guide dutifully spent a few minutes showed us the factory.

The first touist trap of the day was the floating market.

I strongly suspect that this "market" is just for tourist only. But it was kind of fun to see anyway.

One of the hundreds of vendors.

The biggest shop in this floating market was actually on dry land. At the corner was a brewing sugar cane juice.

Take a closer look. The flying thingy were just bees, not flies.

The market was getting really crowded. Time to head out.