[lettie]

When I left Auckland, I flew to Sydney to get a connecting flight to Bangkok. By this time, I was absolutely dreading Bangkok, for a couple of reasons. Some Americans I met in Hong Kong, had just come from Bangkok and hated it, and the rest of my holiday had been so brilliant and disaster free (and I always have at least one crisis) that I reckoned that something was bound to go wrong. When I arrived, it was late at night and the airport is pretty grim. The roads were packed with traffic, the taxi had no rear seatbelt and the driving reckless! When I arrived in the city, Christmas lights were cascading down from the rooftops of all the tall buildings, it looked spectacular, my hotel was fabulous, so this cheered me up no end. My hotel was directly across the road from a skytrain station, so first thing in the morning, I hopped on the skytrain and went to explore the river. The Chao Phraya River is Bangkok's main artery, and it's quite relaxing cruising up here in a river taxi. Bangkok is meant to be viewed from the river, the grand buildings lining the banks of the Chao Phraya, temples, Chinatown, Grand Palace and shopping complexes can all be accessed from the river. Here's a couple of views from the river taxi.