LIKE THEY COULD SQUEEZE ANOTHER CAR ON THE ROADS IN BANGKOK

We docked at Laem Chabang the closest port to Bangkok.  There were various tours of temples, mosques and as the brochure puts it "picturesque scenery" from the tour busses but we are just about templed out by now and decided to do Bangkok on your own.  It was a 2 hour bus ride into central Bangkok,

The port is one of the busiest we've seen, working 24 hours a day and the ships and trucks waiting be loaded and unloaded is frenzied.  Here is a view from the ship just of one small part of the port that holds trucks.

Our tour guide was not very helpful in pointing out what we were passing by, but he really really pushed the idea of going shopping in the World Center, a sprawling megacenter 7 floors high with 500 stores and restaurants.  He handed out pins with a ribbon and a hand made plastic fish on it to help us when we shopped.  I have no idea how it would help us.  I think it was so that the store owners could help themselves to our wallets!

We kept asking him how far the Thieves Market was - we had been there before, and all he kept saying "only Saturday and Sunday open."  We didn't believe him but looking at the map it looked far away and the traffic was horrific.

 Len snapped pictures from the bus though the window.

We arrived at the shopping center and it was so dang hot we went in to cool off.  It was modern and huge and cool.  We ate at Burger King (almost the same) and wandered around.

At the top level was a large grocery store with food from all over the world.  US, British, Australia, French and so on, clearly marked, spotless clean and really lovely to wander around.  Here is a Fuji apple I'm holding.

Well a mall, is a mall, is a mall, so we wandered outside (in the heat) Do I sound like I'm complaining?
There were stalls selling food lined up in front of the mall.  Here are a few pictures.

We did buy a pineapple from this guy - He was wearing gloves and his cart was clean - and the pineapple was delicious!

On the promenade of the mall was this temple. People were lighting incense, bringing flowers and fruit.

We spent 4 hours wandering around in and out of the mall (to cool down) and finally the bus came to pick us up.  It took 3 hours to get back to the ship because of the traffic.  This was a somewhat disappointing day.

Len took this fabulous shot of one of the boats turning around and leaving the port.

2 days at sea then Singapore which should more than make up for Bangkok!