John was so tired when he entered the last post that he forgot the following detaii:
In the afternoon we decided to go into Bangkok centre using the hotel’s shuttle boat service which took us to the main pier in town with the intention of getting public boats to go further up river to see the lay of the land and work out where we wanted to go. But when we went to get our tickets a local ‘guide’ called Pong told us that as it was the Kings Birthday today the boats were stopping at 3 pm so wasn’t worth going. However he talked for ages and told us all about some local shops that were having a tax free day because it was the Kings Birthday and we should get a tuk-tuk to get there. Wrote it all out on our map; couldn’t get away from him. Eventually we left him and wandered off in the direction he mentioned with absolutely no intention of going into shops or using a tuk-tuk but were going to look at a nearby temple. But 5 minutes later he passed us and told us we were going the wrong way and that the temple was closed for, you guessed it, the Kings Birthday. Before we knew where we were we were seated in a tuk-tuk speeding crazily on our way to the first shop. Which turned out to be a tailors shop. Clare was “talked into” buying a tailor-made sundress but John managed to resist the pressure to buy shirts and trousers. No room in our cases, we said. Back to the tuk-tuk but we refused to go to the next shop much to the drivers disgust and went back to the pier to get the boat to the safety of the hotel. Being awake for 33 hours must have impaired our judgement, honest!