Day 17 Laem Chbang - Local life Tour

Sailed in to Laem Chabang at dawn. This is the port for Bangkok, which is about an hours’s drive away. It was 35° today, but we were mostly under cover or in the bus.

I have no idea what direction we travelled in, but we were nowhere near Bangkok - we’ve got four days there, so plenty of time to explore.

In fact it was a great tour - first we drove past an area where they cultivated prawns. Then we stopped at a weekend market. It was a sprawling area, under cover, selling all sorts. No customers were there, just us, but several of the stall holders were busy getting their wares ready for the next market day - sewing, cooking, even a barber. He was carefully cutting a chap’s hair, and when came back round , ages later, he was still carefully snipping away.

A stop off at a big temple, which was being renovated and had scaffolding around it. But it was lovely inside, with a lovely tiled floor with sea creature designs. Shoes off, and one woman whose dress came to slightly above her knees had to put on a blue big blue gown.

Next stop was lunch, and pretty good it was too. A variety of dishes kept appearing - squid rings, fish, chicken, rice, greens, a spicy mushroom soup and finished with fresh fruit slices. They kept topping up the beers too.

Back to the ship to pack up ready for leaving tomorrow. But yet another treat - a special Thai buffet this evening. Such effort the chefs go to…

Right. All packed up. It’s been a GREAT cruise, a wonderful cruise line, and looking at the world weather every day, we were lucky to have only one afternoon of torrential rain in Singapore.