When people travel they have touring or they have adventure . . .  when do you have both?, when your friends from home join you.  Carl and Julie, our friends from Littleton, joined us for the Bangkok portion of the trip.  We took in all the tourist sights: Buddha, palaces, river ferries and shopping.  It was so hot, over 90 degrees and high humidity besides.  It was refreshing to have another couple to bounce off ideas or adventures.  We all decided to go to the weekend market together; it can only be described as 5,000 booths within a 10 acre site and many thousands of people from all cultures.  If one person left the group, just to look around the corner, it is impossible to find your way back again.  We each got lost from each other.  Four people, over 10 acres, each standing still, hoping to run into each other or just have another walk by.  What are the chances?  ZERO!   It took 5 hours; we each had train passes and one by one found our way back to our hotel.  Every time we left the hotel thereafter, the staff giggled and would remind us to “hold hands”.

We were all at the Royal Palace, and this fellow came up to us and said the palace was closed for lunch but he could bring us to a nearby Wat and have us back in plenty of time to see the royal palace before it closed.  Fortunately, we had just read the short write up in our Lonely Planet book, and it the palace was open till 3 and no reference to lunch.  Then I happened to look behind the man and the sign read, “Beware, do not trust wily strangers”.  We said no to his opportunity.  In the airport line, we ran into another couple who “bit” and they said they were hijacked to the other end of the city and never made it to the royal palace at all.  The royal palace is sided in colored glass, blue, gold, rich royal colors.