As was usually the case on this cruise, the mooring was well out of the city, at Laem Chabang, allegedly a two hour drive to Bangkok.
Unusually, our boat reversed into the mooring - demonstrating the versatility and manoeuvrability of these large diesel-electric ships (that I've discussed elsewhere).
The two hour drive to the outskirts becomes three as soon as you hit the Bangkok traffic, that's more akin to a car park than a highway. Significantly worse since we were here in 2014.
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Our bus finally got to Central Markets, from where we were on our own. It was very close to the the Grande Centre Point Hotel, Ratchadamri that we stayed in during our 2012 visit. There is a Sky Train stop at Ratchadamri and cabs to anywhere. But first we had some shops to see.
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As our time was limited, we decided to restrict ourselves to one key tourist attraction and took a cab to the Royal Palace. But as we approached the traffic became so heavy that we decided to walk the last kilometre.
It was very hot.
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If you are interested in more pictures, follow this link: Pictures from Thailand 2012, 2014 & 2024
To get back to our bus we caught a ferry from the Palace to Sathorn to catch the Sky Train (the green line on the map).
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The only catch was that the station names didn't correspond to those on our map. Also it's a single track system so, trains run in both directions on the same track/platform. It was only the nearby river that warned us that the first train to arrive was going in the wrong direction. Anyway, we figured it out. All good.
On one previous visit to Bangkok there was unrest in the streets. Regrettably, this is not unusual here and I used it as the basis for a short story. You might like to read it? The Greatest Dining Experience Ever in Bangkok
If you are considering a visit to Thailand, here is my travel diary from a dozen years ago, that's still pretty current. If I was updating it the statistics would change but the relativities are much the same. Read more...
One big change is the number of motor vehicles manufactured. Toyota has it's second largest plant here and Mitsubishi also has a huge factory, along with numerous other Japanese and Chinese manufacturers. There are many hectares of vehicles at the port awaiting export. Australian coal and gas provide much of the energy.
This is reflected in the volume of traffic in the city. So that it is often faster to walk - over one of the many sky-walks - or to take the sky-train than to use a cab. The tuck-tucks are now totally absent in the city.