Stanley's pictures: Our New Adventure Begins,

starting out afresh in the UK,

we will have to buy everything, from a tea spoon to a bed, so into the taxi,

and off we go,

leaving Pattaya,

and Bangkok bound,

we came in by a slightly different route, we had not seen this building before,

or this herd of elephants,

in a roadside garden,

we were soon here,

the J. W. Marriott,

a quick look at the room,

all very nice,

Diana love it, so did I,

so on to plan A,

as soon as we checked in,

we were out,

for our breakfast,

to, you guessed it, Bully's Pub, easy to find as it is near Nana Plaza, the address is 8, Sumkivitt Road,

'Cheers!', a pint,

I can only think of one better way to start the day,

our breakfast arrived,

for Diana a Thai dish,

and for myself, a English fry-up,

and a second pint,

this is the better way to start the day, 2 pints and an English fry-up!

then we were off,

Diana had never visited,

the Temple of the Dawn,

Wat Arun,

so as we had a free afternoon in Bangkok,

we thought it would be ideal,

to call in there,

I visited here way back in the 1980's,

with the thought in my head before going,

'Bring plenty of film!'

of course today it is,

'Bring plenty of memory cards!',

the whole complex,

is a photographers paradise,

especially with resident,

or visiting monks giving the complex some local flavor,

and if you have a camera that has interchangeable lenses, bring the widest angle one you can,

whist walking around, one couple had chosen the temple for their photo-shoot,

as some more monks walked by,

I was still struggling,

to get far enough away to fit the building into the frame,

and then we saw the couple again,

a quick pose,

before looking down towards the river and passenger ferry, bring visitors across the water,

almost got all of the tower in the frame,

we caught up with the couple again,

and a nice place to pose,

so here is Diana,

taking a few poses,

and in case you had forgotten what I look like,

I had a pose too,

we seem to be following the couple around,

so up the steps,

for another pose,

from Diana,

by the riverside,

a small market had been set up, this one selling krathongs, for the Loy Katong ceremony that was happening tonight, a krathong is decorated with elaborately-folded banana leaves, three incense sticks, and a candle, a small coin is sometimes included as an offering to the river spirits, on the night of the full moon, Thais launch their krathong on a river, canal or a pond, making a wish as they do so, the festival may originate from an ancient rural ritual paying respect to the water spirits, the floats are thought to have been introduced to Chiang Mai in 1947 and have since been incorporated into local culture, the name could be translated as "to float a basket," and comes from the tradition of making krathong or buoyant, decorated baskets, which are then floated on a river, Loi Krathong takes place on the evening of the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai lunar calendar, thus the exact date of the festival changes every year, in the Western calendar this usually falls in the month of November, and we were lucky enough to be here that very same day,

also there were stalls selling food and drink,

a look across at some of the stalls,

and back towards the temple,

towering into the sky,

we looked at a few more stalls,

selling kathongs,

and then made our way to the jetty,

that passengers use to cross the river,

as a long tail boat gets ready to load some visitors,

as I looked upriver, I heard some splashing,

the water next to the jetty was alive with fish,

as this monk feed them,

a quick look at some of the other stalls,

and the gardens in front of them,

the sky had started to darken,

hopefully no rain,

well at least, not until we were back at the hotel,

a last look at the temple in between the Temple of the Dawn and the river,

but first a ice coffee,

we were both a bit hot,

and thirsty,

so we settled here,

it was a small garden, with a cooling mist of water supplied by fans blowing a mist across the area, very nice on a hot windless day,

on the way back to the taxi we watched monk showing youngsters how to make krathongs,

in the taxi we passed a huge park,

with krathong sellers,

lined up outside, the traffic was horrendous, about half an hour from the hotel to the temple, nearly 3 hours to get back!

so as soon as we arrived back, it was a shower and a change of clothes,

glad rags on,

and we were off for our evening meal at the hotels International buffet, as we walked in there was a huge impressive ice sculpture of a turkey,

and different sculptures,

on some of the other food displays,

we had hoped that Alaskan King crab would be on offer, alas it was not, but there was Boston lobster as an alternative, so that was all right then!

and there was plenty of other seafood,

as well as a carvery, with turkey, ham,

lamb, beef and a baked salmon,

I did not take many pictures as I walked around,

but the number of different tastes that were catered for was truly impressive, I have this counter firmly insight as one of my places to revisit later,

everywhere I look there were different things to tempt you, Japanese, Indian, Korean, the list of countries catered for went on and on,

then desserts,

fresh fruit,

including cherries,

so lets get started with a bottle of bubbly,

'Cheers!',

seafood first,

and there was lots of it to choose from,

Boston lobster, that will do nicely,

some mussels,

and it is time to tuck in,

lobster, yummy!

for Diana's second starter she again chose lobster,

lots of lobster,

well so did I, then I heard Diana say, 'I can not eat any more lobster!' I could almost hear the lobster population in Boston breathing a huge sigh of relief!