Bangkok Arrival

I arrived in Bangkok a week ago, meeting up with my co-servants for Christ for 36 hours of body-clock adjustment (which isn’t enough, but it would have to do – it’s a 12-hour difference between Thailand and U.S. Eastern Standard Time) before we would depart to start God’s work in earnest. We spent the day walking around the city where, as in the states, preparation for Christmas at the malls has already begun. This shimmering tree has been erected but they haven’t turned the lights on yet:

We took a Saturday trip up and down the Chao Phraya River, riding its floating mass transit system with several stops along the waterway. This is what we heard at every stop:

Our only jump-off was for a couple of hours at the Royal Palace. King Bhumibol (don’t call him Bhum for short!) is revered in Thailand – when we visited last year the country had blocked YouTube because someone had posted a video that showed disrespect for him. That’s him on this building:

As we walked around the compound the sidewalks were crowded with food vendors and merchants selling all kinds of clothing and wares. This is the case, by the way, on just about every square inch of sidewalk in Bangkok. There are a few instrumentalists also:

We arrived at the palace entrance just as some dignitaries (we spotted a British flag) were leaving in a long caravan:

The king has some opulent digs:

And some very odd idol characters staked around the place, including Rooster Man:

These guys hold the place up:

The bonsai trees are beautiful:

And no highfalutin’ estate in this part of the world would be complete without worship to the false god Buddha:

Then it was time to go back up the river and call it a day. We departed to our next destination the following day.

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