Bangkok 3

Wednesday continued to be a busy day and after the floating market we headed to what we were told were the Rose Gardens for lunch and a Thai Village Cultural Show which is held in a pavilion within the park. There are no longer any roses there however and we found that it has subsequently been renamed the Sampran Riverside.

1st stop - Sri Lankan style Buddhist temple

The buffet lunch in the large venue overlooking a lake was superb - a lot of choice with Thai meals predominantly but also sushi, italian and chinese dishes available with lots of little Thai desserts to follow - they were little so we managed to sample several!

Then we had to rush to walk round to the Cultural show which we also enjoyed and which included Thai music, scenes depicting rice farmers, explanations of young men's initiation into monkhood, Thai dancing including a flag dance at the end where I could be proud to see the kiwi flag, traditional Thai drumming, Thai boxing showing the use of arm guards, sword fighting which looked quite ferocious a typical Thai wedding and the unique bamboo dance from the Northeast region where the dancers have to be pretty quick to jump over beating bamboo poles which are moved together and then apart quite quickly. I'm sure they must have some nasty blows to their ankles whilst practising! The audience were invited to join in the Ramwong Dance for the finale but we managed to stay stuck to our seats. The highlights for us were the boxing and bamboo dancing.

Pole dancing - Thai style!

Afterwards they put on a short but entertaining show with 3 elephants showing their skills.
Our trip back to the hotel was broken with a short stop at a Teak carving and furniture makers where we saw some nice furniture as well as some pretty ugly items such as the huge dining room tables and chairs - maybe they would look OK in a castle says she who lives in a bus!

Just one of the dining room chairs!

We were pretty tired by the time we arrived back but instead of lying down we did manage a quick swim and lounge by the pool before it got dark. Just as we were about to go down the street for dinner there was a spectacular long thunder and lightening show so we ate in the hotel restaurant and, again, enjoyed our Thai meals!