Bangkok, Thailand

Sunday, Nov. 22   We're off the ship!   We toured Bangkok, Thailand today.  It has a population of 10 million and lots of Buddhist temples, because 95% of the people are Buddhist.  We took a ride on a long boat on one of the more than 1,000 canals.  Their government is a democracy, but they also have a king and queen who have no power, but it sounds like they're very popular.  Decorations were everywhere to celebrate the upcoming 82nd birthday of the king.   Our absolute favorite place we visited today was the Royal Grand Palace.  It was gorgeous!  The outsides of the buildings were some of the most ornately decorated we've every seen.   We stayed overnight at a lovely hotel that overlooked the river.  We even got upgraded to a suite!  Too bad the shuttle left at 3:30 am for the airport.  We could have used some more sleep before our long trip back.  We're counting down the hours till we get home.  If there are no delays anywhere, it should be around 36 hours!