March 18

This morning we docked in Laem Chabang about 8am. All tours into Bangkok were canceled because of the expected demonstrations over the Prime Minister. They felt it was not safe to go into Bangkok. The tours that stayed out of Bangkok were still scheduled. So Ginnie and I went to The Garden Transfer tour that we had scheduled. The gardens were beautiful BUT we really didn’t see much of them. We got our pictures taken with monkeys - well, an orangutan and a chimp! It was too funny - the orangutan nibbled on our ears - we were glad that we still had ear rings when we got up! It was great! You could also have your picture taken with a Cheetah (or leopard or some such) and birds BUT we didn’t do that. You hade to pay $2 US for each picture and then they would sell you the actual picture later for $5 US. However, the guy who was selling the pictures had no change and wouldn’t take $7 and 20bot for two pictures so I didn’t get them. We also went to a cultural show - lots of different dances, some kick boxing which was very similar to American “wrestling” - they even knocked out the ref! The also had an elephant show - the elephants ate bananas, threw darts at balloons, rode bicycles, painted pictures, played soccer, etc! It was great. After the elephant show we were allowed one free (right) drink - we had local beer - called Singha - it was pretty good. Then we came back to the ship. IT IS HOT here - supposed to get up to about 40C which is about 104! And the humidity is high too! Two of the pictures are the ones that would not go on the other day - the flower dog and the smoky temple. The rest are from this morning - enjoy.