The SWISSÔTEL MERCHANT COURT (official site) was quite spectacular and also a reasonable price - our twin room was SGD180 total excluding taxes for the executive club twin package which included breakfast, laundry items, local calls and cocktails in the executive club lounge on the 11th floor. We went to Brewerkz next to the hotel for dinner and beers. The beer selection was good - we tried a mini tasting set of 7 different beers to start with - then a few pints of India Pale Ale (IPA), which was excellent.

I walked past the MERLION statue - the symbol of Singapore - and the obelisk in War Memorial Park to CHIJMES a splendid old convent now with many classy bars, restaurants, trendy shops and galleries. It was so hot, humid and sunny (34°C) - but nice. A persistent local man who wanted to show me the best back-street shops chatted to me. He was friendly but I wanted to explore alone - I left him and went to Fort Canning Park and visited the Battle Box - a good reconstruction with realistic life-size figures of the Singapore surrender to the Japanese on 15-FEB-1942 in the original underground military operations complex.

At 13:00 I headed to the airport to collect Masayuki who flew in from Fukuoka (FUK), JAPAN. We took the MRT back to City Hall and walked the 10 minutes to the hotel. After a few cocktails in the lounge we headed out through Clarke Quay where we bought some cheap ties (some were only SGD2). We proceeded to the famous Raffles Hotel (Colonial style building) where we had our first Singapore Sling cocktail (recipe). One stop on the MRT and we arrived at Bugis, where we strolled through the hot market stands with copy watches, T-shirts, bags and food on sale. Tag Heuer cheap ones for SGD 18 (fixed price), automatic Rolex for <SGD 85. (Bangkok is cheaper and has a better selection, see below).

For dinner we went to Boat Quay. We fought our way through the jungle of restaurant proprietors recommending we eat at their establishments. So after 10 times saying "no thank you, not tonight / maybe later..." we stopped at the River Quay Seafood Restaurant where we had an excellent selection of minced fish satay on lemon grass skewer with peanut dip, followed by very hot chili crab (specialty from Singapore).

In the evening we met Alastair's parents, the bride and other friends and relatives for cocktails in the Hotel Bar. On Boat Quay we split up to try different restaurants. Tonight we went to the Thai seafood restaurant. I had a superb green curry. Nicholas had a spectacular fish.

Further south we strolled through the Chinatown Complex market that had loads of seafood, including live turtles and frogs on sale. Round the corner was the Sri Mariamman Temple - a spectacular Hindu temple which amazing colorful figures. The fee for taking photos inside was SGD2. We proceeded via Raffles City MRT to Bugis Junction and looked at the Chinese temple there and I bought a nice cheap watch (which still works).

At 17:30 we tried getting a taxi by waiting outside the hotel. But we were unlucky and no taxi came. Phoning for one would have taken even longer. So we walked to the main road and we waved at several taxis for about 10 minutes until we had one at 17:55. ADVICE - TAXIS in Singapore - always plan for at least 20 minutes for getting a taxi and go to a main road to flag one down. We got to St George's Church in Tanglin only a bit late for the wedding rehearsal. (I was an usher). The church is a splendid old Colonial style building - very very hot inside though, since it is open to the air at the sides.

Afterwards we all headed back to Boat Quay for Alastair's Stag night. We started in the Penny Black London Pub. Next was the feast at Kinara - a highly recommended Indian restaurant. Masayuki and I wanted an ultra hot curry - but we got a rather lightweight one - still, it tasted excellent. To finish the night off - we went to HOOTERS ! (A sports style bar with tightly clad waitresses).

Later on we met up with the others in the Raffles Hotel "Bar and Billiard Room". We then wanted to go for dinner across the road at CHIJMES but it was full because of the start of the World Cup - France were playing and lost! So we ate dinner at the food court in Raffles City shopping center, top floor. I had a very dodgy lukewarm/cold mutton and other meat with fishy rice. This food was partly responsible for upsetting my stomach which caused me to stay up half the night on the loo!! I bought a silly hat which is also a sensu fan as a souvenir present for someone. To round off the night we checked out a very trendy bar on Clarke Quay where young Westerners and trendy young locals hang out.

At 13:30 we got a taxi by going to the main road and waiting for only 5 minutes (lucky) and headed to the WEDDING at St. George's Church. The wedding was definitely a HIGHLIGHT of the holiday, the bride looked most beautiful. The getaway car was a white Mercedes (approx. 8 years old).

The reception was at the 4-Seasons hotel and was most entertaining. The food was good. The wedding couple disappeared 3 times to put on new outfits each time. At midnight after the wedding we waited for 30 minutes at the 4-seasons hotel for a taxi - not very nice.

We were on a Boeing 747 on the short flight from Singapore to Bangkok. We sat right at the back in seats 63H and K. The Kris World entertainment system was broken! We landed in Bangkok, picked up our hold luggage and then changed some money into Thai Bahts (THB). Headed for the public taxi stand we avoided all the conmen trying to offer cheap journeys into the city center. At the taxi stand we got a ticket which should say a fixed price on it. The highway tolls have to be paid separately BHT30 and BHT40 for the route to the Menam Riverside Hotel. We should have insisted that the taxi driver switch on his TAXAMETER, then he wouldn't have made up a higher price. Taxi costs in Bangkok are: THB35 for first 2km then THB5 per km and THB50 surcharge for airport. We paid too much i.e. THB500! it should have cost about THB350 includings tolls.

We checked into the MENAM RIVERSIDE HOTEL (official site) to the south end of Bangkok direct on the Chao Phraya River. The hotel is a good basic quality with a swimming pool and several international restaurants. There were also many German tourists staying there since several organized tours in German brochures start from here. As with most other hotels NO DURIANS were allowed (because these fruits stink of rotten garbage!). The hotel entrance is flanked by 2 approach roads with custom tailors and 1 or 2 souvenir shops. The main road in front of the hotel was joined with several market streets with great selections of delicious foods including outstanding fish-cakes with a sweet tangy sauce with cucumber - cost was only THB10 for five small fish-cakes. We had dinner in a restaurant just round the corner from the hotel. The local style chicken with vegetables and Tom Yam Kung (hot and spicy prawn soup) - tasted superb! (With some Beer Chang).

Monday 03 JUNE (Bangkok)
Today was the start of our organized tour that we had booked in Germany via Meier's Weltreisen. We got up early and had a good breakfast from the buffet. In the foyer at 07:00 we were met by our guide - "MANOR" was his name. He was Thai and spoke fluent German and English; we were impressed with his knowledge. He had been with the LTU group for many years guiding groups of German speaking tourists. We met the driver as well and boarded the minibus. After 10 minutes of traffic jam we crossed the Chao Phraya river and stopped at the luxury Marriott Royal Garden Riverside Hotel where we picked up a couple from the South of Germany also joining us for 1 day.

Our first stop at a large market with a huge fruit selection was one of the HIGHLIGHTs of the day. Our guide showed us, and explained, the various fruits. We tried the DREADED DURIAN - it tasted VERY GOOD! I would describe it as an intense banana-apple-onion-peanut-melon taste. Apparently durian ("King of fruits") heats up the body which can be counteracted with the "Queen of fruits" - the mangosteen. One should avoid alcohol after eating durian since your heart will be racing and you might collapse (allegedly). Rambutans were one of our favorites - tasting very refreshing and citrus-like. Next we visited a palm and coconut sugar-manufacturing site. Surprisingly there was a large souvenir shop here selling copy watches as well.

We boarded a boat to travel to the Damnoen Seduak floating market. Here we again encounterd a huge variety of souvenirs, including life-size cobras. Continuing back on land we stopped at the Royal Thai-Handicraft Center, with amazing teak carvings and furniture - much of it is exported. Masayuki bought a small mangosteen style wooden pot.

The huge 127 meter high Chedi at Nakhon Pathom dominated from quite a distance away. This is allegedly the highest Buddhist structure worldwide. Spectacular! At the Rose Garden, our next stop, we enjoyed a "tourist style" Thai lunch (i.e. mild). In the afternoon we watched the cultural show with Thai Boxing and various Thai dances. Masayuki had his photo take with a scary looking PYTHON! Crazy. Elephant rides were also most popular.

In the evening we watched the World Cup on TV outside the "V - Shop" where we could also buy Küppers Kölsch (a lager style German beer from Cologne) and Schlösser Alt (an ale style beer from Düsseldorf). They were quite cheap - but they were past their BEST BEFORE DATE - that's why! - probably can't be sold in Europe therefore these consignments are exported for nothing. We had a hot Thai curry for dinner in the same market style restaurant near the hotel. N i c e!

We drove west for about 1 1/2 hours, passing sea-salt farms, to Kanchanaburi. The first stop was the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where many of the POWs who died during the building of the Burma - Siam (Thailand) railway during World War 2 were buried. The cemetery was beautifully kept. Next we visited the JEATH museum which had many graphic images of the building of the railway and the River Kwai bridges - the horrific images made the horrors of the war apparent to all visitors.

A short boat ride on the river Kwai took us past floating discos, where the local students party all night, to the Bridge on the River Kwai - made famous though the Oscar winning film of 1957. We walked up and down the old iron bridge, built just after the war to replace the bridge that was bombed.

Manor showed us more fruits at some market stands and we tried some jackfruit and pomelo (one of my favorites - tastes like a sweet grapefruit). I bought some fashionable T-shirts which were a bit big for me (one size only). They leaked color the next day when I wore them. But they're quite nice.

Before boarding the train at Kanchanaburi station we also tried some yellow mango - slightly bitter but mostly sweet with a rich fleshy texture in the mouth. The rail journey took us past sugar-cane plantations and then through some dense jungle next to the river Kwai. After 1 1/2 hours we arrived at Nam Tok (means waterfall) and headed for lunch via minibus.

We had an authentic Thai spicy lunch arranged for us in a River Kwai open to air restaurant by Manor. The catfish soup with those small green chilis (Prik Ki Nu) was ULTRA HOT - those chilis are much hotter than anything I've tried in Germany.

In the evening we had fish cakes and cold satay: pork, kidney, heart, liver - bought from the market stands near the hotel

A boat journey through mountains of reeds and water plants was next until we reached the main river and headed to Ayutthaya. Our driver picked us up in Ayutthaya at the jetty and drove the few minutes to Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. This had an amazing, large resting Buddha with big feet. Following on, we visited one of the largest sites - Wat Mongkhon Bophit in Ayutthaya - which was now mostly ruins due to destruction caused by invaders from Burma many years ago. The large Wihan (rebuilt) there was spectacular with a huge bronze Buddha inside.

HIGHLIGHT - Authentic Thai late lunch near Ayutthaya - ultra hot small green chilis (prik ki nu), grilled big prawns, tom yang kung soup - excellent. Manor our guide arranged to stop here especially for us, we paid a bit extra on top of the tour lunch allowance so we could have huge prawns as well. The green chilis, one of which I crunched slowly in my mouth - was the hottest thing I have ever had. I almost passed out for 3 minutes due to spiciness pain overdose. The next 10 minutes I could feel it. Apparently Thai people usually don't eat those, they only add spice flavor to the soup and you leave the chilis. Back at the hotel after 1 hour we thanked our guide and driver with a tip - that was the end of the tour. We can recommend Meier's Weltreisen and Manor our guide (the driver was also good at driving smoothly and weaving in and out properly in traffic jams to save time - we very pleased with his driving).

In the evening we took a taxi to Siam Center and then the Sky Train to go to the Emporium shopping center. I bought a bottle of Thai wine - Chateau Loie. It was rather good when I tried it a week later back at home in Germany.

At pier Chang it was possible to hire longtail boats with drivers for sightseeing in the side canals. We headed straight for the big Wat. We had to avoid about 20 persistent local guides offering to take us to the entrance and show us around (for money). We knew where the proper entrance was - half way along Na Phra Lan Road. We also had to avoid many postcard sellers. The entrance ticket cost about THB 200 and included 2 other attractions as well (Vimanmek Mansion to the north of the City and the coin museum next to the Wat Phra Kaeo). The Wat and the Palace were huge and most spectacular. Proper attire is essential for entry the Wat and palace complex.

It was so hot (38°C); we were pleased to cool of for half an hour in the air-conditioned museum next to the palace. We avoided the Tuk-Tuk drivers and jumped into a Taxi who at first wanted to negotiate a price for our journey - we insisted he turn on the Taxameter, which he did when we said we would have to get out and find another taxi. He took us to the Pantip Plaza from where we walked round the corner to the huge clothing market (Pratunam market). Nearby, across the main road, was the World Trade Center, in front of which a large crowd was watching the World Cup on a huge screen. We had pizza for lunch.

The Sky Train was a very efficient way of getting to Saphan Taksin from where we transferred to the boat - back to the hotel. ADVICE - buy your boat ticket on the boat and not from the woman in the stand on the pier who charged us too much (we later found out). At 18:00 Masayuki's friend from school who now works in Bangkok met us at the hotel and we headed to an amazingly tasty Thai seafood restaurant called SOMBOON Seafood on Surawong Road. Here we had curry crab, mussels and shells and several other excellent dishes. This restaurant has several floors and was very popular.

After dinner we headed to Patpong where we strolled around and looked at the market stands in both Patpong streets. The night market starts properly after 19:00 (setting up from about 18:00). Example price for high quality sapphire glass automatic Patek Philippe was starting price THB 3200, negotiable down to THB 1400 (or maybe less). Ticking Rolexes were much cheaper around THB 400. The selection here was much better and cheaper than both Singapore and Hong Kong. On the edges of the market stands there are 100s of Go Go Bars offering wild shows. We avoided these and Masayuki's friend led us to Soi Cowboy next to Asok Sky Train station where we went to 2 reasonable Go Go Bars. One of them had a transparent floor so you could see the dancers above. Masayuki and I were issued with hostesses and we had a few drinks with them.