TOURS BOOKED

It looks like I won't have much free time here in Bangkok because I booked several tours. My first is of the Royal Palace tomorrow morning at 7:30 and then I£ taking a dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River. On Monday, I spend the full day in Kanchananaburi at the famous bridge over the River Kwai. And my last day here will be spent on a full-day excursion that includes a visit to the floating market, an elephant ride, Muay Thai boxing, and several other things I've forgotten.

This schedule doesn't allow much extra time for shopping but I'll have to find some time for a trip to the post office to mail some of my souvenirs home. The hotel's business center offers mailing/postage services; perhaps they can handle a parcel.

After booking my tours (which cost a total of 5300 baht, or around $130), I returned to my room and ordered dinner from room service. I had a prawn cocktail (the cocktail sauce turned out to be thousand island dressing), the Baiyoke Sky club sandwich (toasted bread with roast chicken, bacon, tomatoes, fried egg, and lettuce) which came with cole slaw and potato chips, and a selection of Thai mini desserts. I was full by the time I got to the dessert but I tried a few anyway. I couldn't identify what any of them were (I think one had a base of sticky rice and another tasted like refried beans with very spicy seasoning); I only liked the taste of one. It was a huge meal and came to less than 400 baht (about $11), including tax and room service surcharge. The nice thing is that you pay right away rather than trying to keep track of extra charges on your hotel bill. It came with real linen - a vast improvement over the thin tissues everywhere you go on Phuket.

Well, la ti savaat (goodnight). It's off to bed so I can get a good night's sleep; I plan to get my free breakfasty before my morning tour.

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless