This trip was taken March 17 thru 29, 2014. We flew to Thailand from SFO via Taipei to Bangkok, arriving in Bangkok late morning, and at our hotel, The Century Park, by early afternoon. Our tour guide, Ukkrit "Steven" Pacnoi, a native of Thailand, met us at the gate and was with us until the very last person had boarded the flight home on May 29. He works with Gate 1 tour company, which was the travel agency that put this tour together. This was a Gate 1 DISCOVERIES tour, with a MAXIMUM of 22 tourists. The standard Gate 1 tours have a MINIMUM of 35 tourists. This is exactly the same as the standard tour, but with fewer travelers, and possibly a few small extras that are better done with a small group. I recommend this tour, either way, very highly. It is remarkably inexpensive, even with the single supplement, while being a first-class tour all the way. This is the 13 day/12 night "Classic Thailand" tour. http://tinyurl.com/y97lo5h (I had joined the tour thru the Hayward Chamber of Commerce.)

Our bus was first class, with comfortable seating (even with my long legs) and air conditioning. Our bus driver, "Tok", did an excellent job of navigating some harrowing turns into small and tight places without ever having to make a correction. He knows every inch of where that bus is at all times! His assistant and driver trainee, "Jack", gave us bottled water during the trip and was always ready to lend a helping hand to those getting in and out of the bus that needed assistance (the steps in and out were really steep and had all sorts of monkey bars there to help us climb on and off). Gate 1 did an excellent job with this tour, putting us up in 5 star hotels and showing us so much of Thailand!

Day 1 - arrival, check into hotel Century Park in Bangkok, rest a bit, then to the Chao Prao riverfront shopping mall for dinner that evening. Below are photos of my single room, and the view outside. The one negative about the hotel is that is is on a pretty grimy street, next to the freeway overpass. I do not recommend that one walk around in that area after dark alone. All the other hotels during the trip were located in totally safe-feeling areas.

	Views from the window - overlooking the pool and out to the city.	I had a very comfortable king sized bed, the room has individual climate control (when inside, you place your card into a card holder which activates the climate control and the light switches). There is a flat screen TV with cable (watched CNN and the search for the missing Malaysian Airline every night, as well as Animal Planet.) There is a hair dryer as well as coffee pot setup in the room, a small safe, iron and ironing board. All quite clean and comfortable. The shower head is at least 6ft 3" up, which I appreciate! The buffet breakfast was quite the repast, with a complete buffet including all the typical Thai breakfast foods (which is just like Thai dinner food!), fresh fruit (mango, banana, pineapple, melon), eggs of your choice, bacon, sausage, chicken patties, croissants and any sort of muffins or bread rolls or bread, coffee, tea, fresh juices. Enough to make a very full meal to start the day (and skip lunch!)

Our tour guide, Steven, offered to get us a van to take us to an indoor-outdoor shopping mall (one of the Discovery extras)that evening at no charge. Several of us went. As we entered the semi-open-air shopping mall we see these "fish pedicure" stands. The people simply sit on a bench while the little fish remove all the dead skin from their feet. What an interesting concept!

This is the view from the pier at dusk of the city of Bangkok. Actually only a tiny portion of this city, with 10,000 people and 600 square miles. The city is a mixture of skyscrapers and smaller buildings, with streets often having 4 lanes going one way and 1 lane going the other way. The street lanes are very narrow, probably about 9 feet wide in the city. A passenger can literally reach out his window and knock on the driver's window in the car in the next lane. Worst traffic I have ever seen, yet no horns being honked, rarely any dents in the cars. All part of the Thai overriding personality of being non aggressive in any way.

Go to DAY 2 and the visit to Wat Po temple