On January 20, 2026, our Thailand adventure officially started, now that everyone was in town. Here is our first group picture.
We gathered outside the hotel and got a pep talk from our trip host Tyler. Then we got on the BTS Skytrain and took it a short distance to the river, where we boarded two traditional "long-tail" boats. They are called that because a shaft sticks directly out the back with the propellor way out on the end. These boats tend to use recycled car engines, and are typically loud (no muffler) and powerful. Drivers can steer the boat with the propeller and lift it up out of the water easily if it gets shallow or to dodge debris.
These boats are iconic, and Tyler said that one of his goals was to use as many forms of transportation as he could squeeze in. Here are some pictures we took while riding on the boats.
We saw some cool structures as we rode along.
We visited this complex later in the day during our bike ride, so I liked that you could see some people on those same yellow bikes riding towards it as we watched from the river.
This Buddhist temple is called Wat Arun (or, more completely, Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan (in Thai: วัดนิเวศธรรมประวัติราชวรวิหาร), meaning "Temple of Dawn", and has been around since at least the 1600s, though it has had modifications since that time.
Our first destination was Wat Pho (pronounced "Watt Poh". The "ph" makes an aspirated "p", not an "f" like in English). This is one of Bangkok's oldest temples, and has been updated over the centuries.
One of the distinctive elements of Thai architecture is the sharp, curved tips on the roof gables. These are called "Chofa" (literally "Sky Tassel"). Most of these symbolically represent Garuda, a mythical half-bird half-human creature from Hindu-Budddhist mythology. It is the animal that the god Vishnu rides and represents a powerful guardian.
The actual shape is like a fancy bird's head or beak. A row of them along a roof symbolizes the temple as a celestial palace 'tethered' to the heavens.
Below the Chofa is often a wavy edge (called Lamyong) that represents the body of the Naga (the serpent diety). In Thai art, you often see Chofa clutching the Naga, symbolizing the balance between celestial and earthly powers.
I also think those curvy things just look cool.
We had a tour guide show us around the complex.
Our first stop was to see the massive reclining Buddha. It is so big, and the pillars so thick, that you can't really see the whole thing very easily.
Halfway down there is an alcove from which you can take a picture.
And at the bottom, you can see the fancy feet and finally the whole statue, which is about 150 feet long (46 meters). The patterns on the feet are really intricate.
Here is a close-up of some mother-of-pearl on the bottom of the feet.
Our guide explained some of the art on the walls.
From the back, you can see the Buddha's fancy hair.
Here is a close-up of the hair, with its twisted spikes.
There were intricate drawings across all the walls of the structure.
Linette has a friend who is Buddhist, and in her honor, she bought some little coins to drop in all 161 buckets along a wall.
Here is a group picture in front of some of the spires.
Our guide took a selfie with our group. She was really fun.
It was fun to walk through the spires.
We had a special opportunity to go into the main temple when other tourists weren't in there yet. Tyler arranged for each of us to get a little wreath of flowers on our way in as we removed our shoes.
The temple was beautiful on the inside.
We took a picture of the whole group, with Tyler in front.
And we placed our flower things in the basin.
There were lots of cool things to see at the Wat Pho complex. Here is a sample.
My grandfather, Malcolm H. Merrill, was a doctor and traveled the world to do work in public health. I thought his pictures of Thailand were so exotic, and this was one reason why I had always wanted to go to Thailand myself.
When we got home, I looked through his pictures of Thailand and found this picture of my grandparents, Malcolm & Thelma Merrill, at Wat Pho in 1963 (63 year ago!), which looks like the one of me & Linette above. I thought it was so fun that we were in the same place!
And since these are Sharon's grandparents, too, here is a picture of Sharon & Roger in that place as well.
And here are a few last scenes of the complex.
We had a fun time there, and enjoyed our tour guide. She was so bubbly and upbeat. Her name was Sirilert Promyoi, but she went by the nickname, "Net". So here is a picture of "Net" and "Linette."
Valerie rang us out.
After that, we hopped back into a couple of long-tail boats again.
They took us down the river to a big fancy mall called IconSiam.
The mall had food from the four different areas of Thailand, grouped into sections representing each one.
Each area was decorated with things like this river with a boat in it.
There were things to eat there that were different from what we were used to.
Some of them seemed like the kinds of things that could kill you.
Others seemed like the kinds of things that could eat you.
There were so many tasty options!
They made this ice cream cone very tall. (Did I mention that I got an elephant shirt?)
Finally, we got back on the ferry and headed to our bike ride activity.
In Thai, the traditional greeting is "Sawasdee" (pronounced sah-wah-dee, with the middle 's' making a silent 't-stop') plus the "polite ending", which is "ka" (falling tone) if a girl is saying it, or "grap" (with a fairly silent 'r' and a high tone) if a guy is saying it. So it sounds like "sah-wah-dee-kaaaa" if a girl says it, or "sah-wah-dee-gahp" if a guy does.
"Thank you" is "khawp khun" (ขอบคุณ) plus the same "polite ending", so it sounds like "kop-kun-kaaa" if a girl says it.
Here is a 2 1/2 minute video summarizing our visit to Wat Pho, including rides on long-tail boats. Listen for our guide saying "kop-kun-kaaa" as she sees us off on our boats.
Tyler arranged for us to take a bike tour through the neighborhoods of Bangkok.
Everyone got their bikes and some instructions, and we headed out.
Many of the couples got a picture as we rode through Chinatown.
The first part of our ride was through some pretty busy city areas.
We put our bikes on a ferry to get across the river at one point.
And we saw this fish.
Then we rode along the river and through a quieter part of town.
It was amazing how the roots of this tree were growing into the outer wall of this house.
This old house was probably pretty fancy back in its day. (Now it looks haunted...)
We rode to a Buddhist temple called Wat Kanlayanamit Woramahawihan (วัดกัลยาณมิตร วรมหาวิหาร). It was built in 1825. (Remember that "Wat" means "temple").
There is a massive Buddah image inside.
Monks can't buy their own robes, so these monks were taking donations to pay for the robes that other monks would need.
The flowers inside were gorgeous.
There was a huge bronze bell there. You can swing a log to ring it three times for blessings.
It looked like this lady was cooking with large chopsticks, but they are really incense sticks.
After a nice visit at that temple, we got back on the bikes and rode over to where we boarded a couple of long-tail boats.
It was fun to tour Bangkok from the river.
As we continued down the river, we saw a massive Buddha statue looming over the rooftops.
We disembarked at a park that had some ornate boats as decorations.
And we saw this frog in a little pond.
Our guides took us to a house that serves as a restaurant, and we got some tasty, authentic, home-cooked Thai food. So good!
Here is Sharon's BeReal for that day.
My grandfather Malcolm Merrill also had pictures of some traditional dances from Thailand, which I thought looked cool. I asked our guides about those dances, and they said that they learned them in elementary school. They couldn't resist doing some gestures with their hands as they talked about it, so I took a picture of my hand (bent back as far as I could go, which wasn't even flat) and one of theirs, to show how far back they conditioned their hands to go in order to make the curved shapes of those dances.
The curve of the hands (known as Jeeb (จีบ)) during the traditional dances is related to the curved tips on the building (Chofa), both of which are inspired by natural, organic fluid movements of vines, flowing water, or the mythical Naga (serpent)
Soon we were on our way again, and going through a more rural area.
I'm always amazed at how many people can fit on a scooter. I jokingly called them "minivans" in cases like this.
We gathered one more time in front of a school, and loaded our bikes back onto a long-tail boat.
It was fun seeing people living life along the river. Some were fishing, others transporting things.
We saw this monitor lizard sunning itself along the river bank.
We saw several Great Egrets as we went along.
Finally, the boats stopped side-by-side in a lock.
The gate closed, and the water level rose to equalize with the other river beyond.
Another boat next to us was full of people from The Netherlands. I commented that their orange life jackets were appropriate for their country (since orange is their iconic color, due to their royal "House of Orange.") One of the guys joked that mine was, too (since President Trump was recently threatening to take over Greenland from our ally Denmark by force). I thought that was very quick of him.
The lock opened, and we transitioned from the smaller canals to the main river.
It was starting to get dark by the time we reached shore.
We had a fun time riding through some of the quieter parts of Bangkok. The people were friendly and waved at us wherever we went.
Below is an 8-minute video that gives you a sense of what it was like and what we saw. My favorite part was when a lady gave Linette a high five as she rode by, and tells me "see-wah-dee-kaaa!"
That evening we all went to get foot and shoulder massages from a massage parlor nearby that Tyler recommended. Massages are a big deal in Thailand, and you can get an hour massage for like $10-$15.
While we were doing that, Paul and Becky went to the tall tower. The glass platform looks even cooler at night.
The traffic in Bangkok is relentless, even in the evening.
A bunch of us gathered at the pool that evening and had some great discussions.
The view was amazing in the evenings.
Since this was the first official day of our tour, I said, "Well, one day down, eleven to go!" That seemed impossible, because it seemed like we had done so much already!
In the next episode, we make our way to Chiang Mai and do a cooking class on Linette's birthday!