Thailand | R. Doug Wicker

The spires of Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha)

After Siem Reap, Cambodia, our next destination was Bangkok, Thailand, into which we flew on 7 November 2025. This would be somewhat of a special journey for me, as my father would tell me of his R&R (Rest and Recreation) visits to Bangkok during his year flying incredibly dangerous FAC (Forward Air Control) missions out of Da Nang Air Base flying a Cessna O-2 Skymaster. On one of those R&Rs he was invited by Bob Hope into Hope’s penthouse hotel suite. And, yes, I’ve seen the photos. But, back to Bangkok. Our residence on this stay would be the Solitaire Hotel, and it was almost (but not quite) as impressive as the Golden Temple Residence in Siem Reap. Here is our suite at the Solitaire:

I’m going a bit out of order in this Bangkok set, as I’ll be showing a five-part series starting Wednesday on the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. That will conclude Friday next week with a video of our boat road to and through Damnoen Saduak. As for today, I’m going to highlight Bangkok sights that were taken on the eighth and ninth, while we visited Damnoen Saduak solely on the ninth. We’ll hit the road in a moment, but first I want to tell you about a wonderful place we discovered. Unfortunately, I just checked our digital albums and realized we neglected photograph the chow, but if you’re ever in Bangkok both Ursula and I highly recommend Krua Khan Puk. We tried other, pricier Thai restaurants on this visit, but we didn’t try any that were better.

This place was affordable, the food delicious, and the seating area crowded (not a good thing, but it tells you how popular this place is with both locals and tourists). On one visit they even sat us at a table across the alleyway, so I assume both establishments shared a common owner.

Just east southeast of Krua Khun Puk at 88 Soi Sukhumvit 19 is a rather impressive shopping center, the famous Terminal 21 Asok. Each floor is themed for a different city or regian, such as Rome, London, Istanbul, Paris, the Caribbean, San Francisco, etc. For a more diverse yet still affordable dining option with myriad choices, head on up to the fifth floor — “Pier 21” — for one of the best mall food courts you ever find outside of Australia’s Westfield Sydney Shopping Centre.

As you walk the streets, make sure you watch out for some fun, colorful photo opportunities. This shrine to Lord Ganesha was found on Sukhumvit Road between Krua Khun Puk and Terminal 21 Asok:

On 9 November 2025, after our river cruise to the floating market, our driver took us to various sights around Bangkok. I’m going to show you what we saw through the captioned photographs below, but first I want to describe what you see in this image. When we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand was in mourning over the recent loss of Queen Mother Sirikit, who passed away on 24 October 2025 at the age of 93. Sirikit was Queen of Thailand from 1950 until the passing of her husband King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016. The shrine below was a tribute to both her and the late king: