We returned to the Sofitel Silom and comprehensively confused the poor lady at check-in by simultaneously attempting to pay for a club-room upgrade for the two nights we’d pre-paid, and add an extra night before we fly – instead of ride the train – to Chiang Mai. That would have been tough enough without the hotel being just about fully booked for New Year, but it all seemed to work out in the end, with us getting a large room, but not just yet, as the occupants weren’t checking out until 8pm. Odd. Still, the hotel comped us a very nice dinner in one of the restaurants while we waited for the room, and were waiting with our stored luggage when our key cards were delivered.

We continue our gradual descent into ‘lazy holiday’ mode, achieving less sightseeing with each passing day, but probably enjoying the reduced pace rather more. For our first afternoon, we signed up for a tour of the Grand Palace and Emerald Buddha. The sightseeing reminded me of touring New Zealand; not for any similarity of architecture, but the fact that a more spectacular view seemed to be lurking around every corner. It’s hard to describe just how, well, awesome, the palace complex is, with the brightly coloured pagodas, stupas and tableaux surrounded by demon guardian statues and white-uniformed human palace guards. If we can figure out a more prosaic description, we’ll edit it in here later, and pretend it was there all along. :-)

To glance at all the sights would take days, to study them weeks, and to understand all the texts and frescoes probably a lifetime, so our couple of hours wandering around just left us staring open-mouthed at the succession of wonders. We weren’t the only ones – being a holiday weekend, many Thais were here to look around and worship as well, and visiting monks added to the atmosphere with special song/chants that were broadcast over speakers near the various shrines. We have dozens of photographs of the architecture, but probably none of them will capture the aura of the place.

After a religious experience like that, there’s only one way to return to the mundane world: shopping. To help with that, the tour bus helpfully drops you at the largest gem factory/store in the world, which is, of course, entirely optional. Seduced through the door by the offer of a free drink, we were immediately greeted by a guide, who attached herself, like a chirpy limpet, to us to escort us through the demonstration room, where artisans toiled to produce exquisite jewels, to the inner temple. It looked like an upmarket Vegas casino, with the gaming tables replaced with glass cabinets of shiny extravagance. Starting with the hefty 18 karat pieces, we were walked along the rows, with each interested glance leading to a ring or bracelet being pulled out of the cabinet for a closer look.

Actually, the prices really weren’t that bad, so when we got to the cheap seats, Dawn treated herself to an amethyst and silver necklace, after which we assumed that our limpet would detach herself, but instead we were allowed to wait in the bar – and get our free drink at last – until she returned to escort us to a courtesy mini-van back to the hotel. Hopefully she didn’t get into trouble investing all that effort for a 2000 Baht necklace!

The New Years Eve festivities didn’t go entirely according to plan. We had arranged to meet up with our new Aussie friends at the Indra Regent hotel uptown, and head down to the Central World Plaza to see the bands and the fireworks. We found Roger, Margaret, Tan and Sophie, and waited for a while for Ross and Deb, while trying to reach them via roaming Australian mobile phones without success. Sophie had seen a news report about a bomb going off somewhere in Bangkok, but the staff and guests at the hotel all seemed unaware or unconcerned, so we assumed it was something minor, possibly a long way south where the Muslim insurgency periodically gets nasty.

Giving up on Ross and Deb, we wandered over to the plaza to find a large crew dismantling the screens, stages, lights and gantries at around 11pm. Odd things seem to happen in Bangkok, so we figured that the party was already over, until we found someone official who explained that there had been several explosions throughout the city and that all the midnight celebrations had been cancelled. Annoyed, and perhaps just slightly nervous, we returned to the Regent to ring in the New Year at the hotel bar, to the earnest but bizarrely mangled renditions of popular tunes by the bar’s regular band, the Moon Rock Trio. We had a much better time doing that, as a bomb did indeed go off in Centre World Plaza at midnight, injuring several people. So far, the military-installed government is blaming elements ousted in the recent coup, but it’s unlikely that we’ll even know for sure what all the fuss was about.

To finish up our stay in Bangkok, we took a tour of the city and a handful of its many Buddhist temples. Once again, we joined a throng of Thais enjoying the long weekend, and queued to doff our shoes and admire huge golden, reclining and marble buddhas in profusion. Many locals were out of the city, visiting family and friends, but apart from the reduced traffic, the city appeared to be back to normal, with the bombings forgotten, or ignored. Some of the temple activities seemed very strange to a non-believer, including an interesting human perpetual motion machine where devotees queued to buy a bucket of special coins from a kiosk, which they deposited in small quantities in dozens of receptacles (different prayers, perhaps), being followed by an attendant who emptied the receptacles and returned the coins to the kiosk, accompanied by the rather tuneful metallic chinking, like a hall of manual slot machines where everyone is a winner.

Templed out, it was back to the gem store, but we slipped out from under our tour guide’s eye and dashed behind the coach straight to the line of waiting mini buses. Some free drinks just aren’t worth it!