Back in Bangkok

We are back in Bangkok. It was touch and go leaving Jungle Club and making our ferry connection in time. We thought the bus we'd booked wasn't going to arrive despite numerous phone calls to the travel agent who kept reassuring us it was just on it's way. When we knew it couldn't possibly get around the island to the ferry on time (last one for the day) we were sick with worry. John was having a coronary by the side of the road. Even the evil taxi mafia were being helpful trying to ring our travel agent and see what was going wrong. Anyway, long story short it turned up, VERY late. They told us they would hold the ferry for us and guess what? Being Thailand, they did! I bet the other passengers had no idea why they were so late leaving. It was the usual hoo ha getting from ferry to train involving bus switching, songthaew and finally PUBLIC bus (yes you read right, I couldn't belive it either) for the last leg to the railway station. I took a photo of it.
Anyway early yesterday morning we got into Bangkok. We arrived by the night train which is really good and comfortable. Better than many European trains. We were able to check into our hotel straight away. It is called the Chateau de Bangkok which is a ridiculous name for a Thai hotel. I have rechristened it the Chateau de Chatelet (you need to know your Monty Python). It is near Sukhumvit Road which is an area of Bangkok I don't know so well, near sky train too. We went into the centre of Bangkok but kept being impeded by Red shirt protesters wherever we went. There are signs all over the hotel about the declared state of emergency and warning to stay away from the protests. This is hard to do as they are all over the streets and have gathered in momentum since we were last here. In fact we had to walk through the rally to get to our destination yesterday. This was not funny, especially with the kids in tow. There has been violence and killings a couple of days ago so althjogh I feel relatively safe I feel no where near as safe as 2 weeks ago. Bangkok is quiet (well as quiet as this city gets.) I assume people don't want to risk coming into the city. Our hotel is practically empty.

Finally I have taken a photo of the keyboard with Thai/English character which is a bit confusing (especially when the characters have worn off.) The Thai is the 'squiggles' in the bottom right hand corners.