And The Nominee For Worst Event Goes To. . .

The National Palace, Bangkok.

Just a warning, dear readers, this is going to be a whiney, yet mercifully short post.  And, just so no one is confused, Carol and I are really enjoying the trip, now that we are out of Bangkok.

We really loved Chiang Mei and, now that we're in Laos, really love Luang Prabang even more.  But those blog posts have yet to be written, so now you've got to deal with a short spell of whining from me.

There were three problems with the visit to the National Palace:

1. Too damn hot and humid.  And, to get in through the entrance, we had to stand in line like cattle headed through the chute to a slaughterhouse.
2. The place was overcrowded.  Everywhere we went it was a fight to get through the mass of people.
3. It was very difficult to understand the guide's English, but at least she droned on and on instead of getting to the point.   

The way these trips work is that we have a local guide for each day.  Our CEO guide, Bun, is wonderfully and speaks excellent, clear English.  Many of the local guides are hard to understand.  

Even more problematic is that our local guide for the palace couldn't get to the point.  She droned on and on and on, to the point where I just tuned her out and ignored her, similar to the guide at Ayutthaya (which I just spelled from memory, instead of having to look it up!).

And, in talking with our fellow travelers, many of them wished she could have gotten to the point at some point.  As one new friend on the trip noted, "Get to the point -- here's the three things you need to know, bam, bam, bam" and move on.

(Editor: Stop calling your fellow travelers "fellow travelers" because of the association of the phrase with Communist supporters in the West during the '30s-'50s!  You do it all the time on trips.  Writer: Stop taking away all my fun!)

Anyhow, brevity is the soul of a good tour guide.

Now for some quick background on the place.  Built starting in 1782 after the capital was moved to Bangkok from Ayutthaya after the Burmese burned that city down.

The king and his court lived there until 1925, when they moved out.  (Editor: Wow -- helpful detail there!).

It is still used for official events, and attracts eight million visitors each year.  All eight million happened to show up the day we went.

It's over 2.3 million square feet, and visitors are only allowed in one building (time for one more whine).

The entrance to the building has been designed by someone who has never seen "Ghostbusters" because, idiotically, you have to cross the stream of people coming out to get in. 

After taking your shoes off, you go up the stairs on the right, then cross the courtyard to the left to go in.  Meanwhile, people are coming out of the building on the right, and then cross to the left to get to the stairs out of the courtyard.  

The result?  A series of collisions and lack of movement. Here's an idea -- have people go up the left staircase and through the left door, then out the right door and down the right staircase -- problem solved!  I will be happy to send the government of Thailand a bill for my fixing their mess.