Bangkok Traffic Tour

Friday, 7am 9 December....
I took a tour of traffic in Bangkok.
On Wednesday, I tried to go to the Grand Palace because bit was closed for 2 days because of the King's Birthday. Unfortunately 50,000 teachers were mad and had a demonstration around government buildings. My taxi driver estimated a 2 hour cab ride. Therefore , we decided to go by boat in River but it took 45 minutes to get to pier from Hotel. since it was already 1pm, I gave up and had a nice lunch at the Shangri-La Hotel riverside. Then I took the SkyTrain, with a few stops, back to the hotel. After Thursday's bus and boat tour to Ayutthaya, the ruined ancient capital about 50 miles up the river from Bangkok, it took almost 2 hours to return to my hotel thru the traffic. It may be the worse traffic I have ever seen......but not single honk nor angry driver! They have learned to deal with it. When at all possible I will take the SkyTrain and river boat to avoid streets!
The SkyTrain is very nice......it is elevated at the 3-5 story level above the streets..and is clean and efficient...but it has only 2 lines so it's coverage is somewhat limited.