I'd made sure to be in Bangkok for the King of Thailand's birthday on 5 December. Crowds of people, festivities, and a massive fireworks display at Sanam Luang (a park). Plus maybe even a chance to snap a photo of royalty through the zoom lens.
It turned out to be impossible to get there. First up, maybe a million people attended the event, many camping out up to 24 hours to secure a viewing spot. Second, Bangkok's normally bad traffic became insane traffic as people flocked to the area and major roads were sealed off for the route to be travelled by the King's motorcade.
Third problem that Bangkok's taxi drivers turned greedy en masse and refused point blank to take passengers anywhere near the area unless one signed up for an outrageously expensive "river dinner cruise", which no doubt included a hefy kickback.
In the end we gave up and seeing as we were staying in the 88 storey Baiyoke hotel, figured we would watch the fireworks from the observation deck. Unfortunately the Baiyoke management also had an attack of greed to celebrate this special day and had raised the entry fee to 500 baht. So we watched it from the hotel room window.
The lesson if you plan to attend this event next year - find yourself a hotel right down near Sanam Luang and be prepared to be trapped in the area till the show is over!
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