Wednesday 21st March – Bangkok day two

After a late breakfast Simon gave me a fashion show of all his new attire and I enjoyed throwing away my old worn stuff which I had replaced.

Time to be a little more cultured today.  Walking out of the hotel, we took the option of the canal ferry into the centre of the old town.  It wasn’t very scenic.  There are parts of this City that are a real state, and some of them were next to this canal!  From the drop off point we walked to the Grand Palace.  We had not dressed for entry into temples or sacred places today and it turned out that this included the Royal Palace, so we got as good a view as possible whilst being outside the high white walls:

The Grand Palace.... from outside the walls!

The Palace is on the Chao Phraya river, which I remember taking a tour on many years ago and enjoying, so we headed down to one of the main piers.  Like much of Bangkok, it was chaotic, the water was a swirling brown mess and therefore not inviting.

A parliamentary building

We decided to save our feet from there by taking a tuk-tuk to the Giant swing.  On arrival we discovered that the main piece of the swing was absent as it is being refurbished.  We bartered with our driver and negotiated a further lift to the Democracy Monument a few blocks away: 

The Democracy Monument

We both felt that we’d got a taste of Bangkok.  Neither of us felt that we’d get anything more from heading inside any more temples or visiting some more Buddhas even if they were in different positions!  

Instead, we walked to Khao San Road (right), known as the main backpackers and partying haven in the City.  We spent a few hours gradually making our way along the road, alternating having a cold beer with doing yet more shopping. 

The bar sends out a clear warning to those involed with drugs!

As the streets got busier, we chose a restaurant with a balcony view down onto the strip so that we could people watch as we dined.  For our last supper in Thailand we both went with a Thai-related dish.  Okay, mine may have been a pizza, but it had green Thai curry on it!  Not sure I’ll be having that one again.  And Simon ordered a new favourite for him – a Massaman curry, which is usually reasonably mild with potatoes and beef in a curry sauce.  Sadly, tonight’s effort was quite spicy, so neither of us were raving about our final Thai culinary experience!  

Our dinnertime view of the Khao San Road

I don't remember my reflection looking like that before... confusing photo!

As we left the restaurant we happened upon a hair salon.  I did not predict earlier today that I would be getting my nails done and a hair cut down the Khao San Road at 930pm tonight!  But for a fiver each it was too good an opportunity to miss. 

We returned back out into the street.  The atmosphere had become far boozier and the street-sellers were still out trying to persuade us that buying a cooked scorpion on a stick would be a good idea!  We were by no means drunk enough and we both felt too full of dinner to continue at the pace of the place.  We haggled with the tuk-tuk drivers at the end of the street and got a crazy night time tuk-tuk ride through the City and back to our hotel. It was officially the end of our Thai adventures.