I do love travel. What a contrast to Brazil but still the same buzz. Arrived in Bangkok yesterday afternoon and our room overlooks the river, sky misty with pollution from the constant traffic jams and cooking on street stalls. A variety of boats ply the river, small oriental boats are the hotel ferries, fancy for the tourists, plainer ferries for locals and longtail boats, long and sleek with the long trailing rudder which i assume givs them the name and long dirty barges with a small ramshackle dwelling at the back, washing hanging up to dry.
We went to a local restaurant for dinner and had a delicious but very spicy meal of tom yum soup, soft shell crab curry and steamed bass, as usual ordered enough for 4 people and ate it anyway. Tourists only and expensive by local standards at £40 but then we had cocktails and dessert but need to look for more local places.
The hotel is typical Sheraton with marble cocoon for bathroom and Thai
Beatles tribute band in the lounge. The breakfast buffet is immense and international. Pancakes for the Americans, croissants for Europeans and Japanese soup and pickles and stir fries Chinese style. I tried the noodle soup which seems to be local, choice of steamed dumplings, freshly cooked rice noodles (how i imagine chewing jellyfish tentacles would be) and you add seaweed, chili, pickles and fish sauce to taste. Very tasty start to the day.
Today we were picked up at 8.00 for tour of temples including a 5.5 ton solid gold buddha and some beautiful chinese amd thai style gateways and stupas. Also included was trip to Gem store but we managed to get away unscathed, wallet intact. For lunch we took the ferry across the river for 7p to a non tourist local market and ate lunch in a stall with locals on lunch break, plate of pad thai and water each for £2. The locals were helpful, i think alarmed by the amount of fish sauce and chili i was ladling and worried about sparking a diplomatic incident if i overdid it and couldnt hack it, but it was great despite the lack of aircon and the 36C temp.
Back in the room it all caught up with me and i crashed out for 2hrs and snored loudly if Martin is to be believed.
We cooled off in the pool and tried to do enough exercise to merit another meal and headed off on foot towards Chinatown for dinner. No-one walks here as it is hot and full of exhaust fumes but we enjoyed the colourful street stalls and found the place our guide had recommended and managed to avoid the usual scam of tuk tuk drivers telling us that Chinatown was closed today and we should go downtown with them to a good restaurant they know. Another spicy blowout washed down with large amounts of Thai beer and yet i havent peed for hours so must be extremely dehydrated. The aircon in the hotel foyer is very welcome with the tribute band straying off the Beatles to cover My Way, cheesy but a perfect end to the day.