Doing Bangkok

You wouldn't call Bangkok a beautiful city. But it has charming little nooks and is most certainly fascinating. One of our goals today was to relax in one of those nooks.

In order to get there we took the skytrain, which is an experience in itself. The monorail hovers above main streets level with high rise buildings, but every now and then there's a gap which reveals chaotic street alleys down below. It's surrealistic!

We descended about half a kilometre away from the Erawan shrine. The same Erawan shrine that suffered a terrorist attack 7 years ago. To get there we passed a series of luxurious hotels.. Anantara, St. Regis, the Hyatt to name a few.

The best way to enjoy and to understand the Erawan shrine is to sit down on one of the many wooden benches, ideally in the shade, and watch. There is a continual coming and going of worshippers offering lotus flowers and garlands and incense sticks to the four -faced golden Buddha in the centre of the shrine. Now and again a devotee will pay for the temple dancers to come and dance for Buddha, accompanied by a sort of gamalan orchestra. It is very peaceful here, although the traffic operates on many different levels all around.

Our walk to the Jim Thompson house started badly, as we began in the opposite direction snd discovered our mistake only after about 20 minutes. Walking along these busy streets is no pleasure. The traffic, the fumes and the noise is abominable. Basically you walk from one enormous shopping mall to the next. I was exhausted and foot sore when we arrived at this oasis.

Down a street off the main road the museum is situated in a beautiful, peaceful spot surrounded by trees and plants. This is the house where Jim Thompson, an American who started and built up the Thai silk industry in the fifties, began his work. Just the ticket for a long sit down and later a Thai coconut ice-cream in the outdoor restaurant.

Back at the Sathorn Taksin monorail station, Wiili and I wandered off in search of the Yannawa temple, which is built like a ship on the river. What a disappointment! The temple is more of less a parking spot for buses and the buildings are covered in scaffolding awaiting repair.

On the way back to the Shangri-La we found a supermarket where we found most of the ingredients needed for tom kha gai and Thai green curry to make at home. But for dinner we opted to eat Chinese food at the high end Shang Palace restaurant on the hotel. After a shared plate of delicious Cantonese dumplings, we shared duck with plum sauce and sliced beef with a special pepper and black bean sauce.

We had walked well over 18,000 steps and were beginning to feel it!Read more