One night in Bangkok

We both woke up early and went out for a wander along the beach as none of the food carts were open yet. Definitely is a sleepy place! Even the street dogs were fast asleep on the beach. As we came back some were opened and we had roti pancakes and coconuts on the beach.
Checked out of the loveliest hotel to date and got a Grab (£9 which is pricey considering it's less than 10 mins drive but guess there are drop off fees).
Check in process was super smooth and all automated for Thai Airways. £63 each for flight to Bangkok, 1.5 hrs. Got a small bottle of water and a rose flavoured creme cake in a chic cardboard bag.
Took a little while to grab a Grab and then took an hour to get to the city due to traffic. Very flashy electric car though with glass sunroof.
Last hotel is Dewan Bangkok (£55 per night tho we paid for 2 nights so can check out late). It's 2 roads down from Khao San rd but on a quiet street and has an Arabic design.
We had to go down the river for our evening cruise Anna had booked. She wanted to walk and explore a bit rather than head straight for the ferry so she navigated us to a gigantic roundabout which had traffic lights but also about a dozen traffic police blowing their whistles and controlling the crossings. We got across a few lanes and then got yelled at to not go any further down a road which was all blocked off. So we turned around and headed back to the roundabout and got blown at and told to stop. Anna got a bit fretful but we waited and some cars sped by and then they let us back on the roundabout and I navigated to the river. The only option from this point was to just go across for 4.5B as the road to further down was blocked off. The ticket lady said it didn't go where we wanted but I thought we should go across and catch a diff ferry which a local lady confirmed for us. So we jumped on, went across and then paid another 40B and the same lady ushered us onto the correct ferry. Not at all obvious which one went where! But once on there was a screen and announcements showing the stops so we jumped off at Icon Siam, a huge shopping mall and piers, where we registered for our cruise. Then we had some time so had a brief wander round the mall - totally nuts, very Asian, absolutely decadent and fabulous with a 'floating market' scene selling pad Thai. It's about 10 floors, you could spend days in there.
Then we boarded our Sawasdee cruise (£30 each), which was half empty but still had tons of people. We had a seat by the window on the middle deck which was lovely. The buffet left a little to be desired unfortunately. Veggie options consisted of mashed potato, some stale fries, a few noodles and salad. Anna said meat was chewy and dry and she wasn't very impressed either. There also weren't as many temples etc lit up along the riverbank as I expected. However we both still enjoyed it, always nice to be on a boat and the entertainment was pretty good - various people dressed in Thai attire - some dancers, some boxers etc plus a couple of singers murdering songs such as Ronan Keating, Ed Sheeran, YMCA and our favourite: Golden (k pop song) which was was a bit beyond her vocal range!
At the end it was extended to watch a drone show. Before we left for travelling, the ex Queen had died so there is a long period of mourning and a month or so of celebration shows. The drone show was really cool and several bridges were lit up as we went through them. There are pictures of her literally everywhere. In the airport, down the street, every 50m on one street there were huge pics. Civil servants are supposed to wear black for a year. Visitors are supposed to wear black too but the Thai girl we met in Phi Phi said this wasn't at all strict.
Just as the cruise ended, the Icon Siam water show had begun which was pretty cool. We then hot footed it to the Grab pick up site as we knew the other cruises would soon be landing and it would get manic. Somehow we managed to get one really quickly despite there being loads of people waiting. We selected a premium type of car as well so I think that helped give us more options.
He dropped us off at Khao San road and we wandered down and Anna got her first taste of the madness - ping pong show offers, skinned crocodiles, all sorts of bugs to eat, tons of competing music, tons of cannabis (thought it was banned?!), BB guns and all sorts. We went down the parallel street which was a bit more chilled and had some good bands playing. It doesn't seem massively different than 20 years ago, no huge restaurants / bars etc just mainly simple places.
Being the ravers that we are we retreated to our hotel by 10:30 and went to bed!
We both got a couple of mozzy bites which were unexpected despite having spray on and a mozzy bracelet on each limb!Read more