Bangkok day 2

We’d left this day open, thinking we might want to go to Wat Arun. But we were feeling rather templed-out, so we opted to rent some bicycles and explore Benchakitti Park. We arranged the rental through Get Your Guide so we’d have four bikes waiting for us at 9:00. We went down just after 8:00 to get the ship-provided shuttle out of the port area. There we learned that the shuttle ran just once an hour and the next one would not be until 9:00. A cabbie was close by and offered to take us directly to the bike rental place for $30 US. That seemed a bit high, but it was convenient so we went for it.

The bike rental wasn’t the easiest place to find, but we managed it. The attendant there was very helpful and got us onto four bikes and pointed us at the park. We had zero interest in navigating Bangkok traffic on bikes, so it was nice that the park was only half a block away. The park was a spectacular place to ride. It had dedicated bike lanes that went in one direction around the park and tons of beautiful flowers and trees. We spent around 90 minutes cycling around, getting drenched in sweat despite not really working all that hard on the bikes. We returned the bikes and took a Grab (Thai Uber) to the Lotus store where the ship shuttle dropped off and picked up people.

We took advantage of being at the store to pick up some toothpaste and other essentials. Since we hadn’t taken the shuttle to the store, we didn’t know where the pickup point was. But not unexpectedly we ran into some fellow passengers who clued us in. We were back to the ship in time for lunch and ahead of our 3:00 departure.

The cruise out along the river was as fun to watch as the cruise in was. While there were some memorable moments, I can’t say we loved Bangkok. It’s a big, chaotic city. That’s fine, but it didn’t grab us like some of the other cities on the trip have (Rio, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Singapore). No regrets, of course; you never know til you try. I just don’t know that we’ll be hurrying back.Baca lagi