Wat Pathum Khongkha Ratchaworawihan

10:00
Day 5 is off to a somewhat bumpy start. Neither of us has slept well. While reading last night as Vicki fell asleep next to me, I could feel a thickness in the back of my throat. A couple of times, while still awake, my breathing started to sound a little like a snore. This does not bode well. Sure enough, around 02:30, I receive a ‘gentle’ nudge to stop me snoring. Normally, this is only when I’m sleeping on my back, to encourage me to roll on to my side. Tonight, oh no - I’m already on my side, and yet still… This happens a few times, and I sense us both becoming frustrated. At 03:30, I decide to read for a while, to (hopefully) let Vicki fall into a deeper sleep. At 04:30, I try to sleep again, and am just starting to drift off when I receive a sharp kick to the shin. Nothing to do with snoring this time - I think Vicks is just in the midst of a very vivid dream. It’s accidental, but still a shock. I finally get back off to sleep. When the alarm goes off at 09:15, we compare war stories. Poor Vicks was later kept awake by some noisy folks in the hotel. It has not been a successful night. It takes me no time at all to suggest Vicki gets some more sleep. An overly tired Mrs Hubs is not going to have fun today…

21:37
Well, we HAVE had fun, largely because we’ve scaled back our ambition to cater to the insane heat we’re experiencing. Today is going to hit 39C, with a ‘feels like’ temperature of 47C. Shortly after my last entry, I head out to grab us an iced coffee from the shop next to our hotel. Even at 10:00, the heat is just a mind-shattering assault. We decide that we need to keep walking in the heat to an absolute minimum today, and plan for any outdoors activity later in the afternoon. I play around with a few ideas, and come to the conclusion that we’ll have lunch by the river, then head onwards towards a graffiti park in the financial district, with frequent stops along the way to rehydrate.

Lunch is at an awesome place called Naam 1608, and when I say it’s by the river, I mean it’s on the river. Our table is hanging out over the water, and the views are incredible. There’s also a breeze coming off the water that helps cools us, and some electric fans in a supporting role. It’s still hot, but manageably so. We have some incredible food - a spicy glass noodle salad, some stir-fried duck with basil, and some fried rice. The heat of the salad particularly is towards my upper limit for chilli. Or at least, it’s towards my upper ‘comfortable’ limit. Vicks is far more careful than I am in avoiding the many slices of birds-eye chilli through the dishes. My bravado will return to haunt me at some point…

After lunch, we jump in a cab to take us over towards the financial district. After 3 days in Bangkok, my geography of the city is starting to piece together. There are several places I recognise as we pass them, and some others that ring vague bells. We’d planned a walk through one of Bangkok’s most beautiful parks this afternoon, but sack it off due to the heat. Instead, we have our cab drop us at a lovely hotel, with an even lovelier bar. What starts as a brief pit-stop transforms into a thoroughly enjoyable 2 hour sojourn, replete with cocktails, wine and Prosecco. The bathrooms are spectacular, and come equipped with Japanese toilets - featuring, um, ‘additional cleaning functions.’ It appears the first I visit is out of order. Not to be denied, I use a different cubicle shortly before we leave, and am rewarded with a really rather lovely sensation in the derriere section of the orchestra. There is an incident when one of my dearest friends who shall remain nameless (isn’t that right, Ali?) laughs at the use of the word ‘pegging’ in my day 3 write up. Vicks has to resort to Google…

By 17:00, we figure it might be safe to go outside. We make it as far as a little street food market about 50m from the bar we’ve been in. Some food seems in order, so we pop into an Izakaya specialising in Yakitori - small skewers of (typically) meat cooked over charcoal. The undoubted highlight of our visit is a can of sparkling plum saké with jelly through it. I’m not kidding - proper jelly. It sounds like it should be disgusting, but really is not. We have a lovely tuna sashimi salad, some squid eggs, quite a few different bits of chicken (but stop short of the gizzards), and pork belly. V tasty.
Around the corner, we take a wander through the graffiti park, where a vigorous game of football is in progress. The wall art is pretty varied. Some of an incredibly high standard, and pretty imaginative; some is more basic tagging. It’s great to see a public park like this at least in part given over to folks to express themselves in this way.

We’ve an early start in the morning, needing to be at the airport by 08:00 for our flight down to Koh Samui. We head back over to Banglamphu for a glass of wine (or 3 as it turns out) at So-Samsen, before heading back to our room to get packed up.

Reflections on Bangkok? We’ve both really enjoyed our time here. It’s been a little different than we’d perhaps intended. We’ve treated it as a several day insight into the food culture of Bangkok, without necessarily tapping in to the history and scenery of the city. The city is vibrant and exciting, and has an incredible amount to offer. We both agree we’d happily return, but would first try to understand whether the heat we’ve experienced is an off-kilter season, or as we both suspect, evidence of climate change. If the latter, we’d have to try and visit during one of the cooler months. That said, Bangkok doesn’t really have significantly cooler months. Average highs for April are typically 34C. The lowest monthly average (December) you’re likely to see is 31C.

We’re both ready to head South, and continue our adventure in the islands, first in Gulf of Thailand, and then over in the Andaman Sea.Read more