Khaosan and Chatuchak

We started off with a breakfast of iced coffees and Thai style fried chicken while it poured with rain outside. Luckily, it had stopped by the time we finished so we could go off exploring.
First we headed to Phra Sumen Fort which is next to the river not far from us. We stopped for a drink and a sit down on a bench in the park, the humidity had made us very thirsty already.
We then walked to Khaosan Road, a famous street for backpackers, which was quite calm in early afternoon but the market stalls and street food vendors were getting set up ready for the evening. We also went to Wat Chana on the other side of the main road, this horseshoe shaped road also has lots of hostels and bars and restaurants aimed at tourists but is much more peaceful and pleasant to walk around. It also has a monastery which we could go inside and see all the statues and enormous candles.
A random man in the street persuaded us to go to visit the temple of the Happy Buddha, or maybe Lucky Buddha, we thought we heard both, in any case he was a nice buddha. Another random man also visiting told us that we were very lucky to get the chance to see him because he was only open to the public on a couple of days of the year. He didn't seem much different to any other buddha we've seen but apparently we have good luck now, so that's a bonus!
A tuktuk driver took us back to Wat Chana, with a brief detour to a suit factory (we didn't really understand why, if it was supposed to be a scam it was a very half-arsed one), after explaining that we didn't really want a tailor made 3 piece suit we were back on the tuktuk, dodging traffic again.
In Wat Chana we ate green curry and tom yum soup for dinner before going back to Kaosan Road for a drink. By now the street was packed with everything from musicians to an alligator being roasted on a spit. We had a cocktail and listened to 4 different songs at once from each of the surrounding bars before heading home for a much needed shower.Read more