Bangkok Day 2

The traffic in Bangkok is absolutely horrendous. It took us an hour to reach our dinner destination on Thursday night - on the way back, it took 10 minutes. I avoided taking taxis except where absolutely necessary (i.e. when the heavens opened, as it is rainy season at the moment). I preferred the Skytrain, which travels through the city on stilts (just like the Monorail in the Simpsons!). The views are great from up there and it only costs 40p for a one-way trip. The Skytrain was almost as clean as the MRT in Singapore and it was refreshingly air-conditioned. All in all, I was impressed.


I checked out Lumpini Park on the morning of my second day. It was bit sparse, and not a patch on the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but the lake with the skyscrapers rising up behind did remind me a bit of Central Park. There were groups of old-timers settling in for the day with picnics and tablecloths laid out on the concrete park benches and tables. I am sure it is an extremely pleasant place to catch up with old friends and it is a much-needed green space in an otherwise busy and grimy city.

A statue of King Rama, the Skytrain and the entrance to Lumpini Park

We had dinner that night in a restaurant overlooking the main river. A little boat, which looked like a floating house, took us across. I am easily pleased, but I thought it was wonderful and I loved seeing the city from a different vantage point. There are lots of this little boats darting from one side to the other so it looked quite magical as we tried to eat all of our Thai specialties set menu. Funny how there is always room for desert though, especially when it involves coconut sticky rice and mango. Yum!

The view from the bow