Day 32: Bangkok, Sun, 34°

We Shopping Until I Dropped !

We started our day with an expensive breakfast. Not on purpose mind you. It’s just one of those things that sometimes happens. AM told me that she’d found a good place with great reviews that was just around the corner. After one breakfast at Tim Hortons we were already done with their minimal breakfast offer, so this opportunity sounded excellent.

We arrived at the lovely old house that had been converted to a restaurant, and learned that it had quite the history.

It’s called Baam Si Phraya, a house that’s over one hundred years old with a bit of history. It’s a Thai Colonial styled house that was once the residence of Thailand’s 12th Prime Minister. It was built in 1918 using a blend of Western and Thai traditions which resulted in a pretty nice looking period structure.

Apparently during WW II the area was severely bombed by the Japanese, but miraculously the house wasn’t touched. It’s recently been renovated into its current use as a restaurant called PRYM. They’ve been open 9 months and serve western food. They have a 4.9 rating on Google Maps on almost 300 reviews and have clearly found a following.

We had mushrooms on avocado with sourdough toast and a coffee and pot of tea. It was very good.

It was very good, but make sure to bring your credit card. It’s not inexpensive.😬

Today it was all about shopping for some things to bring home to family members. We travel light with very small bags, so this took a bit of strategic planning.

At about 9:30 we took the Blue metro line out to the Chatuchak Weekend Market which has literally hundreds of small stores that sell just about anything. We arrived not long after it opened for the day which turned out to be a good decision.

We dove into our task with gusto having deliberately saved most of our shopping until Bangkok because of the strict weight rules for carry on luggage imposed by the airlines in SE Asia. We fly home either Air Canada and we should be ok with them.🤞

We had received a few family requests for the types of light roomy pants that I was sitting in while writing yesterday’s blog post which are referred to as Elephant Pants. I think these clothes are mostly made for the tourists as I’ve not seen them worn by the locals too often. Perfect for the type of heat in this part of the world that will rise to over 40° in a couple of months! I soon discovered that the prices aren’t fixed and are open to negotiation.🙂

The pants sorted out, we looked for other little things for our grandchildren. You could drive yourself crazy here if you worried about prices too much because the same item can vary in price from shop to shop. Besides, you’d likely never find your way back to the original shop in this huge rabbit warren.

We stuck our heads outside because it was getting so hot on the inside! However. It was just as hot outside and it was getting very very busy.

Back inside I had noticed little businesses all over the place offering inexpensive Thai massages. I didn’t have one this time, and from the look of the businesses I wasn’t even tempted. I had an amazing experience on Kol Lanta and these weren’t that.

There were masseuses outside in the hall ways with hand signs advertising their services and prices. I didn’t read them too closely.

I loved the neon lights!

Some things were good value. Tiger Balm was a fraction of the price it sells for at home, and apparently it’s of much higher quality. Great for aches and pains!

We walked past the food vendors at lunch time, but because we are watching our cash resources closely we had to eat inside where we could use tap payment. We are out tonight and will need our last cash. You might recall that the ATM fees here are stupid high at $23 for just $300. Ouch! We have just over 24 hours left, do have to make some choices.

After taking a break during the afternoon heat we headed back into town on the metro to have drinks and dinner on the river. I’d read that there was a great place to catch the sunset. So we cleaned up and I put on my last remaining clean t-shirt that I’d been saving for something. Perhaps for tonight?

When exited the metro we found ourself stepping directly into the annual Bangkok Music Festival. What luck!

After listening to some of the music we moved on because the sunset at 18:25 was quickly approaching. By luck we picked a restaurant on the river that had a single table available. We hadn’t made a reservation. The operator and staff were great, but the food and the view were even better.

There was not a sunset tonight, but it was still stunning.

There were all sorts of dinner cruises on the river. I’m sure the smorgasbord meals on board were great, but we were happy with our situation this evening.

As we enjoyed our meal the view just continued to improve.

And quite suddenly darkness dropped over everything.

After paying for our meal we were invited to the part of the restaurant that is located on the roof for a look. Not a lot different, but a higher perspective.

From there we walked to the metro and it took us home.

The evening was a very nice moment in a journey full of special moments.. Occasionally at the end of a busy trip we just want to wrap things up, but we were happy that we’d made the effort to go out.

Tomorrow we hope to have one more outing before collecting our gear and transferring to a hotel close to the airport. We have a pretty early morning the following day.

Thanks for checking in! Cheers!

Geoff🍻🇨🇦