Sleepless in Siam

Well, the planned good sleep didn't happen - I lay in bed for six or seven hours before dropping off... :-( So when the alarm went off at 9 I didn't feel very sociable. We went and had a fusion breakfast in the hotel restaurant (highlight was apple and beetroot juice) and then I forced myself out.

We went on the Skytrain to Jim Thompson's house - Mr Thompson was an art and silk collector who built his own style of house - western style - in three or four old Thai buildings near the canal, so as we listened to the guide she was drowned out by the boats clugging past. It was a beautiful house, cool and relaxed, with a lovely cafe overlooking a fish pool where we stopped at the end for a coconut juice (oh all right, I had a Coke Zero). The charming and softly spoken guide entertained us with games like hunt the chamber pot and explained how the house was arranged very differently to Thai houses, like having separate rooms for a lounge and dining room, and a hall to welcome visitors who parked in the now souvenir shop.

Back to the hotel for a rest in the heat of the afternoon. As I was feeling very unadventurous, we headed out for dinner to a huge shopping mall, where we had a great fusion Japanese dish (sashimi in a Thai salad), and then a more standard tempura set. The food court - doing great business - was set next to a gourmet supermarket where we nibbled at a few samples for dessert and marvelled at the range of sauces and vinegars.

We relaxed in the evening playing the Yaniv game, a fun card game were you have to get rid of as many cards as possible.   Bangkok has been a great introduction and I can see why it's such a popular destination: now looking forward to getting on and seeing Burma tomorrow.

One night in Bangkok (actually two...)

The flight to Bangkok was one of the best long haul flights I've taken - I slept all the way from Ukraine to Pakistan. Very friendly cabin crew, although actually I've no idea what they were saying so loudly and enthusiastically. Bangkok airport was crowded but it was reasonably fast to get out of immigration, with various people giving me winsome smiles...

I'd been put off public transport to the city by descriptions on the Internet, but we ended up taking the stopping train and metro to our hotel. It was absolutely fine, and fast, and cheap (altogether 51 baht each (about £1)). I chose our hotel, the Grand Millennium, as it was close to metro and Skytrain services - a high quality hotel at a reduced price, perhaps a bit corporate, but very welcoming and friendly.

We walked to a nearby shopping centre after dusk and bought an overview map of Bangkok, then wandered onto the Skytrain platform, and took the train to the Victory Monument station. Very easy to travel on, quite crowded, so not much to see out of the window. The monument itself was ok, nothing really special, but formed the centre piece to a roundabout with traffic going in all directions - a bit more sedate than other countries in the region.

For dinner we went to a restaurant near the hotel - Baan Khanitha, easy to find if you don't take a short cut through massage alley - they must catch a cold! - and in a fit of enthusiasm ordered 7 or 8 plates of Thai food. It was almost all delicious, a real banquet, from the condiments that you put into a folded leaf and snacked as a starter, to the chicken soup, which really was sweet and sour, spicy and refreshing all at once. Rather expensive, and with lots of Japanese tourists, but not at all bad for a real introduction to Thai cuisine. Some of the flavours exist back home, but the range of ingredients was much better this evening.

10.30 now, tired, but I guess no chance of sleeping for some time. But alarm set for 9!

Photo: Sion enjoying the starters at dinner: shrimp balls on sugar cane skewers, and raw shrimps with chilli and garlic (also raw...)