Thursday 12 July
We don't rush to get up and have a lazy Continental breakfast in the hostel - toast for Reg, croissants for me, with butter and jam, plus fruit juice, and Lipton's black tea. Both Reg and I have lost a bit of weight since we've been travelling. Apart from all the extra walking we've done, could it be because, since being away, we've almost never had any milk, cheese, or potatoes, all of which we enjoy at home - because they are rarely on offer. Chips (French fries) are occasionally on the menu, and when they are we sometimes have them, although they are often not cooked properly.
We decide to have the morning in the hostel, catching up on the blog and generally relaxing, after our long day yesterday. Besides which, as is often the case in the early morning, it's sheeting down with torrential rain.
Reg uses one of the hostel's computers to read his morning papers, while I use ours in the comfortable lobby area of the hostel. After about an hour Reg comes over to ask me how I'm getting on with the blog. I know he'll be cross when he finds out I've been answering emails instead of blogging; it is Reg's computer, after all. To appease him, I suggest he takes our "notebook" up to our room and relaxes, while I write the blog on the bostel computer. I get chatting to the young woman on the computer next to me, but I do eventually get the blog written.
It's now nearly 1.00 pm. and we discover that the Royal Residence which we'd planned to visit today, along with a couple of other of Bangkok's must-see places, closes to visitors at 3.30 pm. We decide to leave that sightseeing trip until tomorrow, and visit Chatuchak Park instead, taking the Sky train. Chatuchak park has been described as an oasis of peace and calm in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok city.
On arrival at our destination we feel hungry, and go off in search of a cafe. A woman is cooking at a street stall, and asks if we'd like chicken fried rice. We hesitate then decide to go for it. There's only one tiny table to sit at, with plastic chairs. The woman fetches plates from a bowl of clean crockery on the pavement; next to it is a bowl of water with dirty crockery and cutlery in it.
The woman cooks the food in front of us, at intervals holding up a red pepper and an onion, to ask if we'd like these added to the wok. The food is delicious; too much for me to eat it all, though Reg polishes off what's left of mine, after eating all his. The total cost for 2 meals and 2 lemonades, is 85 baht, or £1.70.
The huge famous Chatuchak street market, held opposite the park, operates on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and the woman tells us that they are her really busy days. But, she says, every day is busy. She starts work at 6 am every day with a visit to the market to buy fresh ingredients.
"Then I'm cooking, cooking, cooking," she says. "Very busy, very busy. When you like my food, I happy. Wben you no like my food, I no happy."
We tell her that her food is delicious and she beams. Her husband runs the adjacent stall, selling drinks. She banters with him and he laughs; they seem to be a happy couple who work hard to achieve a decent living.
We return to the adjacent park; it's lovely to be in a green area with a lake and lots of trees, and we enjoy a relaxing afternoon, even taking a 30 minute ride in a paddle boat, fronted by two huge plastic duck heads. It's fun, and only costs 40 baht (80p).
Later, a woman pushing a trolley containing ice-cold ready-to-eat pineapple passes by; we buy some for dessert.
A return trip on the Sky train, and then as we are walking towards our hostel, we enter a pleasantly cool air-conditioned tailors shop for me to look at a couple of silk items. The man tries in vain to persuade Reg to have a suit made; I could have told him he was wasting his breath. The silks are lovely though.
We don't rush to get up and have a lazy Continental breakfast in the hostel - toast for Reg, croissants for me, with butter and jam, plus fruit juice, and Lipton's black tea. Both Reg and I have lost a bit of weight since we've been travelling. Apart from all the extra walking we've done, could it be because, since being away, we've almost never had any milk, cheese, or potatoes, all of which we enjoy at home - because they are rarely on offer. Chips (French fries) are occasionally on the menu, and when they are we sometimes have them, although they are often not cooked properly.
We decide to have the morning in the hostel, catching up on the blog and generally relaxing, after our long day yesterday. Besides which, as is often the case in the early morning, it's sheeting down with torrential rain.
Reg uses one of the hostel's computers to read his morning papers, while I use ours in the comfortable lobby area of the hostel. After about an hour Reg comes over to ask me how I'm getting on with the blog. I know he'll be cross when he finds out I've been answering emails instead of blogging; it is Reg's computer, after all. To appease him, I suggest he takes our "notebook" up to our room and relaxes, while I write the blog on the bostel computer. I get chatting to the young woman on the computer next to me, but I do eventually get the blog written.
It's now nearly 1.00 pm. and we discover that the Royal Residence which we'd planned to visit today, along with a couple of other of Bangkok's must-see places, closes to visitors at 3.30 pm. We decide to leave that sightseeing trip until tomorrow, and visit Chatuchak Park instead, taking the Sky train. Chatuchak park has been described as an oasis of peace and calm in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Bangkok city.
On arrival at our destination we feel hungry, and go off in search of a cafe. A woman is cooking at a street stall, and asks if we'd like chicken fried rice. We hesitate then decide to go for it. There's only one tiny table to sit at, with plastic chairs. The woman fetches plates from a bowl of clean crockery on the pavement; next to it is a bowl of water with dirty crockery and cutlery in it.
The woman cooks the food in front of us, at intervals holding up a red pepper and an onion, to ask if we'd like these added to the wok. The food is delicious; too much for me to eat it all, though Reg polishes off what's left of mine, after eating all his. The total cost for 2 meals and 2 lemonades, is 85 baht, or £1.70.
The huge famous Chatuchak street market, held opposite the park, operates on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and the woman tells us that they are her really busy days. But, she says, every day is busy. She starts work at 6 am every day with a visit to the market to buy fresh ingredients.
"Then I'm cooking, cooking, cooking," she says. "Very busy, very busy. When you like my food, I happy. Wben you no like my food, I no happy."
We tell her that her food is delicious and she beams. Her husband runs the adjacent stall, selling drinks. She banters with him and he laughs; they seem to be a happy couple who work hard to achieve a decent living.
We return to the adjacent park; it's lovely to be in a green area with a lake and lots of trees, and we enjoy a relaxing afternoon, even taking a 30 minute ride in a paddle boat, fronted by two huge plastic duck heads. It's fun, and only costs 40 baht (80p).
Later, a woman pushing a trolley containing ice-cold ready-to-eat pineapple passes by; we buy some for dessert.
A return trip on the Sky train, and then as we are walking towards our hostel, we enter a pleasantly cool air-conditioned tailors shop for me to look at a couple of silk items. The man tries in vain to persuade Reg to have a suit made; I could have told him he was wasting his breath. The silks are lovely though.
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