2014, Day 323 - Idle

I didn't really sleep last night because out flight from Colombo to Bangkok left at 1:30 in the morning.  With the time difference we landed three and a half hours later and what with insisting on serving a meal and handing out immigration forms there was almost no time at all to sleep.  So we stumbled through customs in Bangkok, collected our bags, and went in search of a taxi.

We were able to get a taxi at the queue and were quickly mired in the traffic nightmare that is Bangkok.  Our drive kept trying side streets because the main streets weren't moving.  At one point he received and made a number of calls and then explained his father had been taken to the hospital so he needed to go.  He had called another cab who would meet us and we wouldn't have to pay for the rest of our ride.  Francene had some bad luck in Bangkok over a decade ago with cab drivers and was sure we were getting scammed.  I didn't think so but you never can be sure.  However, within minutes another cab pulled up and we transferred ourselves and our luggage over and the rest of the trip to the hotel was made without incident.

Of course it wasn't quite nine o'clock yet which is too early for check in but for an extra fee they let us into our room early.  At this point we were both so exhausted that we couldn't sleep and were starving so we dumped out stuff and went back downstairs for breakfast.  Once we had eaten we decided to have a little wander and find an ATM because the cab ride took almost all the cash we had left from our time in Chiang Mai over a week ago.

The obvious choice is Khao San Road which is a backpacker area.  It wasn't terribly interesting or exciting but it gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs.  When we returned to the hotel I took a quick shower and had a bit of a nap and when I got up again I was hungry so we left to find an early dinner.  So we walked back to Khao San Road.

There were plenty of choices and we settled on a nice little vegetarian Thai place off a side street.  It was clean and nicely furnished and the food was quite good.  By the time we finished it was starting to get dark so we had a bit of a wander, stopped off for drinks and snacks for our room, and headed back to the hotel.

Our return took us on a different route and we happened upon a local street market.  Most of the vendors were still setting up but it was quite lively already and a totally different atmosphere compared to the tourist area.  We took our time and enjoyed the scenery on our way back.

Now we're ensconced in our room with the air conditioning on and relaxing.  Tomorrow we have another early start so it is probably time to start thinking about sleep again.

Fuji X-T1, Fujinon 56/f1.2R
56mm, f1.2, 1/125 sec @ 2000 ISO