Bangkok at first glance.

These are my new flight socks I bought at Sydney airport. Travelling solo, I had no-one to show so I took a picture and I am now walking around the airport in sandals with my feet labeled L & R.



Arrived in Bangkok about 2 am Nov 11th and was surprised to wake up after only 4 hours sleep. I decided to go look at some guest houses in the old Bangkok area to move closer to the city. In the process of getting around today I was in 5 taxis, 4 trains and a boat. That story will unfold.


Here is my sparse little room where the bed is the same degree of softness as a hard cover book. I had it all to myself though, for 2 nights.

Sinks in the hallway outside my door and bathrooms and showers behind that.

The house is designed in the Thai style of the 1940's and the furniture is hand made in the north.

The neighbours have a beautiful garden.

A canal runs between us and the airport.

Down at the end of the street are some altars. You find these all over.

I first took a cab to the airport so I could use the express train into the city. Cab was about $3.00 and train less. Just off the train and have to grab a taxi the rest of the way as trains are not allowed in old town. I got into one and showed on the map where I was going. He kept looking at the map and shaking his head. Then after a couple of minuets he said "The traffic is too bad, You have to get out!" I decided to walk in the direction I was trying to go and get past the traffic jam.

I walked through under the tram track and straight down the street. When I came upon another taxi I asked him if he could take me. Again, after looking at the map forever, he just said, "No!" As fortune would have it, the third try was a charm, but he seemed quite lost too and asked for my map 4 times.

So, here I am in the old city where all the old temples are. It is crowded and noisy and all the streets are filled with market stalls. Mixed in with that were street-side bars and a few guest houses.

The buildings were in various stages of disintegration but teeming with life.

One of the temples in the area. It wasn't possible to get a full view for a picture.


A peek inside the temple.

Typical street.

Men's suits for sale. They are made out of a light suiting fabric but have short sleeves.

I wandered through the area for a while, deciding not to get a guest house down there because of the street noise.

Then I decided to take a boat down the river and grab another train down there to head back. Here is a tiny park at the river's edge.

This is the view of where I was headed taken from the dock. The smog seems to be constant. I experienced a bit of coughing when I first arrived, but not as bad as the coughing fit I had for days in Beijing a couple of years ago.

Here is the interior of my dragon boat. It went fairly quickly and the water was rough so it was difficult to take pictures but there was lots to see.

All along the river there were these shanties between the water and the next building.

There were also many temples.

Not sure what this is.

There was the old and sacred...

of many shapes and sizes....

...building styles so close and yet so far away....

...and there was the gleaming corporate glass...

.....and concrete!

From the dock watching the dragon boat race away.

I grabbed a train to go back which required a connection to another line in order to get onto the airport train and then there was the short taxi ride back to the hostel

Not bad for someone who didn't think she would go out today.

Now I have booked a new place which is in the "posh" area where the ex-pats live.

The airport hostel is great, I might add. A perfect solution to before and after flying so you don't have to deal with a long an difficult trip to town. Even taxis, as I found out, are not foolproof.