Back in Bangkok

So I arrived in Bangkok and decided to stay near the SkyTrain this time, I found a hotel tucked round the corner from the National Stadium. I was somewhat jet-lagged all the time I was here in bed before 10pm every night. But on the plus side I did wake up early, like 4 a.m. hmmm. Anyway I did manage to pop back over to Wat Po, which houses a giant lying down Buddha. Last time I forgot my camera, but this time I got some snaps, kinda of hard to fit it all in the photo though. The grounds around the main Buddha are also nice, the last time I was there they were almost shutting up shop, this time I had a chance to stroll around and look at the other temples. After that I hopped across the Chao Praya river to Wat Arun aka The Temple of Dawn. This old temple if pictured on the 1 baht coins, so almost familiar! Taller than I realised at 67m, but your not allowed to clamber up to the top.

I took the boat down to the central pier and then hopped off at Lumphini Park for a nosy about, but starting to feel tired I head back to the guesthouse, where I zonked out. Another day I had a look round the shopping malls, seems to be loads of giant malls now. I didn't realise some of them were so big. After getting lost in MBK I exited that and skipped (not literally) through Discovery and the Siam Centre to get across to Siam Paragon. This is the posh one were you can buy your Cartier watches etc. I opted to head over to the big IT mall, Pantip Plaza and picked up a cheapo MP3 player for less than 15 quid. Does the job, and as a bonus a pony scrolls across the screen when you switch it off. All the walking made me tired again and my feet felt like pancakes by the time I returned.

Another day I headed over to the nearby Jim Thompson House. This was a group of Thai style houses that had been assembled into a large single house, some linked together with walkways. Some of these were transported from up to 100 miles away and reassembled. It was quite interesting as there was also a tour briefly telling you the history. Jim Thompson seems to be credited with single handled making the Thai Silk industry what it is today. On his return he showed the editor of Vogue the silks used in Asia and the soon became very fashionable and desirable items.

I wandered off down and lane and notice a bridge over the canal, I had previously in Bangkok jumped on one of the small boats from Banglamphu. A bit of a squash, but it looks like that may be a thing of the past. Now large power boats hammer down the canal sloshing the water around the narrow canal in their afterwake, probably enough to sink any small boats!

After a few days in Bangkok it is back up to Chiang Mai again, where I plan to stay for a while.