Lost in Bangkok part 2

Yesterday morning we woke up late and had brunch at our guesthouse. (Fried flat noodles with chicken in a black bean soya sauce for Dave and chicken with veg fried in black pepper with rice for me.) I also had my first ever full bottle of beer. Thai beer is definitely growing on me.

We had a relaxed day and then got a taxi to Lumphini Park, which is a large park in the centre of the city. It was similar to Hyde Park in several ways, although on such a hot day in London there would have been far more people around. We hired a swan boat and pedalled around the lake in the middle, which was fun in a self-consciously cheesy kind of way. The evening aerobics we had seen on a smaller scale at the park close to us started as the sun set, and with around 200 people taking place they were pretty cool to watch.

The mosquitos started to bite as it got dark so we headed to the skytrain, which we were planning to get to check out Patpong, the former red light district which is now apparently more of a tourist market. Those of you with delicate sensibilities do not fear, as we went the wrong direction on the sky train and gave up. Instead we headed to Little Arabia, which is in a district which itself has no shortage of go-go bars. As we passed one open-air bar I started to think I was seeing everything twice, as there was an elderly gentleman with white hair and a young Thai lady at every table...

Aside from that, Little Arabia was really interesting - it was buzzing with energy and definitely seemed to be a district with a distinctive identity of its own. The sky was lit with neon signs and the air smelt of Indian spices than Thai food. We ate at a restaurant called Ali Hussains - recommended by the Holy Text LP - and I would seriously urge all of you to fly to Bangkok now just to eat at this restaurant! It was without a doubt the best curry I've ever had, and I speak as someone who lived in Glasgow for four years and sought them out on a regular basis.

After our meal, we followed my plan for getting home, which involved getting the skytrain to the boat then a river taxi to near our hotel. Dave just wanted to get a taxi the whole way, but I was certain that my plan was better. However, we arrived at the remote pier the river taxi leaves from and discovered the services had ended for the night several hours before. Our only alternative was to get a taxi home after all.

Yesterday was a rest day which actually turned out to be restful, although we did get up fairly to go to Chatuchak weekend market, which received about 20000 visitors each Sat and Sun. The stalls sold a mixture of goods obviously aimed at tourists and more practical things for Thai purchase, such as live fish, turtles and maggots, all on display along the pavement. We looked around for a couple of hours then headed back to the guesthouse to chill out for the rest of the day.

Today we are headed north to Ayuthaya, which used to be the capital of Thailand before it was invaded by the Burmese. We're planning to stay there for a couple of nights while we check out the ruins, which should be a change after Bangkok.