Bangkok, Thailand
Tuesday 9th May
It was a slightly different start to the day today. I had brought a pair of sand-shoes with me that I thought were well enough broken-in but, clearly, that hasn’t been the case. So, I have this nice sore spot on the top of my foot 🙁
My day, therefore, started with just a swim and Mark’s with a trip to the gym and then a swim.
We spent some time at breakfast reviewing our dining options as we wanted to find some better venues than what we’d encountered thus far. Another Google search revealed the best 10 restaurants on Riverside, which is our location, and although only a few offered Thai food, this gave us enough to choose from. So, tonight we’re off to ‘Err’; doesn’t sound like much but it gets good reviews. Time will no doubt tell though.
My sore foot resulted in a change of plans for the day as well. We had thought we’d do a walking tour through Chinatown but this was no longer going to be an option. So it was decided that perhaps Mark could do an afternoon bike riding tour whilst I rested said sore foot.
We found out that the bike tour company was located in the building next-door, at River City, and so we went to check this out after breakfast. We also found a Thai version of an IGA and went in to check out the beer prices; a large Singha was 55 Baht which is about $2 so, much cheaper than anywhere we’ve been so far. This proved to be a timely find as we’ve heard that the Hotel won’t be serving any alcohol on Wednesday due to the Buddha holiday slated for the day.
Marks tour didn’t start until 2 PM and so we spent the rest of the morning by the pool. When he went off on tour I headed for a massage but this would have been better referred to as a massacre. I’m not sure my neck and back will ever recover. Even with this pain, the massage may have been the better option than the bike road though. Mark said it was lucky I hadn’t joined in on the bike tour as the group of 10 were all young, fit and able riders and the tour moved at quite a clip. I don’t score on any of those counts! We’d noticed a couple of KLM flight crews at breakfast the last two mornings and some of them made up much of Mark’s bike group; hence the need for speed factor I guess.
Mark returned home around 5.30 pm and sampled one of the bought beers before we both got ready to head off for dinner. The Hotel Concierge helped us to find a taxi that knew where to go; the first driver passed on the offer. With hindsight we’re not surprised by this as the restaurant is located in a narrow lane and well off the beaten track. The establishment looked reasonable and there were other diners there so we felt confident to proceed. Everything went well except for the fact that the dishes we had ordered were loaded with chili and almost inedible for me. Luckily, there was some coconut ice cream on offer for dessert that served some medicinal function for me. I felt I had copped it on the outside and now inside today. Note to self: ask about the chili quotient when next out to dinner.
It wasn’t a late night which was just as well as we had an early start planned for the next day due to our day trip out to the ancient capital, Ayuttaya.
