I hope I get used to this heat. My word, its sticky. My whole body is just coated and stuck to every other part of my body. I don’t remember it being this hot last time i was here, but that was the other end of the year, the dry season. We are here during rainy season. Might as well be called sweaty season!
Leaving the airport we took the express train, then the local metro. These trains have fantastic air conditioning, the London Underground could learn a thing or two. So we only really hit the heat when we stepped off the last train into the street. We had thought to walk the last bit, but immediately jumped in the first tuktuk that arrived just to get some airflow. He was really nice and took us right to the door of the hostel and behold, air conditioning! I think we might be planning our excursions around the availability of this…
We had landed early in the morning so the room wasn’t ready yet. We enjoyed chatting with Cherry, the hostel host who gave us lychee and some other fruit while we waited. It was the biggest lychee I’d ever seen. A talkative old boy turned up and wouldn’t leave us be, even tho our eyes were drooping. I got a few nuggets of local knowledge that might be useful tho.
After this we took a walk around the area, dodging the touts pushing massages, suits and tours. We found our way to the big River and another air-conditioned space. It was a very snazzy coffee bar, sort of an industrial warehouse crossed with French cafe. Rough metal girders and polished fine wood all surrounded in pot plants and nick nacks.
After a sweaty walk back to the hostel we were both knackered. Having only had a couple hours sleep on the plane and now dealing with the heat, we had a shower and a nap. This was very refreshing and meant we could enjoy wandering around Khao San Road. This is a hostel, bar and market filled road which is the centre of backpacker culture in Bangkok. It seems the rumours of cannabis being legalised is also true, there were lots of shops with jars of the stuff on display. Not what we are here for.
We actually found that the next road up, Ram Buttri Alley, was more our style. There were lots more trees over hanging the road, with lights and colourful statues and water features. The waitress at the Macaroni Club said the sour calamari was good so I had that and Aimi had Pad Thai. It was really good and so far hasn’t made me sick, despite being way off my normal cuisine. But as nice as this bar was, with it’s huge rock water feature and fish swimming around in a pond, we were literally sitting here sweating so went to find an air conditioned bar. A few bars later and we ended up on top of Rocco Wine Bar’s roof. From here we could see all down Khao San road and across the skyline to a golden temple all lit up with lights. There was a chilled out band playing really recognisable music and a breeze to keep us warm instead of hot. It was very romantic.
