Tuesday and Wednesday I explored the modern part of Bangkok. On Tuesday I first started with the Golden Buddha in the Wat Traimit temple (5,5 tons of pure gold), then continued to the Golden Mountain (a temple and pagoda located on a small hill) and ended the tour at the Jim Thompson house near Siam Square (the commercial centre of Bangkok). Jim Thompson was an US-American entrepreneur dealing with silk and textiles from Thailand. He built an impressive teakwood mansion in Bangkok before he mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia in 1967. Today his teak house is a museum and can be visited. The climate in Bangkok really made me feel tired, so I spent the evening relaxing in the guest house (with air condition!).
On Wednesday I took the fantastic subway (with brand new stations and trains, all air conditioned!) and went to the Sukhumvit neighbourhood. I explored Bangkok’s little Arabia but at 10 am the quarter was still dozy with some few men having their morning tea. Then I went all the way along Sukhumvit Road to Siam Square. It wasn’t particularly interesting but I had some nice stops in some of the frozen shopping malls, not to buy but rather to cool down. Then I went from Siam Square to the Lumphini Park by Skyrail train. I was really tired from the heat, so my plan was to rest on a shady park bench. I lay down to have a nap but after five minutes a policeman indicated that I had to sit on the bench, not lie down. What the f***? I thought a park is for recreation. How can I refuel my batteries without lying? I can only guess the reasons for this rule. Anyway, Bangkok seems to have too many policemen if they are even scheduled to control that nobody “misuses” the city’s park benches.
In the evening I went back to the wonderful place I have been to two days before with Wolf and the Swedish guys. I was completely alone on the terrace and spent two hours taking dozens of pictures of Bangkok’s skyline, really cool! At the end I have to say that Bangkok is not so bad. It’s big and chaotic and it’s definitely too hot and humid but there are some really interesting places (Khao San Road is definitely not one of them!). I don’t regret having spent three more days there and the skyline pictures were really worth it! You can see one on my Facebook wallpaper.
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