18October2025: Bangkok: Hooky
Given the day’s afternoon activity consisted of yet another cruise and meal along the Chao Phraya River and commenced with a 08:00 departure one might say a long breakfast with other tour hooky people and two pots of jasmine tea overlooking the river was preferable. What a breakfast…as usual with papaya, mango, dumpling soup and Pad Thai on my buffet plate. Breakfasts so far at the Peninsula Bangkok and Singapore Shangri-La have been something to write home about.
Horror of horrors with my watch battery dying so instead of walking to the Icon Siam Mall to buy a battery I rode the Peninsula Bangkok water shuttle a beautifully restored ship with a captain that looked like a captain with his naval outfit.
A three-minute trip and a huge Diwali celebration at the Icon Siam pier. Cheap souvenirs, textiles, food and music. Finally found a jeweller hidden away to be and for $10 CDN a new watch battery.
Being a seafaring man, I took the return shuttle to what I thought to be the Peninsula but a return to the wrong hotel as we sailed on past the Peninsula Bangkok. Twenty minutes upriver past glitz and poverty. Dilapidated corrugated steel dwellings, rusty boats, clubs and restaurants. The crew were rough n ready types and the captain looked like a boat operator and not a captain. A slight smell of diesel fumes. The arrival hotel was where we had launched our welcome cruise two days ago so a quick trip to the WC. Jasmine tea is my favourite however the two pots caused immediacy on the bladder if you know what I mean. The return ferry which I had to wait for a few minutes dropped me back at Icon Siam Mall, so I walked home in nasty heat and humidity. I dropped into the 7-11 for a cold beer but no beer can be sold until after 17:00 and as it was just 16:00 I settled for a large mango juice and returned to the hotel. A sense of public morality with a city known for its decadence of which I witnessed none of. The Thai I encountered are polite, modest and welcoming if you behave and dress appropriately. There is a certain discrete disapproving look the Thai give to scantily dressed tourists which speaks forcefully about the Thai national character.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 