Travel/Work Thailand: Weekend in Bangkok Day 2

Like what I mentioned in the previous post, our breakfast in the hotel was only good for one. Thus, for our last full day, we just walked somewhere on the way to the city center to look for food.

We luckily found a stall selling breakfast. But more than this, I finally saw a barber shop! I badly needed a haircut because I was already melting with the humidity. I did not want another near-fainting spell when going to Chatuchak Weekend Market like the week before.

After getting a haircut, we went back to the hotel to prepare for the day. It was almost lunch again anyway, so it would be better to bring Mon to where Harry and I went last week to eat Tom Yum: Pee Aor.

It was only a couple of minutes walk from Ratchatewi station. I did not take photos while we were there. I was busy taking videos (you can watch the video at the side or below this post).

I know that lemongrass is certainly palatable. However, I already reached my lemongrass limit. I just cannot eat another plate with anything lemongrass in it.

As I knew that the afternoon was dedicated to buying stuff from Chatuchak, I needed my caffeine kick. Fortunately, there was this cat café just beside Ratchatewi station where we can play with the kitties while drinking coffee.

Just like the Cat Café in Myeongdong, this cat-themed café (Caturday Café) was a welcome respite from human interaction.LOL As usual you leave your footwear outside to minimize outdoor germs. I couldn’t remember how much it cost us, but it was quite reasonable.

They also have some cat-related merchandise for sale, and Mon bought a sachet of catnip for Miso. We stayed until around 2:30 PM, enough time for us to rest and at least it was no longer mid-noon!

So, this is my second time at the weekend market. The weather was fine, but knowing how unpredictable it could be, it might rain late in the afternoon.

Mon knew very well how much I am not a fan of shopping. This always become the case: I see one thing and I buy it immediately just to finish the task immediately. But Mon was clearly not like that. He’d go to as many shops as possible looking for the best price before buying anything.

I was already done with my own shopping but he was not even near half of his list. Luckily, Chatuchak Weekend Market was a feast to the eyes that I somewhat enjoyed taking photos and videos of the wares for sale.

We even saw this stall selling customized leather passport holders. Mon and I naturally got one each with our names embossed.

As an avid fan of leathercraft myself, I took delight watching the woman do the job. I have several ideas for my own leathercraft project as well.

While I did not buy a lot of stuff, the trip to Chatuchak should not be done without my own market tote. This caught international media when Balenciaga hilariously re-created one (leather, of course) and sold the Balenciaga Bazar Shopper at an astronomical price.

As I have earlier predicated, it began raining in Bangkok around late afternoon. We only have one umbrella with us and we still have to walk a long way back to Mo Chit station.

It was raining so hard that I had to put my leather messenger bag inside the striped tote, or else it would get ruined. See? It was a good call buying this ‘souvenir’.

Going back to the hotel, we had to take a quick shower and changed to fresh clothes before heading to Khao San Road for dinner.

The place was quite far from any BTS station, so we had no choice but take a Grab Car. At around 7:00 PM, we left Swissotel, only to be met by a traffic jam. Worst, the long road leading to Khao San was closed to traffic because of the royal family passing any moment that time. We were forced to get out of the Grab Car, and walk from the corner of Thanon Lan Nuang corner Lan Luang Road.

There were motorcycles parked at this area. However, they were charging an arm and a leg for a 5-minute ride to Khao San Road. Non, merci!

The good thing about this mishap was we ended up seeing some places we have no plans stopping by. For instance, there was the King Prajadhipok Museum before the bridge. And from that area, we could already see the towering and hard-to-miss Democracy Monument (no picture there, but I managed to get a video).

I, surprisingly, enjoyed this accidental walking tour. As soon as we have passed by the Democracy Monument, a convoy of heavily-tinted cars with the Thai flag passed by our side. Everyone stopped walking, even the tourists, thus we had to stop as well.

Few more minutes of walking and we saw a stream of people heading right. Khao San Road could not be surely far.

While the road towards Democracy Monument was empty, Khao San Road was packed with people. I know this is, again, Bangkok’s tourist trap, with backpackers aplenty. But we have to see the scene for ourselves to believe.

Where to eat? Almost every place was full and the 30-minute walk going here did not help our appetite? We then stopped at the first reasonably-priced restaurant that was not crowded. It was our last night in Thailand and I just wanted to rest and not have a shouting match to hear each other.

Khao San Road is not really that long. I hazard a guess that it was only about the length of the side of Ayala Triangle where the Peninsula Hotel Manila is (around 200 meters?).

There were lots of food stalls in the street, and this was where I found the scorpions and other exotic food. However, even taking photos of these will cost you around THB 50. Crazy, right?

Mon wanted to try those crêpe-type desserts, filled with Nutella and banana. While not a fan of sweets, I also actually liked it but not enough to finish one serving.

We spent until about 10:30 PM at Khao San Road. Knowing that the road was still closed and not having a single idea of what bus to take (not to mention I was afraid to take another Grab ride), we just took a cab on the way back to Swissotel.

It had been a long and eventful day, but I was quite sad thinking that my Thailand adventure was about to end.