Waking with my cold, still, we endured an immensely busy breakfast buffet in the Royal Hotel where the patrons far exceeded the number of seats in the restaurant. There were many traveller types in the hotel at this point so either we all got it wrong or the prices have been significantly raised since our guide book was published!
We went out of the luxury hotel fully aware that we couldn't afford to stay there throughout our stay in Bangkok. We went off in the direction of Thanon Khao San in search of cheaper accommodation. Although we only found one of the guest houses indicated by our Lonely Planet guide, we did find a guest house that was far nicer and still only a third of the cost of the Royal Hotel. We arranged to stay for four nights before returning to the Royal Hotel to check out and collect our belongings. There were a fair number of backpackers around so they must have found the hotel from the Lonely Planet guide too.
We made the walk back to the Woriburi Khao San Inn and moved into our downgraded accommodation. Once we had checked in we made some tour bookings to the floating market and Kanchanaburi for tomorrow and to Ayutthaya for the following day. Then we chose to make the most of Sunday in Bangkok and decided to go to Chatachuk weekend market near the Northen bus station.
As we walked down an alley and stepped through stalls onto Thanon Khao San we were greeted by a very lively traveller street that was bustling. It was like stepping onto a film set and we just slipped into the crowd. For me it was totally unexpected and I had no idea of what I was walking into having heard no noise from the other side of the stalls in the alleyway.
We bought ice-creams and took a taxi to Chatachuk weekend market. This was a huge market selling practically everything. We wandered up and down for a few hours, mainly looking at the crafts, especially the wooden carvings. Ian is particularly taken by the frogs carved from blocks of wood. The back of the frog is textured so that when you drag another piece of wood across it, it sounds like a frog. But they were too big and heavy for Ian to carry and he decided that the smaller ones sounded more like crickets than frogs so he didn't buy one. We spent some time looking at the second hand books but they were relatively expensive so didn't bother with them either. It was so busy, and hot!
Back at Thanon Khao San we had a beer in the Books Cafe where I spent most of the time perusing the bookshelves before realising they were actually for sale and bought two of them. We ate a pretty naff curry along Thanon Khao San after walking up and down five times looking for a recommended Indian restaurant.
Copyright 2003 Helen Fuller. All rights reserved.