Last day in Bangkok! Today is an unscheduled day, my only necessity is changing hotels to that of my tour which begins this evening.

Since my Chinatown Food Market Experience was cancelled a few days ago I decided to explore that area this morning. I took advantage of the pleasant temperature to walk there, knowing that by midday it would become stifling hot and I’d be catching the ferry back.

The walk was a combination of dingy busy streets and narrow teeming alleys. It was too early for the culinary wonderland that this area is known for, instead I saw mostly small stalls selling cheap tat. Some stores were busy, others empty, how do the shoppers choose? I did pick up a cheap small backpack as mine has not survived 10 summers in my garage so it was a worthwhile trip.

The end of this trip ends back in Bangkok and the hotel is in the right dab center of Chinatown so I’m sure I’ll see it at its exotic, twilight best when I return.

An hour’s respite back at the hotel before I had to checkout and I left my luggage in storage for a bit while I finally explored the local area. The River City mall is right next door and it’s a weird combo of shops selling souvenirs, European antiques, art galleries, and ancient SE Asian cultural pieces (all legitimately acquired, I’m sure….).

Checked into the new hotel at 2:30pm and rested until our tour Welcome Meeting at 5pm. There’s 14 of us on this tour: 3 couples, 1 guy, and 7 ladies. Canadians, Brits, Swiss, Moroccans, an Ozzie and a German, quite a mix. After our Introduction we boarded a big wooden boat for a dinner cruise. The Festival of Lights is still going on so the views on the river were especially scenic.

7am departure scheduled for tomorrow so it’ll be an early start for Day Six!