Le Grand Détour

 We decided to wake up late this morning seeing as we didn’t get to sleep until about 4am. This meant that it was nearly lunchtime by the time we managed to pull ourselves out of the hotel for breakfast. We opted for the easy option of heading to the local shopping centre’s foodcourt for a brunch. After umming and arghing for a long time, all the time feeling worse and worse with my hangover, we eventually chose a Thai food restaurant and I had pad thai and a fizzy berry soda…which don’t go together at all, but both helped in their own way! After this we stopped at another restaurant for a small slice of cheesecake each…another miraculous hangover cure…lemon cheesecake! I restrained myself and didn’t order the banoffee milkshake…but it was a close-run thing!!

Our plan for today had been to head to an island south of here where you can rent bikes and ride around in a jungle in the heart of Bangkok…unfortunately, our physical state didn’t let us. And so, instead, we headed to a nearby park, called Lumphini Park. As we started wandering round the park, a very smiley, elderly chap started talking to me. He asked us where we were from and then chatted to us, in many different languages, to prove that he knew lots! He even gave us a couple of pieces of paper with useful Thai phrases on them. He took down our details in his little black book — he clearly stops any tourists that he sees and talks to them…bit of a nutter, but happy!!

After a little bit of a go on the exercise machines in the park (to try and wear off some of the cheesecake) we carried on with our tour, dodging in between the automatic watering hoses dotted around the park. In the lakes we spotted some large lizards that I insisted on calling crocodiles, they were massive!!

Once out, the other side of the park, where the statue of Rama VI towers over us, we decided to head back to the hotel for a sleep…too old for this hangover lark!

Having caught up a little on the blog and on the sleep deprivation we decided to head out for dinner…both tempted by the description of a burger bar in the vicinity we followed Trip Advisors directions on how to get there. In the alley where the restaurant is supposed to be no-one had heard of it so we tried looking it up on the internet. On their facebook page there is a map…unfortunately, having followed it for 20 minutes, the restaurant wasn’t there either… We were both getting fed up and decided to abandon our search, head over the road and eat there. In the shopping centre there was either Japanese or Italian….we opted for the Japanese (curry rice and ton katsu)…which were nice, but not as nice as in Japan! The waitress gave us free fruit at the end of the meal…clearly not a busy evening for this restaurant tonight.

Tomorrow we head to Kanchanaburi so let’s hope we’re feeling more energetic for this next detour!!

 Bref, journée gueule de bois

• Premier réveil à 7 heures, toujours bourré, vaseux.
• Deuxième réveil vers 11h. C’est un peu mieux mais pas brillant. La journée d’aujourd’hui ne va pas être utra-productive, c’est clair.
• Déjeuner / Petit dej dans un resto de la food court du Terminal 21. Les nouilles trop épicées sont un peu dures à avaler. Le cheesecake un peu moins.
• Après-midi, promenade dans le parc Lumphini, considéré comme le central parc de Bangkok. Un thaïlandais rigolo nous parle en douze langues.
• Retour à l’hôtel pour la sieste. C’est toujours dur.
• Partie de la soirée passée à chercher le fameux Burgers and Bangers introuvable ou fermé.
• Nous finissons dans un restaurant japonais pour un curry.
• Retour à l’hôtel. Je bois un thé. Bref, journée gueule de bois.

Où est Stéphane ?