top of page

Bangkok, Thailand

Day 3

The morning started with a run around Lumpini Park, an amazing space in the middle of this hectic city. People were doing tai chi on every available patch of ground. There weren't many runners, and I didn't blame them - it felt like it was about 40°C. It ended up being one of our shorter runs.

We visited a shopping centre, which was quite boring as it was just like a Western shopping centre. I am not sure why that surprised me. 

Next up was a trip to a Thai cooking school, which was incredible. We cooked deep fried money bags, Panang curry, Tom Yum soup, and fried rice with pork. They gave us the recipes to take home, which look too easy to taste as good as the meals did. Danny didn't tell anyone he was a chef, in case he screwed something up and embarrassed himself. 

Jo led us to Khao San road for dinner - extremely touristy, very much like the movies. Loud music, street vendors and touts at every step, bogan Aussies everywhere. We joined in with the bogans and drank a cocktail out of a bucket, which was ridiculously sweet - they have a thing about excessive amounts of sugar over here.

We never really know if it's cloudy or not because of a general haze over the city. The humidity isn't too bad (if you're not running). The city seems to go on forever - it feels like you can drive for an hour and still be surrounded by skyscrapers. I don't think they have suburbs in the same way that Australia does. 

Everything is fantastically cheap. A half hour taxi ride costs less than $10, cocktails are $3-5, a bottle of beer $2, the internet I'm using right now is $2 an hour, train rides from 30 cents. Speaking of trains, Melbourne could learn a thing or two from Bangkok - sky trains are the way to go. They come every 5 minutes, don't hold up traffic, and they are easy to figure out. I don't miss Melbourne trains. On the other hand, Bangkok traffic is terrible. Many freeways and few traffic lights, but when you get stuck at one light you get stuck for an eternity. Some traffic lights count down to when they will turn green/red; watching a red light count down for 150+ seconds is excruciating, especially when they only stay green for 20 seconds. Lucky the taxis are so cheap.

cooking class thai food
lumpini park bangkok thailand
curry cooking class thai food
bottom of page