Saturday, June 18, 2011

One night in Bangkok

Actually, we're staying four nights... in an amazing location, thanks to an internet deal and the god of upgrades. 




After lying relatively fallow yesterday, today we went out to see Wat Arun. We caught the ferry across the river to admire the architecture up close. 




The buildings to the right of the Wat are also very beautiful. When we arrived there weren't many tourists, and it was atmospheric with the tinking of the bells from the Wat next door, and the sky turning darker as rain clouds began to gather. 





M scaled all stairs - half way up was far enough for me. 






In the afternoon, we had an outing to the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre, a fantastic gallery modelled on the Guggenheim. Some great exhibitions including wall murals covering two levels. 


And you have to love a gallery that lets you buy ice cream from a food exhibition and wander around eating it. M had wasabi flavour, I had green tea and red bean - although I was tempted by global warming.

Brownie, Global Warming, Wasabi
The gallery also has artists' outlets and shops on some of the floors. The best one that I saw was Trash Chic, a collective that makes beautiful bags of all shapes and sizes out of recycled rice bags. Check it out if you're passing.