Bangkok – second time lucky?

When I saw Katie in Siem Reap, I was debating whether to go back to Pai again or not. I wanted to return but was unsure about going back on myself; there are lots of beautiful places in the world. Then Katie mentioned a light festival in Chiang Mai and the deal was sealed! We arranged to meet in Bangkok a few
days later as she was heading for Phnom Penh first. I was destined for Khao San road once again!

In Bangkok I met up with Julius, a magician I’d met in Siem Reap. His magic tricks blew my mind!

Katie and I decided not to waste our day in Bangkok waiting for our night bus, so made the most of it by perusing the stalls of Khao San and having an unexpectedly awesome day out.

I had read about Wat Saket, the golden mountain and we went to check it out. It’s a temple built high up on a mound where you follow spiralling stairs to get to the top to witness the Bangkok skyline. It was wonderful up there!

At the bottom of the “mountain” there was a fayre going on. We really enjoyed the sweet street food there!

As we walked back to the Khao San area, we crossed a bridge. I happened to look down and see what I thought was a dragon! We rushed down to the riverside and looked properly but didn’t get a photo of it. It was a swimming reptile about as long as my arm! When it had gone underwater, Katie and I went rushing up to some locals to ask then what it was. We were rather excited, as you can tell from this photo:

They could only tell us it was called a “silver and gold” in Thai and kept saying “hya”. When I googled it later it was a water monitor!

We got on our night bus and made it to Chiang Mai. I’m so happy to be back here, especially for the light festival and to do some stuff I missed out last time. It feels great to be back!