A Lazy Sunday in Bangkok

After our very busy and long day yesterday, we were quite lazy this morning.  We were not in a big hurry and didn't even leave the hotel until close to 11:00.

We've been wanting to check out the Old "Farang" Quarter, and decided this would be a good day for an easy Sky Train trip and a relaxing walk around a new neighborhood.

 This area of Bangkok was first established in the late 1800's and was the heart of the foreign diplomatic community.  The neighborhood is now filled with small jewelry wholesale shops, and is a bit run-down.  As we walked along there were only a few signs of it's former beauty:

The Old Farang Quarter is also home to one of the few Christian churches in Bangkok, The Assumption Cathedral--and this was the real draw for us.  We found our way to the church, it's a pretty old church, built in 1910, and certainly stands out from  the Aisan influenced architecture in the area.

We couldn't visit the inside, as there was a wedding just getting started.  We didn't see the bride, but the rest of the wedding party was very elegant:

There was a large Robinson's department store in this area, we browsed around for a while,  David found a shirt that he really liked.  We looked in a few of the small jewelry stores,  I bought a strand of huge coin pearls, using my new bargaining skills to get a very good price.  But most stores and even restaurants were closed, and it was a bit deserted.

We hopped back on the Sky Train, and got off at the next station.   We wanted to try a restaurant we'd read about for lunch, but same story in this neighborhood--it's all buttoned up on a Sunday!  We eventually found a small restaurant that was part of a hostel, and we actually had a pretty good lunch.  We decided that we really just needed to take it easy after our long day yesterday, so we came back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, David read and I worked on a couple of blog posts.


At dinner time were still feeling lazy and decided try the small pub just down the street--no long walk or Sky Train ride for us tonight.  We each ordered a Thai dish "only medium spicy", but Holy Moley!! David's dish was so hot he just couldn't eat it.  The nice server noticed, and kindly replaced it with a fresh one made with no chiles, which we thought was very generous.  My curry was also very hot, but I enjoyed it.  I'm actually learning to like my food quite spicy!

It was another early night for us--we have a 7 a.m. pick up scheduled for tomorrow.  We'll be going north east of Bangkok about 60 miles to a train market and a floating market, should be a fun day!