Skinny latte and Preggy Squid

Breakfast at the boutiquey Loft hotel was an hilarious random affair where a dippy waitress served us mangoes, sticky rice, muesli, egg, toast and fruit in various orders and combinations with a lot of giggling and apologising on the odd occasion when she realised it was all a total shambles.

Finding a mid morning coffee was just as hard as bagging a Som Tam the previous night, Chinatown had everything but, and we walked most of its streets!

The area around the Democracy monument, near the backpacker hangout of Kho San road, was lined with Red Shirts and their stalls. It was all very peaceful, almost jovial when we walked through, (much less intimidating than stallholders in Patpong). [This area erupted into violent clashes a couple of days later when we were safely on the beach.]

By the evening our food finding noses were back on track and took us to Lek’s retaurant, right beneath the Sky Train station that we had used the night before. Tables full of locals and tourists sprawled along the street and up an alley and everywhere was fish, fried, curried and barbecued. Preggy squid was squid stuffed with yam, the fishcakes were delicately spiced and the Tom Yam was fiery.

Bangkok, Thailand. Thursday 8th April.

Photos to follow.