17-Oct-2026
There's one thing still missing on my trip: I haven't found any Geocaches yet! Now, Thailand is not exactly rich on them, but there are at least a few around. Today I'm going after them.
But before that: Breakfast. Chella prepares me something delightful consisting of egg, sardines and rice.
And then we're off! It's only 9:00, but it's already quite hot and humid outside.
Our route today should end up looking like this. And I say "end up" because things kinda went wrong near the end, but more about that later.
Anyway, first we take a slightly different route from our Airbnb this time, which causes more shrines.
Then we walk back to where the bus dropped us off on our return trip from Bang Kachao, not-finding a Geocache along the way. That S&P is a restaurant-and-bakery chain in Thailand by the way. I've seen quite a few of them by now.
After that, we're heading into more adventurous side streets with no sidewalks and lots of traffic.
Allow me to use this opportunity to rant a bit about how the street layout in Thailand is a nightmare. It's the exact opposite of a grid-system: Completely unpredictable, and with lots of dead ends. Sometimes you have to walk for several kilometres in order to bridge a distance of less than a 100m just because there's no direct connecting footpath. Case in point:
And it's like that everywhere, except in the innermost city. So just because two places are physically close, don't assume it's easy to travel between the two.
Anyway, as we make our way through the labyrinth of roads, we of course find many more shrines.
Oh, and by the way, here's a low budget taxi. The price for these is midway between motorcycle and car.
Eventually, there's one more thing that I start noticing. Look at all these places and try to figure out what they have in common.
Ready for the solution? They're all Japanese! Looks like after our day in Chinatown, we've now stumbled across Bangkok's Japanese quarter!
Anyway, from here you can go pretty much any way you want.
And then, there's finally a proper sidewalk again!
It's a little past here that I finally find my first Geocache in Thailand next to a little Japanese Cafe.
Anyway, by now we're getting closer to the heart of the city, and there's quite some tall buildings all around us already.
By now, we've already been walking for about an hour and a half in the heat, so when we come across a Cafe Amazon, we take the opportunity to go in and cool down over some nice drinks. I have a "Green Tea Honey Lime With Jelly" while Chella orders something more chocolatey. To go with it, we get a "Muffin Red Velvet Cream Cheese".
They also have an interesting programme for recycling used cups here. The only thing I can't figure out is where to put the contents of the cups, because it says "only dry cups". Anyway, apparently you earn points for every cup returned. But I don't know what you can use those points for.
Anyway, from here we walk just a little bit further...
...and then we arrive at the EM Quarter, one of Bangkok's many malls.
It's pretty huge on the inside, but more importantly, it's nice and cool, so we explore the inside of the mall for quite a while.
Several floors up - on what is designated as floor 5 - we reach the water garden, which is partially open-air, and gives us a nice view of the city all around us.
Moving on, we proceed to the aptly name Helix Quarter, which contains exclusively restaurants along a path that continuously spirals upwards from floor 6 to 9.
And since it's about noon right now, we decide to have lunch in this restaurant which I
guess serves Thai-Chinese fusion food.
Not only do we get a nice view from here...
...but the food is also very tasty! We each get a chicken-rice set meal, with the difference being that hers is all fried chicken, and mine also contains braised chicken and some blood jelly. As for sauce to dip it in, we have the choice between a sweet & sour sauce, and a spicy sauce. And if the sauce isn't spicy enough for you, you can also pimp it up with extra garlic and death peppers.
After lunch, we move on to the next mall by means of an elevated walkway running beneath the tram tracks, which also gives us a nice view of the nearby Benchasiri Park (อุทยานเบญจสิริ).
There's also this neat neon zebra crossing sign here.
We only stay in this mall for a short while, but DRAGON does it have a huge food court! (also, other shops)
Then we continue walking outside, this time via proper, and notably also motorcycle-proof sidewalks (yes, that's a problem in Thailand that I've encountered a few times by now).
Aaaand, then Chella gets distracted by a fruit stand again.
Now, here's the last chance to get on the metro back home, but Chella assures she's fine, and that's where things start going south. Quite literally, because the next Cache is in that direction.
Also, another shrine.
We cross over the road and after a mandatory and thorough security check at the entrance, where they even check our bags (and a guard tells me he really likes my cute snug-along), we are admitted into the nearby Benjakitti Park (สวนเบญจกิติ)...
...which interestingly has a little dog park right at the entrance.
Also, there's a screen cycling over various information displays, including today's temperature. So, apparently, by Thailand measures, this hot and humid weather qualifies as nice and pleasant.
Anyway, the main feature of this park is clearly the lake, though the huge nearby buildings are certainly also impressive.
There's also nice, green walkways all around.
And at one point we encounter a water monitor lizard, who lazily makes his way into the shrubbery as we approach. That one gave Chella quite a big scare though.
Also, I manage to find my second Geocache in Thailand in the middle of the park.
However, before long, Chella starts complaining about being exhausted and in pain, now that we're halfway into the park and about 1km away from the closest station. On top of that, it also starts to rain. Fortunately, Chella and I find a spot where we can sit the rain out.
Eventually we continue, spotting a little squirrel on the ground. I wonder if that's what the monitor lizards here prey on.
There's also a nice fountain array in the middle of the lake.
Continuing through the park...
...we come across the Phra Buddha Wisuthimongkol Meditation Statue (พระพุทธวิสุทธิมงคล).
And then we continue as it gets progressively more rainy. Thankfully the trees provide a little bit of cover.
However, just as we're about to reach the southern end of the lake, we run into a cordoned off area, complete with a roadblock. There are some guards posted there that tell us (more in sign language than in actual English) that we can't go through, and have to go all the way back again. I asked my Puky about this later, and it told me that currently, the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center (ศูนย์การประชุมแห่งชาติสิริกิติ์) is hosting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group meeting, and that's apparently important enough to close off public walkways within 100m of the Convention Center. Stupid capitalism!
Now, if you recall my earlier comment about the road layout in Thailand being horrible, of course there's no other exit to the park, because why would there be? So we have to walk all the way back again, and with Chella in her condition too! We were only 500m away from the metro station, but now we have to walk 1.5km to the previous one instead. On top of that it starts to rain, so we huddle beneath the umbrella as we make our arduous way back along the lake's shore.
And after that, we need to continue for quite some distance along the road.
On the plus side, I find some additional shrines along the way, allowing Chella to catch her breath as I take pictures. But really, at this point we just want to get home so she can relax and get better again. And I just wish she'd told me about this earlier, because we could have just called it a day when we were still close to the station.
Anyway, here we are at the station...
...where they totally take security seriously. There's announcements repeating "Attention passengers. For security reasons, all passengers are required to declare their belongings." My tail! All they do is wave you through the metal detector no matter how much it beeps, and occasionally the metal detectors at the entrances are even left unattended. And you can find this sort of token security all over Bangkok.
Anyway, we just take the metro for one stop to Petchaburi station, and then change into the bus at a conveniently located bus stop just outside the station.
I wish! The next bus stop is located a full 500m away, so we have yet more walking to do despite Chella's condition. Who designed this public transport system? =>,<=
Anyway, we manage to make it to the bus stop, where I think there's one bus that's already half an hour late. And looking back at the traffic I witnessed during our visit to Chinatown, I think I know the reason.
Thankfully, we can just take any bus from here, since we just need to ride it a few stops down the road. So we don't have to wait long until we're back at our home turf once again. There, Chella promptly gets distracted by another fruit stall.
After that last little side trip, we finally manage to get back to our Airbnb, where Chella can finally rest after a long day's walk. And it has been a long day. We were on the move for about 5 hours, and covered over 10km during that time.
However, before she finally lies down, she insists on preparing me some fruit. The top one is Rambutan and is not really to my liking, since it tastes like a nothing burger, and has a stone in the middle that's hard to eat around. The bottom one is Mangosteen, and is much better. This one tastes and feels a little bit like an Orange, but with less acid, and with several big seeds inside.
After that, I finally manage to get her to lie down and rest while I prepare some dinner. It's basically the same thing as yesterday: Some Gamm Ligeral with chicken fillet, erengi and tagliatelle in mushroom carbonara sauce.
Tomorrow, we're going to take it a bit more easy again so Chella can recover, but we still have plans to go out and do something special in the evening. What is it going to be? Stay tuned and find out! And until then, be of great cheer! =^,^=
