theDIBB - A Week in Bangkok - June 2018: Day 6

Again it took me ages to get to sleep! I had set the alarm for 7am but it was a bit of a struggle to get going!

After showering I went down and had my usual eggs with cheese and beans and 2 cups of coffee!

I left the hotel at about 8.30am and made my way down to the ferry. The park I had to go through was again busy - including a yoga class. The ferry left fairly promptly but I had about a 10 minute wait for the Orange Express boat - direction Wat Arun.

Wat Arun is just on the banks of the river - I see it every time I take the boat.

The temple is dedicated to the Goddess Aruna, the goddess of the Dawn.

It was decorated with a type of mosiac.

It featured lots of these statues holding up the towers.

There were also lots of statues around the base.

It was fairly quiet - you could climb up one level but the stairs to the top were closed off. It cost 50bhts to get in - good value! I enjoyed wandering around.

There was another temple next door which had more interesting tile work.

And of course a buddha! I didn't stay long as I wanted to get to the train station to see the lie of the land for tomorrow's big aventure!

I got the Orange Express boat back to Pier 4 - the Marine Harbour. It was very quiet of tourists here - more a local area.

I went via the Golden Buddha - at Wat Tramit (40bht). This is the biggest gold statue in the world. It was very impressive.

Outside were again the bells with the heart leaves! A lovely sound in the wind!

I then walked over to Hua Lamphong Station as tomorrow I am hoping to go to Ayutthaya and as it will involve an early start, I wanted to see how long the journey between the hotel and train station would take - about 50minutes (I had to wait for both trains).

After a rest and another humous and tortilla wrap, I made my way to the cookery school - May Kaidee's at the end of Khao San Road.

I had to take the ferry, then the Orange Express boat to Pier 13. I had been here on Friday but had completely missed that this was the young and hip area - full of bars and massage parlours!

It took me a while to find the cookery school. I had booked for a 2 hour express vegetarian course for 28 euros.

There were 5 others on the course - they were all lovely as was the teacher!

We learnt how to make red curry paste and Tom Yam paste as these form the basics of a lot of dishes.

Then we made Tom Yam soup..

Yummy!

Followed by an equally delicious penang curry!

Then the Thai classic of Pad Thai - I made the vegan version as I am not a big fan of eggs scrambled into food! You basically swap coconut milk for the egg.

By this stage I was stuffed as were some of the others so we got the pad thai put into bags! There was still dessert to come!

We were shown how to make mango sticky rice! One of the group had the job of boiling the coconut milk and sugar!

This was again fabulous! We managed to demolish the whole lot.

One of the group had to leave but the teacher continued to show us how to make a salad, spring rolls and pumpkin houmous. All delicious but I only ate a taster of each as I was completely full!

I left about 5.45pm! It had been a great afternoon and I would recommend it!

I walked down Khao San Road which was packed with bars (all prepared for the big football match ;) ) and places to have a massage as well as shops selling souvenirs.

I managed to find the pier and a boat soon arrived. There was a nice breeze on the river. Again I was lucky as a ferry was waiting and I just got in in time for the football!

I have got myself ready for tomorrow! Alarm will be set for 5.15am - am I really on holiday..?

I have finished off my pad thai - equally nice cold!

I have a type of plan for tomorrow - hopefully it will work out!