Bangkok by bike

It was worth getting up at 6am for a cycle through the back streets of Bangkok. Later would have been busier and hotter so our guide led us out at 7am and we experienced the sort of tour you could only have with local guides who have worked out routes and itineraries by trial and error over many years. We attempted narrow streets and alley ways, house gardens and back yards, flower and fruit markets, canal paths, dual carriageways (against the flow of traffic), large ferry boats and long tail passenger boats,  - all were conquered. Lunch was in a small restaurant in a hut beside a canal. There was about three times the quantity of food that we needed and the owner, who reminded me of a favourite granny, tried very hard to get us to finish it. There was not a chance that we could and she was almost in tears when we left.
We finished in the early afternoon and spent some time chilling in the heat of the pool on the roof of our hotel. Our last night in Bangkok so we started to explore the area around our hotel looking for a Pizza. We cut the search short when we realised how seedy the streets around the hotel were after it got dark and how much of the local tourist trade was tied up with the red light district which seemed to be all around us. It seemed strange that we hadn't noticed earlier what was going on on our doorstep, but you have to remember that as Scottish tourists we tend to wear rose tinted glasses rather than red ones. The bar next door to the hotel eventually provided our pizzas and we didn't have far to go to get home afterwards.