I was very lucky, in Xian I had a wonderful trip to the Terracotta Warriors. It was an organised day trip from the youth hostel there and five of us went on it, a man from Australia who knew a lot about Chinese history and who could afford to travel to China regularly on his pension, two young female travellers, one from Sweden, and one from Thailand and of course me. I did not keep in touch with any of them except for the woman in Thailand and because I did not really know her or expert to visit Thailand I did not follow up on the limited contact we had. Despite this when I let her know I was coming into Bangkok she kindly arranged to meet up with her and had a lovely late afternoon with her. She said that since the pandemic she hasn't been anywhere - not even into the centre of Bangkok, so my visit had motivated her. We mostly pottered but found the local temple had a food festival and film stars visiting, sat in the park and talked about the Monarchy - we stood when the time came for the National Anthem - and about the upcoming election and about her new work teaching Chinese online to Thais. It was very kind of her to help me learn more about her country.
The following day I took it easy, knowing that in the evening I would be heading for the mountain. Bangkok is very very flat, expect for a mound with of course a temple on the top. There was a ceremony made even more atmospheric by the wind whipping round the site and the chanting of the followers and on the way down the heavens opened. As I sheltered a kindly monk gave me a cheap coverall poncho which was also invaluable at the of the holiday. Rain was often forecast and when it came it was very very heavy, but luckily it eased off and encased in pink plastic I made it back to the hotel.
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