Jen’s fascination for markets came to the fore again as she suggested that a really interesting thing for us to do on our last day in BKK would be to visit the flower market . Accordingly, we stashed our packed bags in the office of the company taking us by bus and ferry to our next destination, Koh Nang Yuan, and set out armed with only an approximate phonetic version of the market’s name, a vague idea of its location, a highly inaccurate map and a desire to use the river boats. We confidently took the correct boat but, as we have mentioned before, it unaccountedly decided not to stop at our stop after all. We therefore had to stay on to a later stop and walk back.

Unfortunately this led into a vast vegetable market which immediately captured Jen’s attention and we therefore took the opportunity to look at the vast range of stalls all largely selling the same range of vegetables. It was notable this time, however, that one or two stalls were actually offering potatoes, the first we have seen in Thailand (and then only a few). Jen was also captivated by the huge numbers of cats taking the opportunities to sleep on any surface anywhere . She took an awful lot of pictures of these but I have viciously edited them as I think sleeping cats are actually quite common, even in UK, and nobody reading this blog is likely to be as fascinated by ‘cats (sleeping)’ as she evidently is.

After a while we continued to seek the flower market, having a number of goes at grappling with the map, the irregular street signage and the ‘useful’ help of local people (primarily hoping to get a commission from sending you on a city tour with a tuktuk driver). BTW: it was here that we discovered a Thai fascination for writing on our map. It’s a bit like everyone in BKK has a biro - but no paper to make any marks on. Our map at last gives them the perfect opportunity to draw circles and arrows and write odd English words in scrawly writing, effectively obliterating the original partial but at least vaguely accurate printed information.

By luck rather than judgement, we stumbled upon a few flower stalls but these were too minor to constitute what had been described as a whole flower district . Then we turned a corner and two things were apparent; firstly the flower market was clearly here and secondly this was actually where we had originally entered the vegetable market. Obviously, we had missed the flower market altogether and by entering the veg market we had turned a right angle away from it. It had taken us a good couple of hours to walk in a (very approximate) circle to get back to where we had first got off the boat!

The flower market stalls fill a number of streets and passages, showing a really colourful array of blooms, many of which we rarely if ever see in Britain. However, the chief focus of these flowers is almost exclusively devotional, nearly all the arrangements rigidly follow a small range of different patterns and are fashioned to be placed at the feet of Buddha images, not put out in vases to beautify homes. Presumably bigger displays indicate that you are more holy (or have more that you need some salvation for). Incidentally, we have seen the equivalent of garden centres around selling plants of various sizes and pots, often but not always out of the main towns . Many Thai people make a point of having small groups of shrubs in pots around their houses or shops that they seem to tend very carefully. Also it is quite common to find a pot filled with water and holding a few lotus or water lily plants. These seem to have a cooling and (dare I say it without sounding too much like a hippy?) a calming effect as you go down the busy streets.

Having left the flower market we made our way northwards towards our hotel area covering ground that is beginning to feel quite familiar now. We walked towards a very large park (in the middle of which, several years ago, we were caught in a massive thunderstorm with no umbrellas. We were therefore literally soaked to the skin at the end of our very last day in BKK, necessitating a hasty trip to Khao San Road to buy cheap but dry clothes to travel home in!) As we approached the park this time we became aware of flashing police lights and groups of police with full riot gear assembling at intervals around the park . Jen (like young Albert, ‘showing not a morsel of fear’) promptly took out our camera and began to take photos of them. I was more wary and suggested that if a riot was going to be actively suppressed by the police, they probably wouldn’t be too keen on amateur photographers recording all the details. However, there seemed little real tension and the police were largely carrying the sort of pointless manoeuvres that they are often forced to do in such circumstances; falling in, marching somewhere else, gathering closer together and then spreading out, facing into the park and facing out, standing still for a bit then dispersing to lounge about having a drink and smoke.

The root of all this activity appeared to be some sort of festival with singers on stage and surrounded by stalls selling food and drink. We soon realised that many stalls were also selling clothing, almost all which was red. We then realised that almost everyone at the ‘festival’ was wearing red as well and the memory of the troubles before we came away, involving the red and yellow shirts, came flooding back! We couldn’t remember which side was which (and we’re not sure that we’d understand the full complexity anyway) However, many of the red shirts had slogans about freedom and democracy so we like to think that we may have been with the good guys. We hung around for a while before heading back, no riots after all and we got back to catch the overnight bus to Chumphon. We will then take a ferry to Koh Nang Yuan, described by everyone as extremely beautiful and having a large number of top rated dive sites extremely close!