Walking from Phleon Chit BTS to Asoke BTS

Oh, dearie me – I am so behind on my updates. By way of an explanation, well, I have been busy, knackered, engrossed in a book or just not in the mood to faff about on the laptop. But I shall attempt to do better, starting now!

I’ve sneaked out of bed a bit earlier than my recent usual time to make a start, and I have the kitchen/living room all to myself (bliss), so no distractions of people or telly – though I'd better get a move on before everyone else gets up. Our latest guests, A&A (our son and his girlfriend), have now joined us. Despite trying his best to get all his Uni assignments completed before leaving home, he was unable to do this (not his fault, he tells us, as it was a group project and needed a lot of work because one member did not do their bit properly), so he’s had two pieces of work to complete. One is now done, and the other needs to be submitted today (18th Dec). So, we are going to be leaving him to get on with this last part today, and R and I will be taking girlfriend A out with us.

However, back to what we have been getting up to recently…

After arriving at our new residence and revisiting One Bangkok, our next event was an early morning “cheerio” to S&R for a little while. They had booked a side trip to the beach resort of Phuket, Thailand, in the southwest of the country. I think S said it cost about £300 for the flight and hotel for a week, which is a great deal when you are so close by and able to take advantage of the cheap flights. That meant that R and I had a few days on our own before A&A arrived. What did we do, I hear you ask? Well, we explored our local area, of course 😊!

Koreatown

We thought we had a glimmer of hope when we spotted Koreatown.

Koreatown is described online as “a bustling enclave filled with Korean restaurants (especially K-BBQ), speciality shops for snacks and skincare, karaoke spots, and cultural experiences, serving as a hub for Korean expats and K-culture fans in a four-story building offering authentic Korean vibes in the heart of Bangkok.”

Sadly, in our experience, it was a rather dated and sad-looking little area. Perhaps it is busier and more vibrant in the evening, and I’m sure some of the restaurants are great, but we just didn’t get the vibe that we like, and we didn’t stay there very long.

After a hearty breakfast of scrambled egg on toast and fruit, we decided to head in the opposite direction to One Bangkok and check out the location of our closest BTS station (Phloen Chit), then walk left from there towards Asoke BTS to explore what was along this route.

To say we were quite disappointed was not an overstatement. There was not a lot to see or admire here. I think the main reason for this is that it was in the ‘Nana’ area, which is probably a very touristy area for single guys looking for a good time. There were cheap accommodations, bars and massage parlours, some old-style (i.e. dated) malls and ‘ladies’ trying to entice folks into their bars for a ‘good time’, I suspect. As much as R likes to inform me that I cramp his style and hence his ‘invitations’, from these ladies, I can assure you he would run a mile if approached and his minder wasn’t walking beside him.

We continued onwards, and once we hit the Asoke area, we thought we’d head into the Interchange foodcourt at the Interchange building for some lunch. Well, we know this place is a little gem as we accidentally discovered it last year, and if you read our blog back then, you may remember that we tried to go to this place on several occasions, but it was closed. Well, shock horror, guess what? Yes, it was closed yet AGAIN! We later learned that 10th December is Constitution Day in Thailand.

This is what the Interchange Food Court is like (if you ever get to go there, that is!):

Ok, so what now? We decided that we had been defeated and we started to walk back towards our home base, and that we would have lunch in the Central Embassy. I had my delicious wonton soup again, and R had a fried garlic noodle dish, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

I may have already added this in a previous blog, but if not, here is an example of what Central Embassy is like:

That was pretty much it for the day, and we headed back home, stopping off to buy a few groceries for the evening dinner and also our first Mixue of the holiday!

Books: I’ve finished the Kathy Burke book, and I have to say, I was surprised by how much work (acting, writing, directing, etc) she has done in her career, and yet all I really knew her from was her time in “Harry Enfield & Chums”, and I thought she was a comedian. She also had a hard upbringing as she lost her mother when she was very young, and her father was an alcoholic for most of his life, who was left to bring up her and her two brothers. She has done very well and yet remains so down-to-earth.

Day 16, 10 December 2025

Bangkok, Thailand