Brown suede shoes

Patrik and Elisabet, a Swedish couple whom we met in Hanoi, popped by Bangkok this weekend. As a "grande finale" of Saturday night we headed for the magnificent view of the “60-storey-something" roof top-bar at State Tower. But the whole group was halted by an elevator guard: "No flip-flops allowed", she proclaimed, pointing at one of us.

After running down a soi, looking for a late night open shoe shop (yeah right...), and a lot of head scratching at the side walk we heard the sound of two suede loafers, size 45, hitting the asphalt.

"Now you go up", a Thai man said and smiled at us. We all dropped our jaws.

Apparently he had overheard our conversation and - in some magical way - hauled out a pair of shoes out of nowhere. Correct size and all.

And up we went! I knew this was a huge city, but seeing it from above made things even more impressive.

The torch was here

A happy torch tour of Bangkok on Saturday 19th. No major protests. I wonder why.

The Vietnam escape

Mina, Minna and I escaped the “soak all the westerners with plenty of ice cold water-tradition” of Bangkok, also known as Songkran or the Thai new year.

Instead a low budget airliner took us to the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi: Great food (Mina and Minna indulged in the art of ordering food across language border, see photos), museums (where my dear travelling companions took a well earned rest in the Ede longhouse at the Museum of Ethnology), some shopping and a breathtaking boat tour watching the lime stone cliffs and a fantastic stalactite cave in Halong Bay, one of Unesco´s World Heritage sites.