Jack's Bar

Old and new seen from the Sky Train

Crispy wontons in Jack's

We decided to use the Sky Train to get across to the Chao Phraya river, and the girls on the reception desk at Jim Thompson's House were helpful in showing us on the map how to find the nearest stop to the Thompson House.


The Sky Train is clean and fast, and has panoramic views across the city. It took about twenty minutes to take us to Sathorn (central) pier, but before taking the ferry we decided to look for Jack's Bar. Jack's was just as described in the guidebooks, laid back, right on the river, and not particularly expensive.

Campervan owners Lisa and Barry 

We ordered crispy wontons and soft drinks, and fell into conversation with Anton, a lovely chap who hailed from Melton Mowbray but who lives and teaches in Bangkok. While we were chatting an English woman came over and asked if we had a 'long boat'. It turned out the she and her husband  (Lisa and Barry) have a camper van, and they remembered meeting us somewhere in England. We remembered them very well, but neither side could remember whether we met on a towpath or canal, or in a pub!



We got on so well with Anton (left), that we progressed to Leo beers and three hours passed very quickly as we talked about each others' life experiences. He went off to find the nearest ATM and we went off to find the pier to get the ferry back to our guesthouse.

John leaving Jack's Bar

As Anton left, he spotted some of the bar staff hosing down the area behind the buildings, and cheekily persuaded them to clean his motorbike too!









A couple of days earlier, when we were wandering around the Samsen Road area, Christian had introduced us to Carlo, a Venetian who has 'La Rivetta' restaurant with rooms above. We had liked the look of the rooms and so had reserved one for our last two nights in Thailand. After getting back to Bella Bella from Jack's Bar, we went to our room for a rest and then went out to make sure we could find 'La Rivetta' again. Carlo greeted us and when I said that we were trying to decide where to eat, he suggested a favourite place of his own.

Carlo told us it is opposite Wat Bowonniwetwiharn Ratchaworawiharn (known as Wat Bowon) and that the cuisine is Chinese Thai. We found a restaurant in the area he described, but the name was only written in Thai — หจก. ข้าวต้มบวร 
When we asked the waiters, they showed us something written in English which had translated as 'Khao Bowon' so we were fairly sure that we had found the right place.


The food was every bit as good as Carlo described. Our meal included salted egg yolk salad and pork dumplings, and we finished with unusual ice cream flavoured with Thai fruit.
Bowon photos in this album