After a few days in the relative luxury of the Suriwongse Hotel I embark upon a search for cheaper accommodation. A friend takes me to a hotel near the river, where the rooms are cheap and well equipped, but I dislike the proprietors on site so continue my search. In the foyer of another establishment I'm fascinated to find a nineteen forties manual telephone system, which is in regular use, and a pendulum clock which chimes reliably every hour, at eighteen to the hour.

I finally find accommodation at a guesthouse closer to my chosen stamping ground. 'Noi House', in Loi Kroh road provides me with a serviced room, double bed, a fan, and a small alcove containing toilet and shower. It's hardly flash but all I need, as most of my time is spent out and about in the bars and cafes of the area. My room is up several flights of treacherous stairs behind an adjoining restaurant and a silk shop and above a sewing room in which is produced product for the shop.

The proprietor and staff prove to be lovely people. Their success revolves around their ability to treat the guests as if they are all part of one giant family and later, even when I move on from their establishment, we remain firm friends. Proof of the small world theory comes into being when one of my fellow residents turns out to be a friend of my mum's neighbours. It seems you just can't get away from New Zealanders anywhere.

Said gentleman is from Auckland, played guitar in his youth and can still remember stuff that I don't know how to play. Another guest is Irish but lives in China and plays whistles and Irish flute. Another, an Israeli, knows snippets of all the trendy party songs. I've forgotten all my party songs, don't know any Irish songs, but we all manage to hack away. Such is an evening spent at the guesthouse.

Another guest, from Manchester, plays nothing but is vocal in his approval until the rest of us break for sleep. He subsequently finishes his bottle of Sangsom whiskey, somehow smashes one of the guesthouse motorbikes, and departs, destroying part of the fence on his way. (This information I glean in the morning.)