Friday morning when Tod and I were driving down to Bangkhonthiinai, we saw a gorgeous sunrise as we drove over the Rama IX bridge.  The sun was coming up over the new mega-bridge project near Phra Phadang and with the hazy sky the colors were amazing.

This got me to thinking that there was probably some waterfront access along the river under the bridge, maybe at a local wat, and that it would be nice to go back and take some pictures.  So I resolved to get up early one morning this weekend and go on a photo hunt.

Surprisingly, Tawn was game and so we awoke at six Sunday morning, bundled into the car pre-coffee, and headed off on the miraculously traffic-free tollway.  After crossing the bridge we took the first exit and turned on intuitive navigation mode.  Eventually we were able to find the main road that parallels the river and as we crossed under the bridge, discovered that there is actually a public park there.

Rather cleverly, to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s credit, this park places soccer pitches, basketball and badminton courts in the large expanses between the towering bridge pillars.  This gives local people a place to play and makes good use of otherwise uninhabitable space.  There is a outdoor gym facility and a one-kilometer path for running, jogging and walking.

Best of all, there is direct access to the river, although not a very wide stretch of it.  A small pier juts out a little ways into the river and provides a really nice view.  As the park came to life with dozens of health-conscious denizens of Khrungthep and as Tawn dozed on a bench, I snapped a few hundred exposures.  I wasn’t the only one; there were three other photographers, one of whom had much more advanced equipment.

The air wasn’t as hazy as on Friday, perhaps thanks to one weekend day of less traffic, so the colors weren’t as brilliant.  Still, it was a spectacular sunrise.

The rest of Sunday was a baking day: biscotti for Tawn’s mother and croissants for us.  The croissants were a disaster.  Unlike the first batch I made two weekends ago, the dough this time never really came together and formed the strong, elastic proteins necessary to create really flaky croissants.  Instead, they were super crumbly, to the point of disintegrating when they were handled.  Very disappointing.  I’ll have to investigate the possible causes and try again.  The biscotti, however, were a success.  Blanching and peeling almonds is a laborious process, though!