ABC Afternoon Tour

The afternoon in Bangkok has its own personality. Quieter than the morning rush, warmer, unhurried. We like cycling in it. The Afternoon Tour follows a route designed to take you off the main roads and into the Bangkok that exists behind them. Traditional neighborhoods, a historic wooden walkway over the water, communities built alongside railway tracks and under elevated highways that have created a kind of accidental urban poetry. Your guide knows these streets. Not just the route, but the people, the history, the small details that turn a bike ride into something you will still be talking about next week. There is always something to point out, something to explain, something worth stopping for. A ferry takes us across the Chao Phraya to the green lung, Bangkok's leafy counterweight to all that concrete. Traditional plantations, elevated paths, wildlife if you are paying attention. We stop here for a cold drink and a snack in the kind of setting that makes you forget you are inside one of Asia's biggest cities. The return is by boat, with the skyline doing what Bangkok skylines do best in the late afternoon light. Then a comfortable ride back to the ABC office, right around the time the city is thinking about dinner. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.