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Published: January 15th 2008
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We spent our last 4 days in Bangkok. Given the city is pretty frantic, we all agreed we should have some type of sanctuary (and a good pool) so we booked a room at the Swissotel Nei Lert Park for our last nights. Note: 5 star and good deal on Expedia. Hello! There is a large pool set amongst huge gardens - very nice.
We did a day of shopping at MBK mall which has seven floors and sells anything from purses to electronics - you can barter for everything.
As a whole, you can buy pretty much anything in Bangkok, in fact, the whole city is like one big market. Anything from clothes, croaking frogs from the hill tribe people to stun guns, you can find it here. For sure a shoppers paradise.
We bought ringside seats to take in Muay Thai Boxing. Just as we were leaving we got a call from concierge notifying us that as the King' sister had passed away recently, everything was shut down/cancelled for the next two weeks. This meant boxing along with the Grand Palace that we had planned to visit the next day were going to be closed and
unavailable for us to see (as we were heading back home on Friday). Hmmm well there was always the floating market - great photo ops. Instead we decided to get another fitting for the custom made clothing and go to Sirocco for an evening out. This restaurant is one of the best in Bangkok and sits on the 63rd floor of the state tower that has amazing and panoramic city views, complete with a jazz band. The ambience was amazing and the food delicious...until 2 AM when Mike became violently ill and was bed ridden until late the next evening. Poor Mike.
The next day Danielle, Ryan and I worked on our tans by the pool reading books so we could be close to check in on Mike. Was good to relax. We headed down to Khao San Road for some last minute shopping and then ordered in some food. Mike was starting to feel on the mend but was pretty weak. We decided to pass on the floating market as it was a full on day from 7 AM to 5 PM and as this was our last day, and Mike was still iffy. Besides -sitting by the
pool was nice - so we did exactly that. Danielle and I went to Central World to finish last minute shopping for Xmas gifts but it essentially was like a high end mall in Canada. That night we enjoyed supper at the hotel and finished up at the bar called 'Syn' that looks like something just out of Star Trek. They have a mini band playing there that does Karaoke as well. Mike sang 'champagne supernova' and ‘superstitious' - by Elvis, and Danielle, Ryan and I sang happy birthday to him. We met an American name Peter who was in the bar as his girlfriend was ticked at him. She ended up joining us later and but after too many hurricanes he went up to sing a song to 'win back my girlfriend - she is the one over there with the white face’. Oohhh this was going to be good. He had already butt his cigarettes out in the peanuts and spat in Ryan’s face while talking for half the night. Apparently he wanted Billie Jean but they couldn’t find it so he decided to sing Beat It (and could only sing the chorus while pointing at his girlfriend.
What a romantic and her face said it all. Once done he did a little comic interlude calling a business guy by the bar Sinead O’Connor and so forth. He also made sure to tell the two Thai singers that they were so hot multiple times….and this was only their first day of vacation. Yeesh - but hilarious for us to watch.
We hit the sack at 1 AM to get up at 4:30 and catch our first flight to Hong Kong, then onto Van, and homeward bound.
Cannot believe the month is over already. What a great trip. Some of the highlights:
1. Best shopping - Chiang Mai Night Bazaar
2. Best deals - Khao San - depending on what you are looking for.
3. Best beach - White Beach, Boracay
4. Best cultural interest - Chiang Mai Hill Tribes
5. Best animal - the Tarsier of course in Bohol - they are like a mini Ewok!
6. Best adventure - renting motorbikes and cruising Koh Phangan island
Rule for Thailand driving
1. There are no rules - it is perfectly fine to drive on the other side of the street against oncoming traffic.
2. Honk
is you want to pass, or you want the person in front you to go faster, or to express frustration, or just to say “I’m right here’.
3. Honk a lot if you really mad.
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Jodi
non-member comment
It was so much fun reading all of this, Megan! Thanks for sharing.