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Published: November 27th 2013
Bangkok…the first Asian city we ever visited and the gateway to a country which partially inspired our travelling and the life we now lead. We have been to Bangkok so many times, it feels a little bit like home every time we go there. We are a little late publishing this blog, but better late than never!
While we were browsing online looking for hotels in Bangkok, we noticed a well-known booking site which did mystery deals. Basically, you get a hint as to the location and facilities of the hotel but not the name. It’s a risk to book but being the Google fiends we are, we managed to narrow it down to two possible hotels. We took the plunge and for a princely 1500 baht (or £31) a night, we had booked the 4* Best Western..wow, this was luxury we weren’t used to! We rolled up to the hotel in our taxi from Don Mueang airport and promptly had the doors of the taxi opened by the doorman and two bellboys! We were allowed to check in at 10:30am, again, something which doesn’t normally happen and we were escorted to our room by a member of
staff. This is in contrast to most hotels just throwing a key at us and pointing towards the lift! Honestly, we were like kids in a sweet shop and spent a good half hour taking photos and videos – we had an ipod deck, a desk and chair, slippers and bathrobes in the cupboard, a huge comfy bed and everything!
The Best Western was on Sukhumvit soi 20, which, coincidentally was the soi we stayed on during our first visit in Bangkok and it prompted comparisons of the city between back then and now. Back then, the skytrain system had only been open for about 4 years so was relatively new and the area around soi 20 was quite undeveloped with not a lot going on around there. Now it has several large hotels, restaurants and is quite a busy area now with the fabulous Terminal 21 shopping centre within easy walking distance. This next thing is going to sound really stupid but one of the best things that has been built in this area is the walkway bridge over the huge Asoke and Sukhumvit crossroad/intersection …no more waiting for half an hour to cross
the 8 lane wide road or playing chicken dodging the cars and motorbikes - that road crossing used to fill us with dread!
We have already done a lot of the touristy sights in Bangkok, so when we are there now, we love to shop until we drop and get Donna’s hair cut and highlighted. On this visit we did shop a lot and headed to the Pratunam market area to browse and soak up that unique Bangkok atmosphere. Pratunam is a fantastic area of Bangkok, little market stalls, proper wholesale markets for clothes with food vendors squeezing their way though the narrow paths selling all sorts – fruit, little doughnuts (they looked delish but we didn’t buy any), iced coffee, freshly squeezed fruit juice, roasted nuts, pad thai – you name it! It prompted Donna to say she wished we hadn’t had breakfast, we should have just pigged out with the street vendors. The area was bustling and full of life and we had a fab time haggling for bits and bobs, drooling over the food vendors wares and generally observing the comings and goings.
There are several huge shopping centres in Bangkok
and we enjoyed looking around them as much as market shopping – between Central World, Siam Paragon, Siam Discovery Centre and of course, MBK we had our shopping time more than filled and each of these have food courts, our tummies were happy too especially with the MBK and Central World food courts!
Not for the first time, Bangkok made us wish we had bigger stomachs…we are pretty sure we used to be able to eat more than we can now! This is a huge problem for us because there is so much food available that we want to eat but can’t 😞. We did try and make the most of our eating opportunities and tried a few new places and we were pleased we did. We had fabulous penang curries, make your eyelids sweat spicy pad krapow (basil chilli), creamy green curry, the best fresh spring rolls stuffed with shrimp with extra spicy dipping sauce, chicken and cashew nuts…the list goes on and we are drooling thinking about the food. Although prices are on the increase it was all still quite cheap as well and when we felt hungry enough we completely stuffed our faces!
Erm...ok! Weird toilet sign
The most unique we have seen!Gradually with each visit to Bangkok we have seen it changing, from the buildings to the transport system to the types of tourists the city is attracting. The most noticeable change is the sudden numbers of Chinese tour buses parked outside the shopping centres. In the same manner as in Hong Kong, the Chinese can’t get enough of the designer stuff sold in the posh shops! Thailand is definitely one of the top destinations for Chinese tourists and shoppers! Back on our first visit to Bangkok, the tourists the city attracted were more lower-end backpacker types and in the in between years, with the explosion (it seems!) of higher end hotels and shopping centres, the tourism demographic seems to have changed. We kind of see it as a testament to how Bangkok has developed that it now attracts the types of tourists that we only used to see in Singapore and Hong Kong…erm, not to insult anyone, but the best way to describe it is the types of tourists who only go to ‘clean and orderly’ places.
One night we went out for a drink at a bar located on what we nickname the ‘Star
Wars Café’ road – oh the sights we saw! We had a couple of very entertaining beers sitting in an open fronted bar, people watching. It was hilarious watching lady boys preening, prancing and chasing guys - some of whom were getting very anxious! We also had fun watching a group of kids (well, late teens) street dance in the middle of the road…very entertaining, dangerous too with all the cars, buses, tuk tuks either narrowly missing them or driving around them! They had nerves of steel and were very talented, we did get some videos and it was fun to watch. We have added two of these videos below.
Throughout our time in Thailand this time around we noticed what impeccable manners the Thai’s have. On disembarking our plane in Don Mueang, we had a 5 minute stand-off (between our British manners and Thai manners), of the ‘after you’, ‘no, after you’, ‘please, after you’ dance. It actually made a welcome change to being rugby tackled out of the way that we normally experience on planes. We love the fact that Thais also queue in an orderly fashion, although they still won’t hold doors open for
you a common SE Asia fault which we are sadly picking up! 😉. It's nice to go to places which remind us of our manners and remind us that not everyone is rude!
Thailand will always be a special place for us and we are already planning our next trips there! Also, we have our travel anniversary of 7 years is coming up and we hope to publish a special blog for this momentous occasion!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Mystery deals
Sounds like you got a great price for the luxury. Sounds like Bangkok is a comfortable city and second home for you. Great street dancing. Have fun and travel safe.