The dirty smelly city I have come to love

Ahhh… the wonderful city of Bangkok, dirty, smelly, ugly, but at the same time rather enjoyable when you are being put up at the ever so luxurious Novotel Hotel. And yes, we got house coats, and a beautiful swimming pool, that was clean (not something we have seen on this trip!). After posting our last blog, we headed into the lobby of the hotel, thinking, this is pretty posh, I am going to sit on the sofa and read my book, and enjoy the clean carpet, aircon, and the fact that no one is asking me if I would like a tuck-tuck or a suit. As soon as we came out, Aunty Cindy was sitting in the lobby checking in, she was 3 hours early! We made our way over and surprised her, and was it ever nice to see her. She was quick to escort us up to her luxurious hotel room and tell us to get changed because we were going out. We headed to a mall across the street from the hotel, and I felt a little out of place in my nasty clothes that I have been wearing for the past 4 months, and window shopping in stores such as Louis Vuitton, Prada and a lot more that I didn’t even bother to look in, knowing there is no way in hell that I could afford anything in any of the stores. We left the gigantic mall, and headed to the Hard Rock Café Bangkok for a drink. I wanted to show Aunty Cindy the “real Thailand”, so we jumped into a taxi to head to Koh San Road (although this is not the real Thailand, it is the real, smelly, dirty Bangkok that I have grown to love so much). We had a make a pit stop at a tailor shop on the way to Koh San Road, so our driver could get free gas… ok, WELCOME TO THAILAND AUNTY CINDY! We finally got out of the tailor shop and made our way to the strip. We walked around for a bit, had dinner, and then said good night to my aunt. Koren and I had planned to meet up with some friends, it didn’t end up happening, and we spent our Friday night, perched on stools outside of 7/11 people watching and commenting on the fashion disasters of Koh San Road.

Saturday we spent maxin’ and relaxin’ in the Novotel. Aunty Cindy was working, so we took full advantage of the room, air-conditioning, a shower that was separate from the toilet, hot water, and the swimming pool. We had a wonderful day of doing nothing. My aunt could not believe that we just wanted to stay inside, but this place is the nicest thing we have seen the entire trip, and we wanted to enjoy every moment. Koren and I again headed to Koh San Road for dinner. Tonight’s menu: Pad Thai (15baut- $0.45), Spring Rolls (3 for 25baut- $0.75) and 2 pints of Singha Beer (40baut- $1.10)…. What people don’t understand is, that the best food in Thailand comes from the Vendors on the streets, it is fast, clean, and by far the tastiest Thai food you will ever eat.

Sunday morning we got up and were treated to the ultimate breakfast buffet. Ummm… the even had waffles! WOW! Then we got showered and dressed and headed to the Bangkok sky train. I felt like I was back in Singapore. The train was so clean, and pretty, nothing I would have ever expected to see in Bangkok. We are staying right in Siam Square, and this place doesn’t feel like Bangkok, it feels like Star Wars, with the sky train, the huge buildings and the elevated roads. We took the sky train to the weekend market. I didn’t think I would ever say it, but I am kinda sick of markets, it is the same crap stall after stall after stall…. At first it was so exciting, but now, not so much, especially since the vendors in Bangkok don’t bargain… the jerks! Anyways, we did have a good time at the market, and come out with a couple little things (nothing extravagant) and headed back to the hotel, since Aunty Cindy was going for her first Thai Massage, and Koren and I, well yes, we stayed in the room and watched Grey’s Anatomy. Once she returned from dinner we took her and her colleague Daryl for dinner to a restaurant we had heard a lot about called Cabbages and Condoms. It was a good dinner, but the atmosphere was hilarious, and instead of after dinner mints, you get condoms. Aunty Cindy went home, and Koren, Daryl and myself decided to hit up the Hard Rock Café for a night on the town. There was a great band playing. At first I wasn’t so impressed, but the more Singha that went into my body, the better they sounded, and I quickly realized they were AWESOME. We danced the night away, finally making it back to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning, knowing that we had to be up to be “serious tourists” at 8am.

Well, 8am came very quickly, as did my headache! We were picked up by our driver (yes, very very posh, we had a driver for the day) and were taken to the Grand Palace. It was really pretty. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it was pretty cool. There was a big gold pagoda (like the one we saw in Laos), lots of little temples (like we saw in China), and lots of people (like we have seen everywhere). Aunty Cindy was the ultimate tourist and rented an audio guide and filled us in about everything we were seeing… thank you Aunty Cindy, I would have never known, that apparently there are 2 of the Buddah’s bones in this shrine, or the ashes of the Royal Family in that shrine! We spent about 3 hours wandering around the Palace before retreating back to the hotel, since Aunty Cindy and Daryl were heading to Pataya for the night. Koren and I once again headed back to Koh San Road to meet up with Nomi and Jamie who have just returned to Thailand from India (we met up with them 3 months ago in Bangkok). We went for a delicious Israeli dinner (I was sick of Thai food and needed a change) and then parted ways and headed back to the hotel, for our last night in luxury.

That was the longest we have ever spent in Bangkok, and I can’t believe we lasted 5 days. WOW! But now we have done all the touristy stuff, and don’t need to spend any prolonged amount of time in Bangkok for the remainder of the trip, which makes me very very happy.

That’s it for now, there are pictures form Bangkok posted on the Koh Phi Phi entry.