One Night In Bangkok

I wanted to slap Russell when he downloaded that song.  "One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster...." Now I cannot get that song out of my head and neither will you. Don't hate me.

But in a good way, it did help us anticipate and look forward to our vacation in Thailand, which we booked only a few weeks prior.

We did spend one night in Bankgok and it was our oyster.  What a dynamic, seedy, exotic, steamy city. The airport was amazing!  So modern and efficient.  There are more high-end retail stores than the South Coast Plaza and 5th Avenue.  It's crazy!  There's like 200 stores and only three places to eat.  A slight exaggeration but you get my point.  Clearly they want you to stop and shop, not stop and eat.  And what up with the gigantic billboards on everything that doesn't move?  It's an advertiser's paradise.  Someone should write a song about that.  Just take a look at these bad boys.

I agree driving a BMW is joyful (if it's an M series) 

Clearly a pick up ad from America given the Palm Springs back-drop.

I guess Thailand likes Palm Springs too?

It's hard to tell the scale from this picture but just imagine 

a ten story building laying on its side.   CRAZY!

It takes six hours to fly to Bangkok from Tokyo.  When I first moved to Tokyo I was excited about visiting all the places in the Orient.  I assumed it would be like Europe, and we could skip off to China, or Bali, or Thailand, like Europeans skip off to France, Switzerland or Austria, for the weekend.  But you know what happens when you assume.  You make an Ass out of U and Me.  So yeah, I'm an ass.  It takes a minimum of six hours to fly anywhere from Tokyo, except one part of China and Korea, both not high on my list. 

We flew in Saturday and got there around 5p.  We had less than 24 hours to experience Bangkok as our flight to Koh Samui was the next morning at 10am.   We decided to stay at the Four Seaons Bangkok.  The rate was actually reasonable and I could add another property to my list.  One of my goals, which Russell hates, is to visit every Four Seasons in the world.  Unless I come into a brobdingnagian fortune and never work again, it's pretty much impossible, but it's sure nice to try.

The Four Seasons was nice AND they upgraded us, which is even nicer.  Instead of one of the modern rooms in the tower they put us in a sweet, I mean suite.  We were expecting a view of the city in some high tech hotel room, but what we got was a tropical bungalow next to the pool complete with geckos.  I love geckos!  The weather was sultry, which is a romantic way of saying damn hot and humid.

Welcome note.  It says, "Please spend as much money as you can."

Actually it says, "Welcome back, please enjoy these chocolates."

The chocolates are made with a special ingredient that makes you spend money.

Our suite room looking out to the pool.

Looking from the bedroom into the foyer.

Yeah, our room had a foyer.

Hallway to the marble shower.

My bathtub.  I know, I'm infatuated with bathrooms,

especially bath tubs.

The view from the stairway leading into the lobby.

I want a set of dessert plates with this ceiling pattern.

The oh-so-sweet lobby with awesome, frothy, refreshing,
made-with-real-fruit, and lots of alcohol, drinks.

Our room rate came with dinner at the hotel and breakfast which made things easy.  We meandered through the lobby into the shopping area where the restaurants are.  How convenient.  We ate at the hotel's Thai restaurant called Spice Market.  Our dinner was pre-fixed.  Basically a cup of soup, a huge plate with five different Thai specialties, all the rice we could eat, and a gelatinous dessert.

She's hand carving fruit into art.

This really does taste as good as it looks!

Russell, "look at all the spices!"

The restaurant.

Me, "where's my drink?"

Oh, here they are!

The gelatinous dessert.  Russell liked it.

It was basically cherry chestnuts, coconut milk, gelatin and chunks of ice.

After dinner we decided to check out the only thing still open.  Patpong - which is the red light district of Bangkok and they have the largest night time shopping bazaar.  Oh, and it is.

The street's your oyster, or boy, or girl, or mango, or whatever.

The bazaar went on and on.

And the best part is you can haggle.  It's expected.

They triple the price.  You cut that in half.  They pretend it's not enough.
You start to walk away.

They accept and still make a 200% profit.

But you feel like you got a deal.

Happy soap carver.

The finished articles. 

They're awesome and they clean you up too.

Not everything was as clean.

There were semi nude girls dancing inside.

 

More of the collection.

There were stray pussies all over.

What??!!

Street walk shrine.

They had several fish spas.  

You know, where they eat all the dead skin off your feet.

What about the fat?

No dead skin fish for me.

Isn't my new Thai purse adorable?

So that was our one night in Bangkok, and then onto Koh Samui in the morning.