Marcy, Hong Kong has you in its clutches now! I, like you ,was seduced by HK years ago and am now a Hong Kong aholic. I can't give it up so just give in! Great report and cheers!

harmonique is not for everyone but i love the food and the bill is always a pleasing surprise....there is always lots of activity there and many ex-pats eating there which is a good sign in my book

anxious to read more about what you did in bkk...

Thanks for the nice comments.
I'm already scheming to figure out when we can get back to Southeast Asia!

Day 6, Bangkok:
We were still waking up early every morning, so we were at breakfast by 7AM. The breakfast buffet at the Oriental is wonderful, and we had a ringside seat along the river, where we were fascinated by watching all the boats coming and going.

Then we took the Chao Phraya express boat to the Grand Palace from the Oriental Pier near the hotel- It's a little tricky to figure out at first, as there are lots of boats stopping there, and you have to figure out which one to get on. There is a map of the routes, though, and each boat is marked with a flag on top to tell which route it is.

Taking the boat is a great way to see Bangkok from the river-- great people watching, too, and much cooler than on land. After you're on board someone comes around to collect the fare, and it's really cheap- 11 or 18 baht depending on the boat.

When you get off at the stop for the Grand Palace, you pass through a street market area, then run a gauntlet of souvenir vendors and tuk-tuk drivers before arriving at the entrance.

On our way to the entrance we were told by at least three different "helpful" people that it was closed today- one said it was closed for a special "Buddha Day" and wouldn't be open until the afternoon!

We just chuckled and walked on, having been well-warned about this scam, but I can see how people would be fooled if they didn't know better.

Just inside the entrance at the Grand Palace, we were approached by a man who asked if we needed a guide. He showed us his license, and he spoke English pretty well, so we hired him.

"The Captain" gave us an excellent 2 hour tour of the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. (the temple of the Emerald Buddha)
What a beautiful and fascinating place!
And definitely worth it to hire a guide.

Even the first thing in the morning it was sweltering hot, so we bought cold drinks at a nearby 7 Eleven, and also a SIM card for our cellphone, then took the Chao Phraya express boat back to the hotel to cool off a little.

We had a great lunch at the Gallery Cafe a short walk from the hotel. Pad Thai with prawns, fried morning glories, green papaya salad, and mango with sticky rice and coconut milk for dessert. With iced coffee, beer, and water it was about 1,000 baht.

I hadn't realized that the coffee in Thailand was so good! At home I'm hooked on Starbucks, and I was surprised to find Thai coffee to be every bit as good.

The second floor of the Gallery Cafe is a spa, with very inexpensive massages, so we came back later that afternoon for a Thai massage for John and a foot massage for me. 350 baht (about $9 US) each, for one hour. Heavenly!

Also that afternoon we went to O.P. Place for initial fittings for some custom-made clothes. I had two silk blouses with matching camisoles made at Cotton House, and John had two sportcoats made at Tramp. (the shop right next to Cotton House)

Our things turned out very well, and I regretted not having more things made. Next time!

That evening we enjoyed a drink in the lobby of the hotel, with a string quartet playing in the background. People watching at the Oriental is fascinating- it's a very international crowd, and very elegantly dressed, in general, although you see everything.

I see posts here all the time asking about the dress code at the Oriental. There is a sign posted at the entrance drive requesting no shorts or slippers/ sandals in the lobby after 6 PM. My interpretation of that is no flip-flops, and no sandals for men. Almost all of the women there wore dressy sandals in the evening, and that was certainly not a problem. In general, though, casual elegance seems to be the norm in the evenings.

That night we had reservations at the Supatra River House for dinner, and they sent a boat to pick us up.

It's very festive to ride on the river at night- beautiful views of the temples and the Grand Palace all covered with lights, and lots of dinner-cruise and party boats. All the grittiness of the city disappears at night, and it's replaced by a beautiful wonderland.

The Supatra River House is very pretty, and we had a table on the terrace, overlooking the river. After our appetizer course, everyone was escorted to a little outdoor stage area to see the traditional Thai dance performance. We were enjoying the performance immensely, when it was unexpectedly cut short by a sudden cloudburst. The rain stopped as quickly as it had started, but everything outdoors was drenched, and we all had to move indoors.

I felt sorry for the restaurant staff, because they had to move the entire crowd of people to indoor tables, trying to figure out where everyone had moved so they could bring them their orders!

We had a very nice dinner of spring rolls, pomelo salad, massaman curry, and pad thai. With wine, beer, water, and the boat trip it came to 1600 baht.

Since the weather had cleared up, we went next to the Sky Bar, the open-air bar at the top of the State Tower building, an easy walk from the hotel.

WOW! What an incredible view! Actually, it's not just the view, but the fact that you feel like you're floating above the city. Instead of railings there is just clear glass between you and the edge, and you feel like you could just walk off the edge of the building from the 64th floor! It's dizzying! Drinks there are expensive, but it's so worth it for the experience!

Glad to hear you liked the Gallery Cafe. Wec always stay at the ROS and eat often at the GC. The massages are also quite good and cheap.

now you know why we all love bkk...great report..keep it coming

Day 7, Bangkok:
Ratt picked us up promptly at 8:00 in the hotel lobby. We had hired Ratt for two days, and after reading posts on this board I was afraid that she would send somebody else, but she came herself, so I was relieved. Ratt is a delightful little dynamo, and we enjoyed our time with her. She speaks English pretty well, but with a heavy Thai accent, and John particularly had a terrible time understanding her. I had studied Thai for our trip, so she seemed to get a kick out of teaching me all sorts of helpful phrases, and quizzed me on my numbers- so sweet!

First we went to Wat Po- just beautiful, with it’s HUGE reclining Buddha, where we learned about “making merit,” and put coins in bowls for each of the many monks of the temple.

Next we went to the Jim Thompson house, and had lunch at the restaurant there- excellent food and iced coffee, reasonably priced. We enjoyed the tour of Jim Thompson’s house- that man had an incredible sense of style, and it was interesting to learn more about traditional Thai houses, too.

We browsed a little in the gift shop there, but decided to go to the JT Main store to do our shopping, for greater selection. We LOVED the Jim Thompson store! The things are expensive by Thai standards, but excellent quality. John bought three shirts and a tie. The cotton shirts there are SO soft and comfortable that after he bought them he wanted to wear them all the time.

Then we went to the Vinmanek mansion (the admission is included with your ticket to the Grand Palace), and walked around the beautiful grounds. We started the tour, but decided it was too long and tedious, and our time was limited, so we left.

Next we went to the Peninsula pier and Ratt arranged a klong tour for us for 700 baht for an hour and a half. I know that some people have bargained for lower prices than that, but we didn’t care enough to make an issue of it.

You see a different side of Bangkok from the klongs: more every-day life away from the tourist sites. There were shacks interspersed with nice houses, and kids swimming naked in the canal who would wave at us as we passed by.

We stopped at Wat Arun, and it was just magical! The sun was dropping low in the sky, so the light was muted, a breeze was blowing so that the bells hanging from the temples were tinkling, and there a tiny crescent moon visible above the temple. After a day of taking zillions of pictures, my camera battery picked that time to die, so we have no pictures at all of Wat Arun, but great memories of how beautiful it was.

I had told Ratt that I wanted to try local foods, so she had us stop at a vendor selling sweets, and we bought squares of coconut custard over sticky rice, and a coconut pumpkin dessert. The woman made a neat package of each by wrapping them in banana leaves secured with a toothpick. Delicious!

That night we had reservations at Bed Supper Club. Took a taxi there- no problem. We thought it was lots of fun- a mostly young crowd, excellent entertainment- very creative, and our dinner was very good.

great time in bkk...more??

Sorry I’m so slow, just posting this little bits at a time!

An aside: Last night, since we’re going through withdrawal, I tried making Pomelo salad at home. If I do say so myself, it was pretty good! We had to search a little to find pomelos, but now we know of two stores near us that carry them. I love that combination of fruit and spiciness.

Day 8, Bangkok:
This morning Ratt was supposed to pick us up at 6:30 to go to the floating market, and unfortunately she overslept and was almost 45 minutes late! She was very apologetic when she arrived.

The floating market is about a 1 1/2 hour drive outside of Bangkok. On the way we stopped at a place where they handpaint Bencharong pottery, and it was interesting to see the painstaking work that goes into it. The finished pieces were beautiful.

We really enjoyed the floating market. It is definitely a tourist destination, but for good reason. Interestingly, maybe because we were there on the weekend, a lot of the tourists were Thai. It was funny, because we had three different groups come up to us and ask to take our pictures! One group of Thais wanted to pose with us, especially my husband- could it have been the Tilley hat, or the goatee? Or were we just the stereotypical specimens of middle-aged American tourists, and therefore “picturesque”?

One of the things that we enjoyed at the market was sampling different foods. I know that not everybody here is willing to eat the food at the markets for fear of getting sick, but we decided to take the risk, although we did try to stick with things that had been freshly prepared. Neither of us experienced any stomach problems at all.

Ratt was really helpful in pointing out things to try- otherwise we might not have known what a lot of things were. At the floating market we had fried bananas, palm sugar candy with peanuts in it, bowls of spicy noodles, and sticky rice with mango. Ratt showed us how Thai people dip fresh fruit in a mixture of sugar, salt, and dried chilis. Thai food rarely has just one flavor, she said, but is a combination of different flavors, like sweet, salty, and spicy. I approve-- It was all delicious!

On the way back to Bangkok, we stopped at the craft place where they make carved teak furniture. It was fascinating to see all the work that goes into the teak carvings.

That afternoon we went to the Prasart museum- having made advance reservations a couple of days before. We were the only ones there with a wonderful young woman who spoke excellent English as our guide.

Mr. Prasart has an impressive collection of Asian art in a tranquil and beautiful setting, and we thought it was well worth the trip.

Ratt explained to us that she doesn’t like Mr. Prasart (basically he was rude to her in the past, and she thinks he’s an eccentric jerk!), but she was willing to take us there.

Next we stopped at the weekend market. WOW! What a huge, hectic, overwhelming place! A friend of mine had asked me to look for some silk for her to make curtains, and we found some that matched her fabric swatch almost exactly, for less than a third of the price that it would have cost at our local fabric outlet! So I came home with 30 yards of Thai silk in my bag- heavy, but more compact than I expected.

There were tons of tempting food stands! We enjoyed skewers of chicken and pork, and little balls of pork on a skewer with a spicy barbecue sauce.

There was so much to see at the market, but we’d already had a long day and I was tired, so we didn’t stay long, but we’d love to go back to the weekend market and spend more time there.

What better way to feel relaxed after a long day of sightseeing than a massage! So we went back to the spa above the Gallery Cafe. I opted for a warm oil massage, and John was going to have another Thai massage, but he had a different masseuse this time, and she told him that “old men walk funny” after Thai massages, so he let himself be talked into an oil massage, too! Between this and the Thais taking his picture, I don’t know whether his ego could take much more abuse in one day!

Our massages were very relaxing, but somewhat less discreet about draping than some places we’ve been, so I wouldn’t recommend this place for anyone who isn’t comfortable with some nudity.

Dinner that night was at the Thai restaurant at Face. We had a CRAZY taxi driver for our ride to the restaurant- our only bad taxi experience our whole trip. A short way into our ride he started coughing and almost retching, squirming all over his seat, putting wet rags on his head and neck, and driving erratically. I don’t know if he was sick, or on drugs or what!

Then I realized that he hadn’t turned the meter on, and I was kicking myself for not noticing earlier. Of course he swore the meter was broken, but surprisingly, he agreed a fare of 80 baht, so I thought that was pretty reasonable. We were relieved to get out of his taxi, though!

Our dinner at Face was good, but not outstanding: Pomelo salad, massaman beef curry, cashew chicken, and mango with sticky rice for dessert.

Thank goodness our taxi ride back to the hotel was uneventful!

Next, off to the Golden Triangle...........

Enjoying your report Marcy.

Welcome to the "Our Stomachs Can Handle Street Food" Club.

I too loved the fruit in dippy stuff.

We had a great pomelo salad in Chiang Mai that had bacon bits, basil, tomatoes and coriander. Did you try the papaya salad?

Man, I'm Jonesing for some of that stuff!

Ooh, yes, I loved the green papaya salad, too!!
And that Pomelo salad sounds interesting. I wish I'd paid more attention to what was actually in the pomelo salads that we liked so much.

I need to go back just for the food, if nothing else!

I love pomelo salad and often make it for parties. The classic recipe does not include things like bacon, basil etc.

Yes, this was not a classic version; that's why I mentioned it. It was wonderful.

Gloria, What do you put in your pomelo salad?
The one I made had pomelo, shrimp, and shredded coconut, with a dressing of Thai fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, coconut milk, red chilies, and cilantro. I garnished it with chopped peanuts, fried scallions and a little dried shrimp.

Marcy-- that's pretty much the recipe I use and it's the classic one. I sometimes put some shredded chicken in as well. I think my recipe is from the Oriental. If you can't find pomelo, pink grapefruit is a decent substitute.

did you like the prasart?? its a unique place really...

Yes, we liked the Prasart. I think he's a bit of a Jim Thompson wanna-be without the same sense of style, but he does have an amazing collection. I also think it's a nice respite from the hubbub of Bangkok, with it's peaceful gardens.

quite agree....he is odd...but pleasant...our guide referred to things as "pre and post" prasart...in other words he has altered things...