We arrived late last night and got checked into a very lovely apartment at the Omni Tower on soi 4. This is the same place where I have stayed the last couple of times here. I do enjoy the location even though it is a bit of a walk to the skytrain station at Nana.

Have not yet gotten a new SIM card for my phone at MBK but will do that today. I bought my own GSM phone my last time here and have used it in Europe as well. It's so easy to get a new SIM card and new phone number each time. Then you just buy your calling minutes. We think it's a good deal.

The view from the 30th floor at Omni is really awesome. I can see the Banyan Tree, the Conrad, the Plaza Athenee, the Baiyoke Tower, the Majestic Grande, and the JW Marriott, plus other landmarks I can't identify. I will post pictures on my web site at cjscollection so everyone can see our view and our apartment. We have two small balconies in our huge bedroom. One wall is almost all glass and the view is gorgeous!! The kitchen and bath are both small but very serviceable. The livingroom is a nice size as well. The furniture is comfortable.

Made a quick trip to the Brunswick after hanging up my hanger clothes last night. DH wanted to go to sleep, but I went with Brad and friend to say hello to Ming. Yesterday was her birthday!! I did not know that ahead of time. Lucky for me, I came prepared. I gave her two boxes of chocolates. Always a big hit here.

I'm going to have some breakfast, do a little shopping in the mini-mart in the lobby here at Omni, and then head out. I've seen a few old friends already. One friend is getting married on Saturday. He is Danish and his future bride is a lovely Thai-Chinese girl. I am very happy for both of them. I look forward to meeting both of their families while we are here.

I was late leaving Chicago on my flight to NRT on UA, and had only about 15 minutes to get to my NRT to BKK flight. I thought for sure my roomy exit row seat would be given away. Yes, it was!!! But the good news is, they offered me business class instead. I had not slept much at all in economy from ORD to NRT and was feeling pretty pooped, but once I stretched out in that business class seat, I slept like a baby. The lights really "went out!!!" and it felt great. So I woke up this morning about 7, and will probably crash this afternoon... we'll see.

Anyway, Bangkok... here I am once again!!! I'll be reporting often so stayed tuned.

Carol

Glad you made it safely, Carol. Too bad we weren't there at the same time. It would have been great seeing you again. Tell your Danish friend,"Tilykke!". What part of Danmark is he from? I've lived there. Happy Travels!

bingo---i was thinking it was about time for a carol fix!!!

don't forget....we want new and fabulous restaurants.....also want to hear about bango or bago.....the new shopping center you spoke of last fall...

i have the loy krathang date....the peninsula sent it to me...they asked how you are by the way....hahaha

hello to brad and dh....

bob

Glad you're safe and sound in Bangkok - I wish I was there! We're all awaiting your reports.

Guenmai,
Our Danish friend is from Hillerod. I don't think that is the proper spelling?

Its great to have Mom & Dad here.

We just got back from shopping for a few groceries at the new Siam Paragon food market. Wow!!! It was totally amazing!! We had a pretty full cart, with fresh fruit, cereal, coffee, some produce, etc. A nice touch was the boy who bagged our groceries walked the cart out to the taxi stand for us!! We gave him a tip, of course, but how's that for service.

There is a cigar room at the food market. You can buy your cubans there and smoke them. I guess the place is not busy at all. Nobody knows it's there yet (now they will... ha ha ha). There is quite a nice liquor department there as well. We picked out some bottles of wine (3) only to find out that unless you are buying about 15 bottles, you cannot buy them before 5 pm. What sort of liquor law is that!!! So we put them back on the shelf and will wait until the appropriate time of day to buy them. To get to the cigar room, you have to go into the liquor department and then go upstairs.

We are paying cash for our apartment. It saves us a 3% charge if we do it that way instead of using the credit card option. We exchanged currency at a rate of 39.5, which is not quite the rate I got a few months ago when I was here. The price for the apartment is 3100 baht per night. Take a look at pictures of room 3012 at my web site, cjscollection. On the left side of the home page there is a link to Photo Galleries. Click on the "Asia" album.

There is a surprise birthday party for the groom-to-be at about 7 tonight so that doesn't leave us much room to do any serious restaurant sampling. That will have to come in the future days.

I'll be in touch...

Carol



Believe it or not, we ran into 8 people with "connections" to our home town. A family of four, who came to Thailand on our recommendation a few years ago, are here for their 4th time. Then a young couple who are teaching English in China (the girl is from the same town as the family of 4) and two other people. What a small world. We had no idea they would be here at this particular time. Turns out, we were on the same UA flight last night!!

Carol, glad to hear you made it safe and sound back to BKK. I can't believe how often you go there. Can you adopt me? ;-)

Brad...I've been to Hillerod many times. You spelled it as correctly as possible as Danish has three extra letters in its alphabet that aren't found on a non-Danish keyboard. Happy Travels!

Carol...Yes, the market at Paragon is VERY nice. The same market is in the Emporium Mall, but just on a smaller scale. I was in the Paragon one for a long time and got some groceries and thank goodness the skytrain is right there and when I got off at Prom Phong station I was right at the apartment, so I didn't have to slep groceries very far at all...from one sky train station to the next. Happy Travels!

Carol- Did you buy your GSM phone at MBK? If you don't mind me asking, what kind did you buy and how much was it? I am thinking of buying a phone when I get to BKK, but how do you know which one to buy?

carol, great pics. are the rooms larger at the omni than the grand pres., and is the distance the same to the nana bts? don't forget to try ming's garlic shrimp.

Hello everyone, once again, from a delightful and sunny Bangkok!!

kuranosuke... thanks for the reminder about Ming's garlic shrimp. I shall try to remember that. I spent a lot of time with her last night as we were at the same birthday party, for our Danish friend who is getting married tomorrow morning. He celebrated his birthday last night and it was a fun party. Imagine a birthday and a wedding and only one day apart. Maybe of his Danish relatives are in town, and I must say they are an interesting and energetic group of nice folks!! Big Vikings, one and all!!!

Re: the apartment. I'd say that THIS apartment that we have now is larger than what we had a Grand President, yes. But some of the apartments here at Omni are quite a bit smaller. It's all in the luck of the draw. We rented from Syncate Company Limited, which has an office on the main floor here. We have rented from "the girls in the basement" as we call them, but maybe they are not so reliable. This new rental company seems right on top of things. Our Danish friend who lives here in an apartment said that Paul at Syncate is very reliable, so we are renting from him. This is what Paul calls a "one bedroom premier" apartment. The cost is about &75 per night at 3100 baht. We get maid service everyday. Can't beat it!! The apartment number is 3012, if you want to rent it sometime. The double balcony off the bedroom has the best view of Bangkok (NO, not the river...).

As far as walking to the skytrain, it is just a little bit farther from here to Nana than it was from the Grand President. I take soi 6 and not soi 4. I don't need to walk down Nana with all the bars and such, so I take what appears to be an alley, but you have to watch out for the car and motorcycle traffic as you are walking along.

feargal... I bought my phone at MBK. There are tons and tons of phones there, some are used and some are new. I bought a new one. It's a very common type Nokia. It doesn't take photos or have all of the fancy gadgets. I just wanted something that I could use to stay in touch with folks here. But I can also use it in Europe when we travel there, twice a year. All I need to do is buy a new SIM card each time. I bought my new SIM card at MBK yesterday and also bought calling minutes, all for 300 baht. The phone itself was about 6000 baht, new. I think I've had it for a year. You can buy used for less. You will be absolutely blown away by the choices you have in phones at MBK!! It is all up to you, which features you are wanting. If you go to the 4th floor at MBK you will be able to walk around and have a zillion choices! It is impossible to just pick ONE.. so it's like saying "eenie meanie miney mo.." and then just stop and say, "I want to get a phone." I happen to go with "1, 2 Go" phone service this time. So did my husband. He also got his new SIM card yesterday. His phone is one that isn't yet available in the USA. A Swedish friend has one and my DH fell in love with it. It's like a mini-computer in a phone, with a keyboard and screen on the inside. It's the Nokia 9300. We were looking for them here in BKK yesterday but did not see them at MBK. They might have them at Pantip though. Anyway, DH bought his 300 baht SIM card and minutes, and he used up a BUNCH of his minutes by surfing on the internet on his phone. It costs a lot of money to do that. I can get by cheap because I only use my phone for making and receiving calls. lol ha ha ha

guenmai... I bought the best tasting fresh watermelon at the market at Paragon. I ate a lot of it for b'fast this morning. I'm going to Central Chitlom and maybe back to Paragon to look for something special to wear to the wedding parties tomorrow night. I hope I can find something to my liking. I know how hard it is for "Westerners" to find things that fit here, although I've had good luck at Central.

Gloria, if you're out there this morning, I'll be calling you at the Oriental sometime this afternoon. If I read correctly, you will be coming home from Rangoon sometime today. I'll wait and call the Oriental later so that you have time to get settled in once again. Looking forward to a glass of wine with you and your friend if she cares to come along. Hope she is finally feeling 100% after her illness. Maybe we can just meet up at the Oriental. That might be the handiest thing to do. I've not been down to the river yet, so that would give me an excuse to do so.

bob... your name came up last night. Brad was trying to explain about "The Dome" restaurant. He said you thought it was Sirocco. It definitely is not Sirocco. It's inside, upstairs on the second level of the dome. We are going to eat there some night. It won't be right away though, as we are busy with the wedding tomorrow and preparations, shopping, etc. and Brad is off with the wedding party to the beach that he reported about the other day here on fodors. I can't recall the name right now. Anyway, the wedding group is staying at the Tides tonight and will return tomorrow sometime for the wedding ceremony and the big party (parties) at the Banyan Tree.

I've got to get DH moving, and quickly. He is either #1 getting measured for a new jacket or #2 trying to find one at Central or Paragon TODAY so he can wear it tomorrow night. We are both unprepared for this wedding party, which we did not know would be of a more "formal" dress!!! YIKES!! The tailor here in the lobby can make him a jacket in 24 hours. We know this because a couple of the "big Vikings" had them made and they were delivered during last night's birthday party. So DH knows that he can opt to do that as well (no, he's not at big as the Vikings.. but he is a more traditional "Westerner" sized guy with a bit of a beer gut even though he has lost 25 lbs on his diet so far). So we shall see what we shall see.

Hey everyone, have a great day, wherever you are. I'll get back with you later...

Carol

Carol-
I'm enjoying your day by day report.

I also have some cell phone questions. You said you bought a sim card for 300 baht.
How many minutes do you get for that? Do incoming calls count as part of those minutes (I think they do not on European cells but wondering about Thailand)?
What about calls back to the US? How are those minutes charged as opposed to calls made within Thailand?
Finally, are you (or anyone out there) aware of how the cell service is in Southern Thailand, specifically around Krabi?
Thanks!

I want Carol to adopt me too!

Love your reports Carol. I print them out each time you finish a trip, and want to use some of your tips, SOON!

Hi Kristina
I'm waiting for DH to finish his shower so I'm still lurking around here on fodors.

The 300 baht includes the SIM card and calling time. The price is 4 baht for the first minute and 2 baht for the rest. The 300 baht lasts as long as it lasts... but I should be fine for my 12 days here. I'm 99% sure that incoming calls are not charged against minutes. I honestly have not made calls to the US as I keep in touch by emails instead. I carry my laptop with me when I travel and then sign up for the local wireless or other internet service (1500 baht for one week).

You should be fine with cell service in Krabi. All the Thais have cell phones. I think they would be up in arms if they couldn't use them all over the country. Although some of the very remote islands might not be in range.

The SIM card is actually very cheap, and is included in the price of the 300 baht calling plan. In Europe, I paid 10 euros for my Sim, which included some calling minutes also (10 euros worth) but I bought extra time as it gets used up quickly if I made very many calls.

Gotta run.
Carol

Carol-
Thanks for the details. Sounds like you get about 150 min worth of local calls which should be plenty. I'd really be interested to know how many baht per min the card charges for calls to the US.
I make 1 or 2 international trips a year and I keep thinking I should just bite the bullet and buy an unlocked phone.
My last trip was to Spain and I brought an old tri-band phone I had with me only to discover it was locked by T-Mobile and there was no way to unlock it or get any kind of service on it.
When you get a chance, can you let me know what you think the least expensive phone I could buy at MBK (for use both in Asia and Europe) would be? In a perfect world, I'd be able to put my Sprint card in it here in the US, but if it's cheap enough, it might be worth it to buy just for travel.

Hello again everyone. What an eventful day this has been, with a nice surprise along the way.

DH and I had to shop for our special clothes for the big wedding reception tomorrow night. We found things we liked at Central Chitlom store. The wedding itself is in Chonburi and is small and private. The reception is at the Banyan Tree and should be a lot of fun.

I enjoyed meeting face to face with Gloria at the Bamboo Bar at the Oriental. I also enjoyed meeting friend Ann, who seems to be doing just fine after her illness of a couple of weeks ago.

I was surprised to meet yet another fodorite!! A newbie to fodors (coripep) and husband were also at the GTG. They have been in BKK and Thailand for their first time, and have loved it, I think. Sounds like they will be coming back again (and again). We had a lovely time talking about travel and various adventures. Fodorites are such nice people!! Gloria and cori met at Cotton House and also at Ban Orapin, I think it was... isn't it a small world??

The jet lag is really catching up with me today so this a short report, other than to say I enjoyed some of Ming's chili for lunch and it was wonderful!! I have already asked Ming about the garlic shrimp, kuranosuke, and she will make it for me in a couple of days.

Kristina... I'm going to guess that you could spend about 2 to 3000 baht on a used phone. All the phones at MBK are unlocked and will require a SIM card, to my knowledge.

More tomorrow...
Carol

keep t coming carol...enjoy that wedding..take tons of pics..tell us about the flowers which in thailand will be unbelievable i am sure

carol, thanks for the info on the rooms. cell phone info also good.

laurie, lucy, and me. anyone else?lol