Hello all,

Just returned from Thailand this morning and had a pretty great time there. Not feeling the usual gloom associated with the return home, although I am starting to feel pretty ragged out now. The two cups of Thai "coffee" powder I brought back really went down nicely! Here is a brief summary of what we did, etc!:

The wife and I landed at the new airport (I get yelled at everytime I call it suvarnnaboomi) Oct 2. We took ANA out of IAD on the Boeing 777-300ER--a great plane! Suvarnabhumi certainly a nice airport but its a bit spartanesque..mostly concrete..seems not completely finished in its decor. It was a breeze going through in every way. Will still miss the charm of ol' Don Muang though.
For the first five nights we stayed in Bangkok at the Sofitel Silom...They wouldn't upgrade us for whatever reason (I'm a member), but the standard room was almost indistinguishable from the upgrade room. This is really a nice hotel and great staff. Easy access to most things. Great deal for the money (~$90/night). We did nothing but shop and eat these first 5 days! Did alot of taxis all over town getting prepared for our wedding in Isaan the following several days.
We did most of our eating and shopping in the MBK/Siam Square area. The MBK eatery was our staple for food despite its atmosphere.

Will finish this report tonight!

Keep it coming. Glad the ANA flight was so good. How long did it take to clear immigration? at the new airport?

great start....tell us where else you ate in bkk besides MBK--ugh for all meals...

There is a new food loft at MBK, much like the one at Central Chitlom. I wouldn't recommend it for every meal, but it isn't that bad!

Waiting for the rest of the report. Also curious as to how long it took you to clear immigration at the new airport.

Thanks everyone =)

G and Sharon- Immigration was a breeze..the lines were only about 6-8 people long and only took about 10 minutes. The only complaint I have is that the computerized arrival/departure display is obnoxious to decipher quickly since the words are interchanged between thai and english every 3 seconds which made it hard to lock on to your flight visually.

RHK- We ate ate Yum Saap one time for Isaan food (not bad) at Siam Square. There was an excellent restaurant in the Sofitel Central Plaza called "Bua"---Excellent nuvo-Thai...Although it was rather hot sitting outside, but beautiful nonetheless. Another night we ate in Ramintra (North Bangkok) at a restaurant whose name escapes me...there are a number of great restaurants that you can find at random along the main route in ramintra. This area is my favorite for dinner and drinks! Lots of upscale Thais dine here.

Part 2:
I'm really eating my words from my first entry about not feeling too bad since being home. I was very depressed this morning...It was difficult to shake so far. I have no real reason to be sad or to worry about anything. I hate this feeling...it now occurs to me that this is the worst part about going to Thailand!

Previously I meant to add that we stayed at the Sofitel Central Plaza one night. This is a really nice hotel that we've stayed at before that is very reasonable. Great breakfast spread with a Thai soup section that my wife absolutely gorges herself at. Staff is fantastic there.
At the end of our trip we stayed at LeBua, at the State Tower. The suite was the largest room we have ever stayed in...Really amazing. 58th floor view was amazing. Believe it or not we never made it to the top for drinks!! The only thing I didn't like was that it is a little out of the way which made it difficult for the cab ride to and from the MBK area. The complimentary lunch (the leBua website has really good promos) was literally first class! Surprisingly high quality for any Thai restaurant I've seen.

While at the Sofitel Central Plaza, we had a Royal Thai Massage at the massage studio there (can't remember the name). My wife says that many wealthy Thais or celebrities go there for massage. I'm not impressed by massage unless I'm really sore, but this one was one of the nicest I've had with the Jasmine-scented oil they used. The rooms were beautiful. The masseuse(?) had a wonderfully erotic touch (no happy ending here!! The total cost for us both was US$100 including tip. I would highly recommend it!
For the next part of the trip we went to Isaan for the wedding. It was alot of fun but exhausting preparing for it. Usually her family's rice fields are barren whenever we go there, but this time they were swamped. Frogs and "Pu dum" (black freshwater crabs) everywhere amongst the rice fields. It is really gorgeous to be out in the country, but you must have air conditioning!! There really isn't much else to tell you all about, so I won't bore you with it.

We came back to Bangkok for the last several days, going to the floating market for the first time. I thought it was going to be a little tourist dump, but it turned out to be a worthwhile excursion. We saw a huge lizard on the bank of one of the klongs..it must have been about 5 feet long. It was a real shock for me to see since I didn't know that they exist at this size in Thailand. So, I was able to do the longtail here for the first time and it was great. I'll do a Bangkok Klong next visit (which will probably be for Songkran)
I wish I had more things to write about, but we are really bizarre tourists in the sense that the only things we do there is shop, eat, and drink. I forgot to add that we spent a little time at the Siam Paragon complex. The food area there is pretty amazing. We don't shop there since we have evolved past having the big name items (and realize it is a stupid waste of money!). My wife is content with buying hi-quality fake handbags, because they are amazingly high quality and they look fantastic. I must have bought 10 truly beautiful shirts in MBK/Siam square that I would have never found at Versace or Prada. They cost almost nothing, too!

When we finally went to the airport to leave for our 11:55pm flight we were notified that our plane had suffered serious mechanical (engine) problems and thus the flight would be cancelled. We were there early enough to catch the 11pm flight. My wife complained that we did have reservations for this 11:55 flight (despite what the agent told us) plus, we had to sit apart on this flight. We ended up getting business class seats for the flight back to Narita!!! It was so nice being able to recline most of the way back and be able to sleep like a "goong" (My wife tells me that I sleep like a shrimp).

Anyway, that is it for our trip...if anyone else has any questions about our trip please feel free to ask!

great review, thanks