Our 2 Weeks In Bangkok
Jan 24th, 2006, 12:58 PM
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Our 2 Weeks In Bangkok
Hello,
We were in Bangkok from December 27th until January 8th or so.
We spent almost two weeks in Bangkok, here's some highlights along with a bunch of other ramblings and things we discovered. I don't have a day by day log as our two weeks was one big long wonderful day
It's a very long post!!
Our background: We're from Hawaii, in our younger 30s, we love exploring, eating different types of food, and we never set strict itineraries when we travel as far as day to day stuff (except hotels usually). We'll usually have a few things we definitely want to do and plan it, but the rest we plan as we go and as our moods suit us.
Highlights of our trip:
- Ancient City (Muang Boran). This was simply awesome! We took skytrain all the way to On Nut, then jumped on a bus, then a mini-bus (which is really just a pickup truck with a roof on it and some seats) to get there. From Asok station, it took around an hour and a half. Why is this place awesome? It's a park in the shape of Thailand with 1/3 scale replicas of famous buildings, temples, monuments, etc. You can actually go inside these and everywhere you look there's a beautiful picture taking opportunity. Not very crowded at all and you explore the park on bike (or golf cart, we chose bike). We spent the whole day there riding around and taking pictures and exploring. We both really liked this.
- Chatuchak (also spelled Jatujak) Weekend Market. We took MRT to Mo Chit station to go here. It's a HUGE market, HUGE HUGE HUGE. We got there around 9 in the morning and some vendors were still setting up but it really gets incredibly crowded later in the day. There simply is everything here. Furniture, food, clothes, cooking stuff, pottery, spices, incense, silk, souveneirs, etc. We had fun just walking around and people watching and finding a nice place to stop for a drink whenever we could. A definite must visit. I think the prices here were cheaper than anywhere else we found in bangkok. Try the waffles if you see them, pretty tasty.
- Wats (temples) - We actually stopped at a bunch of them, some that were not even highlighted in our guidebooks or tourist maps. The Grand Palace is spectactular, but was extremely crowded. Many of the smaller temples were much less crowded or near empty so we enjoyed these a lot too. I really enjoyed Wat Sakhet (Golden Mount) as you get an incredible view from the top and it was not at all crowded when we went.
- MBK (Mah Boon Krong) - this was our favorite shopping center. It's like being in an outdoor market but indoors with AC.
- Panthip Plaza - great place for software/DVDs, etc. Easily spend several hours there.
- Jim Thompson House / Cafe - The tour was very nice and informative, the cafe was outstanding. Beautiful decor, great food.
- Suan Lum Night Bazaar - Great night market! We had very good food here at one of the food stalls there (whole steamed fish with hot hot hot spicy green chiles on it). I'd say prices were a little higher than Chatachak but much more sedate and relaxing (plus it's cooler at night).
- Getting foot massages - We went to several places but enjoyed a place near Khao San Road across from Orchid hotel the most. They had an upstairs room with nice recliners,cool AC, dim lights and had aromatic incense burning. It was so relaxing. I'm not normally a "massage" kind of person but getting a foot massage really was so relaxing that I found myself making excuses to take my wife to have a foot massage just so I could have one too hehe.
Neighborhoods We Enjoyed Walking around: Actually we enjoyed almost everywhere...
- Banglampoo / Khao San Road - Lots of cheap food places, cool t-shirts, neat cafes, and cheap internet access. It was great taking a river boat to N13 stop and just walking around the neighborhood.
- Chinatown - This was not very relaxing, but worth it just for the humanity of it all. Walking down sampeng lane across Chinatown is a definite experience and worth doing if you can handle it. We bought a lot of nice batik fabrics here for much cheaper than anywhere else (of course not cheaper than Chatuchak, which we discovered later). There were also some nice wholesale silver shops.
- Sukhumvit Rd - although not continuous walking, we would often take the skytrain to one of the various stops and walk around the neighborhood. Lots of international restaurants.
The areas we felt were not that great:
- Patpong - we walked through it to check it out. Neither my wife or I get offended by the establishments lining the streets but overall we felt people manning the stalls there were overall not as friendly as everywhere else and they tried charging like 3 times as much as anywhere else. They were much pushier and seemed pretty grumpy. I'd just as soon skip this whole street and go to Suan Lum Night bazaar. Surprisingly, that's about the only area we didn't think was that great.
Some tips we learned (or that worked well for us):
- For buses and big river boat taxis, you board it, sit down, and someone will walk by and collect the money. I really was expecting to have to pay when you board in some machine or something, but this is not the case. I wish I knew this earlier to avoid that moment when you board the bus and have no idea what to do hehe. For the smaller river boats, I still don't know how you pay...we got a free ride and felt bad about it.
- The buses do not seem to stop at the bus stop unless you wave them down. Jump on quick!
- Buy a Nancy Chandler map! Fantastic map. Buy it in bangkok as it's only like 4 bucks there.
- Whenever you are already in a taxi (or tuk tuk) headed towards your desitination and they ask you anything related to what you are doing later, whether you like jewelry, whether you wish to stop somewhere on the way, or whether you are visiting other temples today, just say "We're meeting some friends who live here at X
X oclock (choose a time very close to current time) who will be showing us around the city today." You can instantly see many of their faces change as they realize you cannot be cajoled into going anywhere else as you have an appointment to keep.
Also, some taxis get free gas if they bring tourists to a particular location. If your taxi driver mentions anything about gas, it's probably best to find another taxi and they are very insistant and will bug you the whole taxi ride.
Lastly, regarding taxis, sometimes instead of using a meter the driver will name a set price to your destination. Be sure this price is set and agreeable before you get in. We found some instances where no taxis would take us to where we wanted on a meter due to it being traffic time, so we named a price that we both could live with.
- If someone is friendly to you and asks how long you've been here, say "a few weeks". They now won't assume you're some chump who just got off the plane and doesn't know anything (although maybe you just got off the plane and don't know anything )
- When you get to your hotel, spend a quick moment to familiarize yourself with other main attractions nearby as sometimes taxi drivers may not know your hotel so you can name the other places to get yourself home. If you have a hotel that is anywhere near Soi Cowboy, Nana Plaza or Patpong, every taxi driver in Bangkok seems to know where these are. For our centre-point silom apartment, if they didn't know where it was, I would tell them Shangrila or Robinson Bangrak and that was usually enough for them to know where to go. A lot of the hotels have little business cards with thai writing on it that you can give to taxi drivers, but not all of them seemed to find this that useful at times.
- The skytrain gives you a card with a magnetic stripe on it. You place it in the turnstyle to get through and will also need to keep it to get out. The MRT gives you a black token. There is not a slot to put this token in at the turnstyle, just a circle that you hold the token against. To get out, there is a slot that you put the token through and it keeps the token. Hopefully this will save you that moment of panic of not knowing where to stick the black token lol.
- This tip actually was not needed but I've found it's great to do this whenever you're in a foreign country. Find a nice clean bathroom BEFORE you go and eat anywhere. In just about every neighborhood we visited, we eventually found a relatively nice bathroom and it's great knowing that if you need to use the facilities, you know where to go.
Notable food places:
Actually believe it or not, EVERY meal we had in bangkok was good except for perhaps the free breakfast buffet as centre point silom which was just so-so. We loved some dishes that we ate at places I have no idea how we got there or what the name of the restaraunt/stall was. We had no problems with any food that we ate (German, italian, israeli, indian, japanese, french, chinese, and Thai). Here's some nice places I remember:
- The Face - two restarants (thai and indian). We ate at the Thai side and this was the best thai food we had in bangkok. For two of us with no alcohol, two main dishes, and dessert, the bill was around $30. Kind of pricey for bangkok but the food, WOW.
- Cafe at Jim Thompson house - Very good food and we enjoyed the modern look of this place the most.
- Tongue Thai - A close second for quality of food as compared to the Face.
- Garden of Agalico Cafe - This was such a wonderful breakfast. Just a simple quiche, some great coffee, and a cornbread like muffin. The place is beautiful, all white, with a very nice garden in the back. I'd highly recommend this as a little tranquil oasis before starting a crazy day.
- Chabad House - Great israeli food! The place was immaculate and a great change of pace near Khao San Road.
Clubs/Bars:
- Narcissus - We liked this place a lot. Tribal trance music, a young crowd (but it was kind of empty for a thursday night), and the place is simply gorgeous.
- CM2 - This was a nice looking bar, but the band was really bad. Imagine a band like N'Sync or BackStreet Boys and then imagine a band trying to imitate them and that's pretty much what this band was. I think we chose the wrong night.
- The Brick Bar - this was in Khao San Road. We went on a tuesday night here and they had two outstanding ska bands. A good mix of locals and foreigners there. We had a fantastic time listening to the bands jam and drinking Singha beers.
Hotels
I had chose 4 hotels for our visit so we could see some different neighborhoods while there.
1st Hotel - Westin Grande on Suhkhimvit and Soi 19. 5 nights
Very nice rooms, fresh fruit every day in a basket, lobby nice, location awesome. It's right next to Asok station so you can jump on MRT or Skytrain very quickly. We got this hotel through priceline for $90 a night. Kind of pricey considering what you can get in Bangkok but it was our first hotel so we decided to splurge. We'd stay here again although if we visit again, I think we'd go for cheaper hotels.
2nd Hotel - Centre Point Silom, 4 nights. 1 BR river view $75/night including breakfast through asiarooms.com .
HUGE 1 bedroom place (around 1000 sq feet). Rooms were a little older and had some wear and tear but were very clean. It was more like a little apartment with a full kitchen and washer/dryer (very small and made our clothes completely wrinkled but at least they were clean!) The reception and the uniformed doormen were extremely friendly. The doormen salute you every time you walk by and several times they'd run to press the elevator button for us to save us time. Location was pretty good, right next to Saphan Taksin on skytrain and just a short walk to the central pier to take the river boats to Banglumpoo, ChinaTown, etc. Very convenientfor this. We would stay here again. The free breakfast was so so, we only ate there once as the food was so much better outside we thought.
3rd hotel - Pathuwan Princess, 3 nights. Located in MBK (Mah Boon Krong shopping center). $75/night including breakfast through asiarooms. Very nice looking lobby, beautiful in fact. Rooms were very nice but not quite as nice as Westin but the lobby was much nicer. The location is absolutely perfect if you want to go shopping as MBK is a great shopping center for deals. MBK is crowded and full of young people and it's got almost everything you might need if you are looking for cheap stuff (not a lot of name brand stuff there). Souveneirs, clothes, food court, DVD movies, software, and even cheap internet access on the top floor. Something for everyone i'd say. Would go here again just to shop at MBK for a couple of days for gifts. This hotel was pretty close to Skytrain. Oh yeah and the breakfast was very good.
4th hotel - Miracle Grand Hotel, 1 night, near Don Muang airport. $60/night through asiatravel. We stayed here before leaving. Nice lobby, beautiful rooms, great airport hotel with free shuttle to airport. We'd definitely stay here again if we needed an airport hotel. Not close to anything else though, so i'd recommend only as airport hotel.
That's about it! Like I said in another post, there's a ton of things we still wanted to do, more streets to explore, markets to walk through, food to try. Next time.
aloha,
gaz
We were in Bangkok from December 27th until January 8th or so.
We spent almost two weeks in Bangkok, here's some highlights along with a bunch of other ramblings and things we discovered. I don't have a day by day log as our two weeks was one big long wonderful day
It's a very long post!!
Our background: We're from Hawaii, in our younger 30s, we love exploring, eating different types of food, and we never set strict itineraries when we travel as far as day to day stuff (except hotels usually). We'll usually have a few things we definitely want to do and plan it, but the rest we plan as we go and as our moods suit us.
Highlights of our trip:
- Ancient City (Muang Boran). This was simply awesome! We took skytrain all the way to On Nut, then jumped on a bus, then a mini-bus (which is really just a pickup truck with a roof on it and some seats) to get there. From Asok station, it took around an hour and a half. Why is this place awesome? It's a park in the shape of Thailand with 1/3 scale replicas of famous buildings, temples, monuments, etc. You can actually go inside these and everywhere you look there's a beautiful picture taking opportunity. Not very crowded at all and you explore the park on bike (or golf cart, we chose bike). We spent the whole day there riding around and taking pictures and exploring. We both really liked this.
- Chatuchak (also spelled Jatujak) Weekend Market. We took MRT to Mo Chit station to go here. It's a HUGE market, HUGE HUGE HUGE. We got there around 9 in the morning and some vendors were still setting up but it really gets incredibly crowded later in the day. There simply is everything here. Furniture, food, clothes, cooking stuff, pottery, spices, incense, silk, souveneirs, etc. We had fun just walking around and people watching and finding a nice place to stop for a drink whenever we could. A definite must visit. I think the prices here were cheaper than anywhere else we found in bangkok. Try the waffles if you see them, pretty tasty.
- Wats (temples) - We actually stopped at a bunch of them, some that were not even highlighted in our guidebooks or tourist maps. The Grand Palace is spectactular, but was extremely crowded. Many of the smaller temples were much less crowded or near empty so we enjoyed these a lot too. I really enjoyed Wat Sakhet (Golden Mount) as you get an incredible view from the top and it was not at all crowded when we went.
- MBK (Mah Boon Krong) - this was our favorite shopping center. It's like being in an outdoor market but indoors with AC.
- Panthip Plaza - great place for software/DVDs, etc. Easily spend several hours there.
- Jim Thompson House / Cafe - The tour was very nice and informative, the cafe was outstanding. Beautiful decor, great food.
- Suan Lum Night Bazaar - Great night market! We had very good food here at one of the food stalls there (whole steamed fish with hot hot hot spicy green chiles on it). I'd say prices were a little higher than Chatachak but much more sedate and relaxing (plus it's cooler at night).
- Getting foot massages - We went to several places but enjoyed a place near Khao San Road across from Orchid hotel the most. They had an upstairs room with nice recliners,cool AC, dim lights and had aromatic incense burning. It was so relaxing. I'm not normally a "massage" kind of person but getting a foot massage really was so relaxing that I found myself making excuses to take my wife to have a foot massage just so I could have one too hehe.
Neighborhoods We Enjoyed Walking around: Actually we enjoyed almost everywhere...
- Banglampoo / Khao San Road - Lots of cheap food places, cool t-shirts, neat cafes, and cheap internet access. It was great taking a river boat to N13 stop and just walking around the neighborhood.
- Chinatown - This was not very relaxing, but worth it just for the humanity of it all. Walking down sampeng lane across Chinatown is a definite experience and worth doing if you can handle it. We bought a lot of nice batik fabrics here for much cheaper than anywhere else (of course not cheaper than Chatuchak, which we discovered later). There were also some nice wholesale silver shops.
- Sukhumvit Rd - although not continuous walking, we would often take the skytrain to one of the various stops and walk around the neighborhood. Lots of international restaurants.
The areas we felt were not that great:
- Patpong - we walked through it to check it out. Neither my wife or I get offended by the establishments lining the streets but overall we felt people manning the stalls there were overall not as friendly as everywhere else and they tried charging like 3 times as much as anywhere else. They were much pushier and seemed pretty grumpy. I'd just as soon skip this whole street and go to Suan Lum Night bazaar. Surprisingly, that's about the only area we didn't think was that great.
Some tips we learned (or that worked well for us):
- For buses and big river boat taxis, you board it, sit down, and someone will walk by and collect the money. I really was expecting to have to pay when you board in some machine or something, but this is not the case. I wish I knew this earlier to avoid that moment when you board the bus and have no idea what to do hehe. For the smaller river boats, I still don't know how you pay...we got a free ride and felt bad about it.
- The buses do not seem to stop at the bus stop unless you wave them down. Jump on quick!
- Buy a Nancy Chandler map! Fantastic map. Buy it in bangkok as it's only like 4 bucks there.
- Whenever you are already in a taxi (or tuk tuk) headed towards your desitination and they ask you anything related to what you are doing later, whether you like jewelry, whether you wish to stop somewhere on the way, or whether you are visiting other temples today, just say "We're meeting some friends who live here at X
X oclock (choose a time very close to current time) who will be showing us around the city today." You can instantly see many of their faces change as they realize you cannot be cajoled into going anywhere else as you have an appointment to keep.Also, some taxis get free gas if they bring tourists to a particular location. If your taxi driver mentions anything about gas, it's probably best to find another taxi and they are very insistant and will bug you the whole taxi ride.
Lastly, regarding taxis, sometimes instead of using a meter the driver will name a set price to your destination. Be sure this price is set and agreeable before you get in. We found some instances where no taxis would take us to where we wanted on a meter due to it being traffic time, so we named a price that we both could live with.
- If someone is friendly to you and asks how long you've been here, say "a few weeks". They now won't assume you're some chump who just got off the plane and doesn't know anything (although maybe you just got off the plane and don't know anything )
- When you get to your hotel, spend a quick moment to familiarize yourself with other main attractions nearby as sometimes taxi drivers may not know your hotel so you can name the other places to get yourself home. If you have a hotel that is anywhere near Soi Cowboy, Nana Plaza or Patpong, every taxi driver in Bangkok seems to know where these are. For our centre-point silom apartment, if they didn't know where it was, I would tell them Shangrila or Robinson Bangrak and that was usually enough for them to know where to go. A lot of the hotels have little business cards with thai writing on it that you can give to taxi drivers, but not all of them seemed to find this that useful at times.
- The skytrain gives you a card with a magnetic stripe on it. You place it in the turnstyle to get through and will also need to keep it to get out. The MRT gives you a black token. There is not a slot to put this token in at the turnstyle, just a circle that you hold the token against. To get out, there is a slot that you put the token through and it keeps the token. Hopefully this will save you that moment of panic of not knowing where to stick the black token lol.
- This tip actually was not needed but I've found it's great to do this whenever you're in a foreign country. Find a nice clean bathroom BEFORE you go and eat anywhere. In just about every neighborhood we visited, we eventually found a relatively nice bathroom and it's great knowing that if you need to use the facilities, you know where to go.
Notable food places:
Actually believe it or not, EVERY meal we had in bangkok was good except for perhaps the free breakfast buffet as centre point silom which was just so-so. We loved some dishes that we ate at places I have no idea how we got there or what the name of the restaraunt/stall was. We had no problems with any food that we ate (German, italian, israeli, indian, japanese, french, chinese, and Thai). Here's some nice places I remember:
- The Face - two restarants (thai and indian). We ate at the Thai side and this was the best thai food we had in bangkok. For two of us with no alcohol, two main dishes, and dessert, the bill was around $30. Kind of pricey for bangkok but the food, WOW.
- Cafe at Jim Thompson house - Very good food and we enjoyed the modern look of this place the most.
- Tongue Thai - A close second for quality of food as compared to the Face.
- Garden of Agalico Cafe - This was such a wonderful breakfast. Just a simple quiche, some great coffee, and a cornbread like muffin. The place is beautiful, all white, with a very nice garden in the back. I'd highly recommend this as a little tranquil oasis before starting a crazy day.
- Chabad House - Great israeli food! The place was immaculate and a great change of pace near Khao San Road.
Clubs/Bars:
- Narcissus - We liked this place a lot. Tribal trance music, a young crowd (but it was kind of empty for a thursday night), and the place is simply gorgeous.
- CM2 - This was a nice looking bar, but the band was really bad. Imagine a band like N'Sync or BackStreet Boys and then imagine a band trying to imitate them and that's pretty much what this band was. I think we chose the wrong night.
- The Brick Bar - this was in Khao San Road. We went on a tuesday night here and they had two outstanding ska bands. A good mix of locals and foreigners there. We had a fantastic time listening to the bands jam and drinking Singha beers.
Hotels
I had chose 4 hotels for our visit so we could see some different neighborhoods while there.
1st Hotel - Westin Grande on Suhkhimvit and Soi 19. 5 nights
Very nice rooms, fresh fruit every day in a basket, lobby nice, location awesome. It's right next to Asok station so you can jump on MRT or Skytrain very quickly. We got this hotel through priceline for $90 a night. Kind of pricey considering what you can get in Bangkok but it was our first hotel so we decided to splurge. We'd stay here again although if we visit again, I think we'd go for cheaper hotels.
2nd Hotel - Centre Point Silom, 4 nights. 1 BR river view $75/night including breakfast through asiarooms.com .
HUGE 1 bedroom place (around 1000 sq feet). Rooms were a little older and had some wear and tear but were very clean. It was more like a little apartment with a full kitchen and washer/dryer (very small and made our clothes completely wrinkled but at least they were clean!) The reception and the uniformed doormen were extremely friendly. The doormen salute you every time you walk by and several times they'd run to press the elevator button for us to save us time. Location was pretty good, right next to Saphan Taksin on skytrain and just a short walk to the central pier to take the river boats to Banglumpoo, ChinaTown, etc. Very convenientfor this. We would stay here again. The free breakfast was so so, we only ate there once as the food was so much better outside we thought.
3rd hotel - Pathuwan Princess, 3 nights. Located in MBK (Mah Boon Krong shopping center). $75/night including breakfast through asiarooms. Very nice looking lobby, beautiful in fact. Rooms were very nice but not quite as nice as Westin but the lobby was much nicer. The location is absolutely perfect if you want to go shopping as MBK is a great shopping center for deals. MBK is crowded and full of young people and it's got almost everything you might need if you are looking for cheap stuff (not a lot of name brand stuff there). Souveneirs, clothes, food court, DVD movies, software, and even cheap internet access on the top floor. Something for everyone i'd say
. Would go here again just to shop at MBK for a couple of days for gifts. This hotel was pretty close to Skytrain. Oh yeah and the breakfast was very good.4th hotel - Miracle Grand Hotel, 1 night, near Don Muang airport. $60/night through asiatravel. We stayed here before leaving. Nice lobby, beautiful rooms, great airport hotel with free shuttle to airport. We'd definitely stay here again if we needed an airport hotel. Not close to anything else though, so i'd recommend only as airport hotel.
That's about it! Like I said in another post, there's a ton of things we still wanted to do, more streets to explore, markets to walk through, food to try. Next time.
aloha,
gaz
Jan 24th, 2006, 01:42 PM
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gaz:
I know what you mean about the token for the MRT, I had to stand back from the crowd and watch what everyone was doing with the token...missed my train in the meantime. Great report...are you going back?
Aloha!
I know what you mean about the token for the MRT, I had to stand back from the crowd and watch what everyone was doing with the token...missed my train in the meantime. Great report...are you going back?
Aloha!
Jan 24th, 2006, 03:35 PM
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Thank you so much for the report!
Some of the things I really like about your report is that:
You BREAK IT UP INTO PARAGRAPHS!! This makes reading it so much easier!
You mention what you enjoyed and WHY. Very helpful in assising others in knowing what would be good for them.
You mention prices of the hotels. Nice for others that are in the process of planning.
Do you know if The Brick Bar has ska on a regular basis? I love ska!
Thanks again for the great report! I have already printed it out to bring with me in 1 1/2 weeks!
Cheers!
Tamara
Some of the things I really like about your report is that:
You BREAK IT UP INTO PARAGRAPHS!! This makes reading it so much easier!
You mention what you enjoyed and WHY. Very helpful in assising others in knowing what would be good for them.
You mention prices of the hotels. Nice for others that are in the process of planning.
Do you know if The Brick Bar has ska on a regular basis? I love ska!
Thanks again for the great report! I have already printed it out to bring with me in 1 1/2 weeks!
Cheers!
Tamara
Jan 25th, 2006, 12:46 AM
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Going back? Yes definitely! Someday soon we'd like to go back. We were thinking of trying to go to Chiang Mai and possibly Saigon for a trip, but only have two weeks so was thinking maybe we'll just spend two weeks in Vietnam and skip Thailand this time. But we had such a good time we have to go back. There's certain cities that just grab you and you start missing it after you leave, Bangkok was one of them for sure.
Regarding the Brick Bar, I'm not sure if they have ska every night, we just happened to go to the restroom close to it and heard music so we went inside and had a great time. stayed til it closed at 1am I think.
Regarding centre point silom, perhaps we just got there too late for our breakfast there. The fried rice was kind of dry, the orange juice was extremely sweet (tasted like a sweetened mix, not fresh, kind of like tang), the coffee had a strange taste to it as if the coffee was burnt or instant. I think everything else was okay.
I think what did it for us was that the coffee in bangkok was sooo good most everywhere we went and we were buying fresh orange juice everywhere so those two letdowns made us decide that we would spend our meals on new places. So perhaps the breakfast was okay other than that, but those two were deal-breakers I guess. But I would still definitely stay there again as breakfast isn't huge on my priority list
At the Face, somehow our dishes were just perfect. We ordered yellow curry with shrimp, stir fried morning glory, and charbroiled pork.
The yellow curry was perfect, just the right amount of spiciness for us and somehow it tasted much more complex than usual yet at the same time was not very heavy at all. The morning glory had some chopped peppers in it and had something similar to a soy sauce base (but something else also) and was cooked perfectly. Slightly crunchy and very tasty. The pork was sliced and was very juicy and it had a really good sauce for it to dip in. For dessert my wife got coconut ice cream and i got a traditional thai dessert that had water chestnuts and jackfruit in it over ice. It was one of those meals that afterwards, you don't feel like you overate, but you feel very satisfied.
Tongue Thai was also very good, we had green curry with river prawn and pineapple fried rice. Both dishes were extremely flavorful but were a bit heavy, perhaps we needed something a bit more mellow to balance it up. Neat place though and worth going especially if you're close by at Centre Point Silom.
One thing I forgot to mention that also was very good was a Watermelon Frost at Black Canyon Coffee. It's basically like drinking an icy frosty watermelon in a glass. Somehow it was a perfect thirst quencher that we stumbled on after walking for hours. After that we made it a point to get one if we happened to cross any Black Canyon Coffees during our travels. We also ordered one of these at Jim Thompson Cafe along with our food at it was also very good.
The other thing we got a kick out of was how the stray dogs seemed to know how to cross the street and to avoid cars. We saw a few that actually waited for the walk sign before crossing (seriously!).
I guess overall the city had everything we like: great varieties of extremely good food, low prices, very nice people, and a lot of interesting things to see everywhere you look.
aloha,
gaz
Regarding the Brick Bar, I'm not sure if they have ska every night, we just happened to go to the restroom close to it and heard music so we went inside and had a great time. stayed til it closed at 1am I think.
Regarding centre point silom, perhaps we just got there too late for our breakfast there. The fried rice was kind of dry, the orange juice was extremely sweet (tasted like a sweetened mix, not fresh, kind of like tang), the coffee had a strange taste to it as if the coffee was burnt or instant. I think everything else was okay.
I think what did it for us was that the coffee in bangkok was sooo good most everywhere we went and we were buying fresh orange juice everywhere so those two letdowns made us decide that we would spend our meals on new places. So perhaps the breakfast was okay other than that, but those two were deal-breakers I guess. But I would still definitely stay there again as breakfast isn't huge on my priority list
At the Face, somehow our dishes were just perfect. We ordered yellow curry with shrimp, stir fried morning glory, and charbroiled pork.
The yellow curry was perfect, just the right amount of spiciness for us and somehow it tasted much more complex than usual yet at the same time was not very heavy at all. The morning glory had some chopped peppers in it and had something similar to a soy sauce base (but something else also) and was cooked perfectly. Slightly crunchy and very tasty. The pork was sliced and was very juicy and it had a really good sauce for it to dip in. For dessert my wife got coconut ice cream and i got a traditional thai dessert that had water chestnuts and jackfruit in it over ice. It was one of those meals that afterwards, you don't feel like you overate, but you feel very satisfied.
Tongue Thai was also very good, we had green curry with river prawn and pineapple fried rice. Both dishes were extremely flavorful but were a bit heavy, perhaps we needed something a bit more mellow to balance it up. Neat place though and worth going especially if you're close by at Centre Point Silom.
One thing I forgot to mention that also was very good was a Watermelon Frost at Black Canyon Coffee. It's basically like drinking an icy frosty watermelon in a glass. Somehow it was a perfect thirst quencher that we stumbled on after walking for hours. After that we made it a point to get one if we happened to cross any Black Canyon Coffees during our travels. We also ordered one of these at Jim Thompson Cafe along with our food at it was also very good.
The other thing we got a kick out of was how the stray dogs seemed to know how to cross the street and to avoid cars. We saw a few that actually waited for the walk sign before crossing (seriously!).
I guess overall the city had everything we like: great varieties of extremely good food, low prices, very nice people, and a lot of interesting things to see everywhere you look.
aloha,
gaz
Jan 25th, 2006, 06:07 AM
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What a great easy-to-read report. We'll be in Bangkok for only three days and I intend to take river transportation a lot. Any khlongs I shouldn't miss? Did you go to any floating markets? I'm considering Damoen Saduak? Did you go?
The foot massages sound divine but did you have any Thai massage? If so, please give the details.
Thanks again.
The foot massages sound divine but did you have any Thai massage? If so, please give the details.
Thanks again.
Jan 25th, 2006, 11:47 AM
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We pretty much stuck to the main Chao Phraya River and I think the farthest trip we took was from central pier to N13 stop which is close to Khao San Road.
Oh wait we did take one small riverboat on I think Khlong Mahanak which was kind of interesting because the roof of the riverboat is actually lowered at times so the boat can squeeze under some low bridges. We actually didn't know where to pay so ended up getting a free ride. Anyone know?? We rode from that stop near Jim Thompson house I think all the way to near Golden Mount.
Travelling by riverboat is a great way to get around, especially during traffic hours. It's also nice picture taking opportunities.
We didn't go to any floating markets, we just ran out of time unfortunately.
Regarding a traditional thai massage, we didn't have one this trip, but I did have one in 1991 or so when I was there briefly on a business trip. It was very relaxing but at the same time kind of painful! We had a very brief taste of the thai massage after our foot massage as they gave us a small shoulder massage. That too was on the verge of being painful. We sort of chickened out from the full massage, again something we'd like to do next time we're there though!
aloha,
gaz
Oh wait we did take one small riverboat on I think Khlong Mahanak which was kind of interesting because the roof of the riverboat is actually lowered at times so the boat can squeeze under some low bridges. We actually didn't know where to pay so ended up getting a free ride. Anyone know?? We rode from that stop near Jim Thompson house I think all the way to near Golden Mount.
Travelling by riverboat is a great way to get around, especially during traffic hours. It's also nice picture taking opportunities.
We didn't go to any floating markets, we just ran out of time unfortunately.
Regarding a traditional thai massage, we didn't have one this trip, but I did have one in 1991 or so when I was there briefly on a business trip. It was very relaxing but at the same time kind of painful! We had a very brief taste of the thai massage after our foot massage as they gave us a small shoulder massage. That too was on the verge of being painful. We sort of chickened out from the full massage, again something we'd like to do next time we're there though!
aloha,
gaz
Jan 25th, 2006, 06:34 PM
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Gaz
Thanks again for the continued tidbits from your trip. I laughted out loud about the soi dogs knowing when to cross the street!!
I've only had Thai foot massage myself, and it was very painful, but it worked like a charm. I had twisted my ankle on uneven pavement and the massage saved the day for me.
Carol
Thanks again for the continued tidbits from your trip. I laughted out loud about the soi dogs knowing when to cross the street!!
I've only had Thai foot massage myself, and it was very painful, but it worked like a charm. I had twisted my ankle on uneven pavement and the massage saved the day for me.
Carol
Jan 26th, 2006, 04:31 PM
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We leave in a week for Bangkok and the golden triangle. I absolutely LOVED your report. I know I will thank you a thousand times while we are there with all your little tidbits. Can't wait to read more. Marg
Jan 26th, 2006, 09:28 PM
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Excelent write up.
Just to add.....
The bars around Sukhumvit (7) are a pool players dream, try a google search for the Brunswick bar, though there are many others, all american pool type tables.
Try the fast canal boats as a way of getting round the city, the're fast, cheap and great fun.
You can access them via a 10 minute walk from Ko San Rd, they run along to Sukhumvit, though you have to change, I can't remember the place you change, but boats from both directions terminate at this place so you cant go wrong.
These boats will also take you to north east Bangkok, you pass a great temple (on the right), get off at the next stop and walk away from the canal, you go down a long road that leads to a great market and loads of shops, everything is normal prices and absolutly no hassle.
I sure miss Bangkok's food, atmosphere and people, I don't miss the expats awful attitude to the Thai people though.
Just to add.....
The bars around Sukhumvit (7) are a pool players dream, try a google search for the Brunswick bar, though there are many others, all american pool type tables.
Try the fast canal boats as a way of getting round the city, the're fast, cheap and great fun.
You can access them via a 10 minute walk from Ko San Rd, they run along to Sukhumvit, though you have to change, I can't remember the place you change, but boats from both directions terminate at this place so you cant go wrong.
These boats will also take you to north east Bangkok, you pass a great temple (on the right), get off at the next stop and walk away from the canal, you go down a long road that leads to a great market and loads of shops, everything is normal prices and absolutly no hassle.
I sure miss Bangkok's food, atmosphere and people, I don't miss the expats awful attitude to the Thai people though.
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marthagrif
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