18 Jan 2012

Bangkok Diary




The trip to Bangkok was planned on the basis of it being the easiest to book within the short timeframe we had to plan a holiday. And Bangkok is certainly easy on the tourist. It has good tourist infrastructure. There is a lot to do but nothing stops you from just chilling out.

Where we stayed – In the Sukhumvit area, close to the Skytrain and Metro. Bangkok has really bad traffic. So choosing a location that lets you commute through public transport can make a big difference. Sukumvit is also close to the malls and has a lot of food joints.

Our actual hotels were the Baan Sukhumvit at Soi 18 and its sister concern at Soi 20. The former is larger and much nicer than the latter. The English owner of the place was friendly and helpful.

What we did – Since this was my frist trip, I wanted to do all the tourist sights. So an entire day was spent ferry-hoping to catch the Grand Palace (massive – takes a couple of hours to get around), Wat Pao (of the reclining Buddha fame) and Wat Arun (Intricate work on the walls)

The rest of the time was spent in checking out some of the malls – Siam Paragan and Central World for branded stuff and MBK for the low end and tourist stuff. Unfortunately, since we were not there in the weekend, we could not see the famous Chatuchak Market that everyone and their grandma had recommended.

D also did a walking tour in Chinatown, following the LP’s recommended route, while I was doing the shallower pastime of window shopping.

Where we ate – Bangkok has great food places and really good street food. So most crowded restaurants turned out to be a good deal. We also wanted to rot in luxury one meal and chose to go to the Vertigo and Moon Bar located on the 62nd floor of a tower in the lumpini gardens business district. The choice was between that and Sirocco and we picked this one because the name was cuter. The views were great, the crowd watching satisfying and the food nice.

Did we get massages (of the legal kind) - Not really. Since Ko Samui was dedicated to the spa visits during our holiday, we did not. But it is definitely economical to get one.



Hot tip - Everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) was carrying a TV on the flight back to India. Apparently it is priced very very competitively. So even if you are not in the market for a TV, you need to buy one just to sell it and make a neat profit when you get back home.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

ohmigawwwd is the weather good this time of year? also do prices drop? as in do they have a season-non-season difference?

aand, didnt you travel around? islands?

Anita said...

haathitime - weather is good now and likely to be so for the next couple of months. I assume there is a seasonal difference. Though right now, because of the aftermath of the floods, tourist numbers have dropped. So deals, especially in the outside islands, should be good.

We travelled to Koh Samui. Plan to write about that in a post.

Aparna said...

Thailand is nice. We did phuket, bkk and pattaya some years ago (pattaya was a mistake!). That was before koh samui, krabi etc nudged phuket out of the must-see places in thailand. Plan to go back some day and do the north.

Sonal said...

we got the TV tip too before we left and i wanted to buy one...but clearly bangkok is the place and not krabi so did nt...maybse next time!

Anita said...

Aparna - ha ha, Pattaya must have been fun. But clearly you were pioneers before the whole world and its grandma started going to Thailand (or is it that I am finally going...!)

Sonal - Next time, I guess