This trip to Thailand is kind of an accidental one. You remember how we were in Vietnam earlier in the year? We’d actually booked Thailand for that time but postponed it when Vietnam opened up, and so now we are in the land of smiles.
Because we’d postponed redemption flights, we didn’t have a lot of choice in dates, so I arrived on Thursday while R didn’t get here until Sunday. My flights were pretty uneventful (always a good thing!) but I arrived at BKK just in time for the famous Bangkok rush hour. Sukhumvit is pretty gridlocked at the best of times, but rush hour can leave queues moving 100m in 20 minutes or longer. I’d forgotten about this until my taxi hit it, but the driver was pretty canny and we did some long-cuts to avoid some of the worst queues.
The hotel I’d booked was Citrus Suites on Sukhumvit Soi 6, on the corner of the notorious Soi 4. While at night Soi 4 was busy and full of tourists drinking, smoking and talking to girls, during the day it was a lot less frenzied. The hotel was relatively quiet, and most of the windows didn’t open, so the noise was dampened. It was also near public transport and very comfortable.
My first proper day I decided to head to the Grand Palace. As well as gorgeous temples and some amazing art, the Grand Palace is home to the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, my main reason for visiting the Palace.
The lower floor has an exhibition of Thai styles of weaving and the gift shop (yes!) and the upper floor currently hosts a display of the history of Batik in South East Asia and an amazingly displayed collection of Queen Sirikit’s official wardrobe from the 1960s to today. Each piece included information about the designers and fabrics, as well as photos of the Queen wearing the outfit. It was interesting to note how she was keen to combine Thai fabrics and styles, especially in later years, with French design and couture. Beautiful exhibition, but no photos allowed, so you’ll need to go visit it when you are in Bangkok.
I indulged in the gift shop, picking up a guide book to the exhibition, plus a gorgeous olive green parasol inspired by one of the ones in Sirikit’s collection. I figured it would be easy enough to carry in my travels, and I was feeling a little sun-kissed already. Hah – I’ve now realised to never buy something bigger than your suitcase on day 1! I was swearing at it by the time we got to the Night Train four days later as it is a little unwieldy when combined with a case and a bag.
I did manage to navigate the public transport system to catch a bus back to the hotel. I didn’t realise that as well as the modern airconditioned buses I am used to, Bangkok still uses some of the older, open, wooden floored buses to service some routes, so I was a little surprised to hop on one of these. But you can’t complain about the price – a bargain at 8bt per trip!
For my second day I had organised to take a beginner lesson in weaving Thai silks at a place called The Loom. It was easy enough to reach by skytrain and a few minutes’ walk, and I spent an informative morning learning about weaving and looms, while dropping the shuttle, getting my threads tangled and generally feeling very clumsy. My lovely, very patient teachers persevered with me, and I was pleased to have produced a small piece of woven cloth with some different designs on it by the end of the class. Highly recommended if you are interested in textiles, and a bit of a different activity for tourists.
On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at one of the big malls, Centralworld, for a browse. “World” is right – it was huge! Happily it also included a bookshop, and I enjoyed the Thai author section, where I found a couple of English books that tickled my fancy. I meandered into the next huge mall, Siam Paragon, and ended up getting a bit lost trying to find my way out. So many high end fashion brands!
After walking past many tailors in my wanderings I decided I should try one. I’d loved having clothes made in Vietnam, and while I’d had a not-so-great experience with a tailor in Phuket nearly a decade ago, maybe it was time to give it another try. I did some googling to find info on tailors who made women’s clothes as well as men’s, and came up with Narry Tailors, a few minutes’ walk from my hotel. I popped in and asked about cotton or linen shirts, and ordered 3 in linen. I had an appointment to come back on Sunday for fitting before collecting on Monday before we left.
The fabrics were great – muted tones of linen. I was surprised on Sunday when attending the fitting that they had only made one shirt to try, given I was leaving the next day but I was assured it would be fine. There was a little tweaking needed as my arm affected by lymphoedema had confounded them, but by Monday the fit was much better. The second and third shirt hadn’t been made though so the tailor assured me he would send them to me in Perth. Hmm.
Before R arrived on Sunday, I checked out Jim Thompson House, which is a museum and showroom for silk fabrics and an American ex-pat who helped popularise Thai silk outside of Thailand. Lovely lush gardens and some interesting displays. I think the Jim Thompson shopping bag I carried back to the Skytrain was a signal, as I had lots more offers for tourist info etc on my way back to the hotel than I’d had at any other time in Bangkok!
On Sunday night R and I visited Heals, the drag bar run by Drag Race Thailand host Pangina Heals. What a fabulous night! The show was amazing – great to see queens who were familiar to us after watching DRThailand and also some who were new to us. We were a little sad that Pangina was not in attendance, but the show more than made up for it, and the staff were incredibly welcoming to us. Our ears were ringing by the end of the night and we were exhausted from clapping and cheering so enthusiastically. If you get a chance, go along to this show – highly, highly recommended. It’s at the Renaissance hotel, so easy to get to from the skytrain.
On Monday we took things easy, booking massages and making the final visit to the tailor before checking out and heading to the station to catch the night train. We’d booked a first-class compartment, which meant we had a bunk bed to ourselves, and we picnicked on fried rice and potato chips that we’d bought beforehand, having heard that the restaurant carriage wasn’t in operation. The beds were relatively comfortable, and we had a pretty peaceful night while clickety-clacking our way up to Chiang Mai.
Two Weeks Away 