Category Archives: Thailand

I woke up this morning to see an envelope slipped under my door. I assumed it was my hotel bill, and left it for a while, but then in the spirit of curiosity regarding how many minibar items I was being charged for, opened it. Actually, it was a message from the concierge, saying that there were protest rallies being staged all over the city today, and to make sure I left plenty of time to get to the airport.

Oh. That puts a damper on things. I don’t particularly want to get caught up in anything iffy, and I know my mum would kill me if I did! 🙂 I wandered down after breakfast to have a chat with the concierge, a lovely helpful guy who’d been pointing various places to me on the map for the past day, and cheering at my successful shopping missions.

Sempang Lane markets

I had been researching haberdashery and notions, and decided I wanted to go to Sampeng Lane, a market area in Chinatown. Since it was still very early, he said it was perfectly safe to go there, but I’d better leave now, and gave me directions to get back from there by public transport since the traffic was likely to be an issue which precluded a taxi.

Sampeng Lane Markets

So I hopped in a taxi and sped out to Chinatown, a taxi ride costing 75baht (about one and a half times what the public transport cost would be! Taxis are cheap cheap cheap here!) The taxi driver let me off on a street to the side of Sampeng Lane, and not knowing where I was going, I wandered around a little. Luckily, I found the pier, which I would be wanting later to get back to the hotel with, which helped me to orient myself on the map, and I quickly found the markets area, which was one street over.

Sampeng Lane Markets

I ended up in a food market to start with, and was surrounded by the “interesting” aromas of dried fish, not-so-dried fish, and various fresh and cooked goods. This place was quite different to the weekend markets I was at yesterday, and I felt incredibly out of place, being much taller and a lot paler than the other market goers! Eventually in my wanderings I found a bead shop, which had thousands of strings of sparkly beads hanging from the sides of the shop, very temptingly. I picked up a few, and followed the tide of the crowd into another section of the markets which were much more “usual” – jewellery, souvenirs and tshirts. The jewellery shops were all very cheap, so I picked up some bling, and continued on in search of haberdashery. I found some brooches that would be good for using in dancing costumes, but they were quite high priced, about $35 each, which is more than what I can get similar things for on ebay.

Fishies

It looked like the textile shops were all shut, so I headed back down to the pier to catch a ferry to the nearest train station. There didn’t seem to be any signs telling which dock to wait at, so I asked people whenever a ferry came in, and eventually got onto the right one. The river was teeming with huge fish that people were feeding from the pier – I wonder if they’re the same fish that will be laid out in the market tomorrow?

Ferry

Ahhh boat travel…

Since I was on the right train line, I decided to pop into MBK, the huge shopping centre that had been recommended. It is pretty big, and has lots of little shops selling electronics, clothes, food etc. I didn’t end up with anything apart from lunch here, and wandered out to catch the train back to the hotel.

And stopped short.

Demonstration… and the bridge to the train

There was a pretty big demonstration happening right outside the shopping centre! Luckily, the bridge to the train station went straight over it, so I sped up to the train and breathed a sigh of relief. The rally looked to be pretty peaceful, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

At the (freezing cold) pool

After seeing another rally from the windows of the train, I thought it best to retire to the hotel for the afternoon. I tried out the (very tall) rooftop pool, but since it was freezing in there, I only managed one lap before climbing out again.

Then it was packing, checking out (the reception guys were very concerned about traffic and thought maybe I should catch the train instead, but then decided they could tell the taxi driver to go a different way) and I was on my way. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone had thought, and I was at the airport 45 mins later, a solid 5 hours before my flight.

After a Starbucks, I was able to throw my case at the checkin counter (er… heave it, anyway; my case is 23kg! What a change from usual!) and head past security. I found out at the duty free shop that actually, I wasn’t allowed to buy duty free alcohol – it’s not allowed on the plane!! So much for all the other airports I’ve been in which allow duty free to either go on the plane or check it at the gate!

So with nothing else to do but wait, I booked into the CIP lounge near my gate. It cost 1000 baht (~$35) for two hours, but has comfy seats, food and drink, and wifi… and I’m on my way home again.

See you next time!

I’m a bit surprised by Bangkok. I had assumed it was closer to Phnom Penh in terms of the way it felt, but the atmosphere is more like Singapore. Granted, I’m basing this on one day’s exploration, but the Skytrain (above street level train) and the shopping centres are much more organised and a lot more English is spoken than I’d antocipated. Which is a good thing, since I’ve been really slack and not learned any Thai – even thankyou – yet!)

I started the morning with breakfast in the Executive Lounge at the hotel (thrown in with room rate). Poached eggs, bacon (streaky) and a couple of hash browns – yum! I did appreciate the omelettes at the Goldiana in PP, but I do love poached eggs even more!

Chatuchak Markets

After asking the concierge what some of my options might be for the day, I decided to take the Skytrain to the Chatuchak Markets, a huge weekend market with literally thousands and thousands of stalls. There are a lot of the same styles of shops, but there’s also so many shops that there are a lot of different shops, as long as you have a good wander! I found these awesome little stuffed toy figures attached to keyrings, some amazing 3d jigsaw books for some of the little people in my life, and I also found my mum a good Chrissy pressie (I’m not saying what it is, since she reads this blog, but suffice to say that I might have some interesting conversations with Customs about it!)

Markets alley

The train back to the hotel was easy, and I happened to have to go through a shopping mall on the way back to the hotel. Unfortunately there are very few doors on the street my hotel is on, so I had to explore a LOT before I found my way to the proper exit (oh the hardship!!) but I did manage to not buy anything else… yet. Mainly because I couldn’t carry much more!

Please offer this seat to monks

I love the trains – well airconditioned, with English and Thai announcements of each stop. They have the usual priority seats, but one sign surprised me – a specific one to please give up your seat to monks! I think this goes nicely in my “random public transport signs” collection with the “No durian on the bus” sign from Singapore! I may have sat in the monks’ seat, but I promise there weren’t any monks I could see on the train!

I ordered room service for lunch (what a splurge!) as I was pretty tired and wanted to have a nap. The lady I spoke to on the phone asked if I had any allergies, so I mentioned gluten free, and she went and spoke to the chef to make sure my order was GF! She then rang back to let me know my options – I went with the classic: Chicken Phad Thai. Yum!

The rest of the day was spent napping and then in replying to all the emails I hadn’t had time to when I was on the school trip, so hopefully I’m up to date with most things now.

Nibbles

I popped into the exec lounge again for their evening drinkies – one of the things I really love about the Hilton! They’ve got lots of nibbles too – I had a tiny single serve Caprese salad, like our “salad onna stick” but in a tiny bowl with pesto, a thin slice of tomato and a mini bocconcini, and some really soft, yummy feta.

Rooftop pool and view

The rooftop pool and bar area was my next stop, and I was amazed to see the pool went right to the edge of the roof! My fear of heights was somewhat deadened by bubbles consumption, but I still looked somewhat askance at it! Might try a swim tomorrow if I can convince myself the wall won’t fall out causing the entire contents of the pool to plummet to the ground… Beautiful view though!

Gorgeous!