Bangkok, Thailand
Staying at Hotel Reno (40 Soi Kasemsan 1, t: (662) 215-0026-7, 612-3096-7) for 3 nights, and to celebrate the King’s Birthday.
Landing in Bangkok was yet another pleasant surprise. Some people seem to hate it, some love it. I love it. Again, it must depend a lot on where you’re coming from, and what you have to compare it to. Our last few days in Kathmandu were very smoggy, and the streets had been starting to feel quite scary, with my being constantly in fear of being taken out by a motorcycle every time I walked down, or crossed, the street. Bangkok, on the other hand, is highly developed. Traffic lights, traffic lanes, pedestrian overpasses… it’s so easy, and safe, to get around (relatively speaking). We stayed in the Siam Square area, with dozens of malls, thousands of stores, and blocks and blocks of dining and entertainment. It had a lot of energy. On our first night, we wandered into a local joint called “Too Sit”, and were happy to find a restaurant packed with locals enjoying music from a talented acoustic group, and enjoying the best “pub-food” the world has to offer. Our first night in Bangkok left us with a positive, lasting impression of this high energy city.
The malls here in Bangkok are quite overwhelming. The shear volume of high end stores is hard to grasp. MBK is an older mall, with younger fashion, and cheaper prices, so we had one day of fun restocking on a few wardrobe items.
We were also fortunate to be in town for the King’s birthday! Millions of people gathered in the downtown area to celebrate his birthday. The crowds were suffocating. I had to take very deep breath as as we tried to squeeze our way through the park to get to a clearing. It’s amazing how much the Thais love their king. After escaping the crowds, we retreated to an empty bar on the edge of the mayhem, for a happy hour beer. To our surprise, this turned out to be the best place in town to be for the fireworks. From the rooftop, we could look down and see the canons firing, and look up to see the fireworks exploding over our head. It was kind of scary, but very cool.
Front row seats at the fireworks for the King’s Birthday
