Trip To Bangkok : Day II

( This post follows from Trip To Bangkok: Day I. Post III of V chronicling, well, what else? My Trip to Bangkok! )

Freddie, in his state of gleeful bliss, following the umpteen glasses of champagne cocktails, set the alarm for 0830, Indian time! That meant that it was about 0950 in Bangkok. There was no way we could make it for breakfast. So we continued sleeping. A simple yet elegant solution. :D

We finally woke up at around 1200, Bangkok time and after a quick wash, went down to catch a taxi to go visit the malls. We took a taxi to Thong Lo station and bought an all day pass for the SkyTrain. It was 120 baht and allowed us to travel for a whole day to any station as many number of times as we wanted. We then took a train back to Siam. When we observed it during the day, we saw that it was actually 3 malls all connected to one another.




We went to the Siam Paragon which was had all the classy, expensive boutiques. Inside we saw a Ferrari F430 and a Lamborghini Murcielago. Of course we took photos. :D We walked around a bit and then went downstairs. Since we were hungry, we were looking for a place to eat. Downstairs was the food court. I saw a chocolate pudding that I liked the look of, so I decided to sample some. Freddie spotted a New Zealand Natural ice-cream stand so he ordered 3 large scoops of different types of ice-cream. We found a place to sit and spent a few minutes polishing off our goodies.

Temporarily satiated, we went to the mall next door, the Siam Center, which we’d visited the night before too. On the way we saw preparations for a Skatejam. People were setting up the area and there were also a few guys practicing. We made a note to come by later and watch it but unfortunately we couldn’t make it for the actual show.

We strolled through the Siam Center and Freddie found a Starbucks and got himself some coffee. I’ve tried something from there once before, in Jakarta, and I didn’t really like it too much then, so I decided to pass. We then went to the third mall, the Siam Discovery and did a bit of window shopping. There, we found a big shop selling lots of stuff like stationary and gift items and crockery. We went to have a look. I bought a mouse pad and a couple of phone charms.

After an hour or so, we’d had enough of these malls. Freddie had this restaurant that he wanted to go to, the V9. It was on the 37th floor of the Sofitel Silom hotel. So we went back to the Siam station and caught a train to Chong Nonsi. When we went to the hotel, we found that it was open only after 1700! But we spotted another restaurant, Shanghai, on the 38th floor. So went up to that. It was very classy and looked very expensive. I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend so much on Chinese food but Freddie had his heart set on it, so I went along with it without protest.

We took a table next to window to be able to get a good view of the city. We weren’t disappointed. The panorama was incredible. We could see out for miles. Freddie started ordering the food while I went through the menu. He asked for 3 dishes and asked me if I’d share one of them with him. Since I wasn’t very hungry, an aftereffect of the chocolate pudding, I didn’t order anything else for myself. When it came, the food looked very enticing. It had been arranged very nicely. I tried a bit of everything.

First up was the Drunken Chicken. It’s served cold and tasted like it’d been cooked in beer or something. I didn’t like it too much, but it wasn’t bad, just different. Then there were pork ribs which were alright. I forget what the third dish was but it was the best of the three. There was also fried rice. Even though I shared with Freddie, my hunger was sated. And even though I shared with Freddie, our bill was about Rs. 1800!

After lunch we strolled back to the Chong Nonsi SkyTrain station and caught a train back to Siam where we changed over to the other line and went to Thong Lo. From there we decided to walk back to our hotel since it seemed close enough ( it wasn’t that close! It was around a 40 minute walk ). Freddie and I bought a fake perfume each from a vendor under the station for 200 baht each. We then wandered down the Sukhumvit Soi 55 road, looking at shops and the general area. We saw a Burger King on the way and decided to get our dinner from there. After collecting our orders we continued our journey back to the hotel.

Once we were back, we rested for a while, eating our food. The plan for the evening was to go to a Thai boxing fight and to visit the Patpong area, famous for its night market. And its red light district. So we asked at the front desk for information on Thai boxing. We were told that there were two places where we could watch and the timings were 1830 to 2230. It was about 1900 then so we decided to go there first. The nearer boxing stadium was at Lumpini. We caught a taxi to there and on the way crossed the Suo Lim night market which we figured we could visit if the Patpong one was closed for some reason.

At Lumpini, as soon as we got out, an official asked us if we were there to watch Thai boxing. She then directed us to the ticket counters. There are 3 levels: you can sit at the ring side; stand behind those sitting at the ring side; or stand one more level up and further. The prices forced us to buy tickets for the third and cheapest level. We were still lighter by 1000 baht, each, though! Inside there was a ring with two guys, one in red and one in blue, who were in amazing shape, fighting. It really wasn’t that exciting. The fight was slow and there would be sudden increase in the action but it short lived. Maybe it’s just the influence of too many Matrix movies, but I thought it’d be a little more to it.

We left the stadium after the main fight of the day was over. Freddie wanted to ride a tuk-tuk so we looked around for one. We found one who was ready to take us to Patpong for 100 baht. We piled in and he roared off. The tuk-tuk is kinda like the autorickshaws we have here in India, except its more open and more powerful. The driver was under the impression that we were going to Patpong to indulge our baser desires. So he kept asking us if we wanted him to recommend some place! It was pretty much the same after we got off at the market where we were accosted by every third person to come visit the shop he/ she was working for! We kept fighting them off and making our way through the market.

The market itself it set on the road itself. Lots of people setup make shift stalls and lay out their wares. It’s pretty much the same stuff in all the shops: DVD’s, trinkets and jewelry, belts, clothes and watches. A little further, on the pavement next to the main road, there were shops selling other show pieces and assorted Thai handicrafts. We both bought some little stuff ( I paid too much for mine! The trick is to quote less than half of what the shopkeeper says and then haggle your way up to a price that is good for you both )

After spending so much money in one evening, I thought it was best to go back to our room and so we went to nearest SkyTrain station and decided to make a detour to the Victory Monument. We got off at the station, walked to the monument and took a few pictures. Freddie had heard of some other palace nearby and wanted to take a look. I wasn’t too keen but we went out looking. After walking for a while and not being able to figure out where to go exactly, we gave it up and decided to go back.

We went to the Asok staion. We planned to take the MRT which is the underground version of the SkyTrain. Except the last train for the station we were trying to get to had a long since departed. We hurried back to the SkyTrain since it was getting close to midnight and the operations for the day would soon stop. We caught a train to Thong Lo and caught a taxi back to the hotel from there. Freddie asked for a wake up call at 0630 so that we’d get ready in time for breakfast. We went up to the room and had a bath and got ready to sleep after a very long and tiring day. Except we just couldn’t! Both of us kept tossing and turning in our beds for almost an hour before I gave up on sleep and switched on the TV. The Glass House was on on Star Movies so I settled down to watch that. It’d been a few hours since we’d last eaten so Freddie got some stuff out of the mini-bar. He polished off a couple of Toblerone bars and a fruit juice.

I was groaning inside at the prospect of just 3 odd hours of sleep once again in 2 days when we finally drifted off to sleep at around 0300.