Bangkok, Thailand - October 24-26 2008

No you are not getting my email about Bangkok again, I'm off to Bangkok again so of course had to write something!

This time I went with my friend Kirsty. After meeting at the airport express in the city we were at the airport in no time then straight to the lounge. A small hiccup along the way......we needed boarding passes. Now no comments please, I honestly thought if you checked in online and printed out your boarding pass you were set. Well not in HK, they aren't up with the rest of the world and don't allow boarding passes unless they are on the correct paper. We had a short time in the lounge before heading to the gate, enough for a cocktail for me. Kirsty was still a little worse for wear after her very short night last night.

Getting off the plane in Bangkok was a little bit of a mere - no sooner had we landed, literally, and people were up out of their seats. Amazing that Cathay allows that. A Chinese lady, who had been sitting next to the window and speaking with her son/friend on the same row as us, 3 seats and an aisle in-between them decided she wanted to be next to him and cross in front of us. I think not. There was about 1 inch of room between our knees and the seat in front of us so who knows how she would have passed. Anyway we're in Thailand now and that's all the matters. We took a taxi, with a driver who spoke no English, to the hotel and basically had a quick trip, once we got close to the hotel traffic came to its usual standstill in Bangkok. Check in was seamless, and with my hotel card we were given a pass for a drink at the bar. Which of course we used shortly after arriving.

For dinner we went to Cabbages and Condoms, now before any of you wonder how much I've had to drink (1 beer) and whether I have the name right, its a real place which Kirsty has been before and is in my trusty lonely planet book. Of course if its there you can't go wrong. Cabbages and Condoms is an outreach program of Population & Community Development Association (PDA), a sex education/AIDS prevention organisation. All proceeds from the restaurant go towards PDA educational programmes in Thailand.

The food was wonderful! Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we ordered far too much. On being presented the check/bill there were no chocolates just condoms :) Kirsty wanted to steal the glasses, spoon and small bowl.......but alas her common sense got the better of her.

From here we headed toward Bed Suppar Club. This is a restaurant/bar/club situated down a fairly local street (food stalls, tuk tuks) which I'd walked down before and seen it. We arrived and saw people entering dressed to the nines....we were no where near like that so decided not to enter tonight. Perhaps we'll go tomorrow night.

So instead we found the first bar we came across that had a/c in it, this was no easy task. It was very much a local bar with pool tables.......although we felt it was more of a pick joint......Kirsty wouldn't let me go to the bathroom and leave her. I on the other hand was more worried about what I'd encounter if I did go to the bathroom. We decided to have 1 beer as the a/c was heaven!!!!! Our beers came out with stubby coolers.......are we back in the 60's???? We weren't going to be staying for long so no need to keep them cool.

Saturday we had breakfast in the hotel, which was included in the rate and a very good breakfast. Great deal we got from HK!

We took the BTS sky train to the river and after trying to negotiate with 2 places, twice each, decided to do a 1.5 hour private long boat canal tour. Our driver was a speedster, it was near impossible for us to talk and we were seated next to each other. Once we left the main river we headed down a small canal and had to wait for a few minutes while they closed one side before they opened another. There was a lot of white foam around, we wondered if someone had just done with washing??! Was fascinating what we saw along the way - children swimming in the revolting water, rich houses, poorest of poor houses, people fishing, people sleeping (one man we saw sleeping with a fan right by his face), mailman delivery the post by boat, people getting around on their small boats with 1 oar, the majority of the houses had pot plants outside them, a local doing her business (ripping off tourists) in her small boat. We were definitely ripped off by a bottle of local beer that we gave our mad driver, although we only gave her 70baht it was still over the top. We stopped at a floating market for a short time and what an experience this was. I promise I'll put photos up soon. Around 20 small boats selling food from stuffed fish, prawns, omelette, clams, mussels, curries and I'm sure a lot more. The small space they had to produce the food, that looked amazing, blew me away. There was also a market selling mostly food either prepared to eat there or to take home to make. It was certainly spot the tourist, which was nice.

On the journey home we took a different route and noticed lots of construction on the water. Its quite amazing what they do with the supplies they have got. We also saw, and nearly collided with a few, tug boats towing large boat like containers typically 3 tied together. I think its housing for the construction workers who work on sites on the river. The reason I believe this is we saw the odd family on there, a man swinging on his hammock, a man washing his hair and washing hanging on the line. (I certainly wouldn't be hanging my laundry there.....I wouldn't care who saw it, what I'd hate is less than 2 minutes after being hung up I'd have to wash it again as it would be dirty and wet.

After the boat tour we went to a shopping mall to look for a camera battery for Kirsty, unfortunately we weren't successful in that but we did find hockey pokey ice-cream and we were in heaven!!!! We had a very small taste but it was enough for the both of us to want a heck of a lot more. We knew we wanted pad Thai for lunch but just couldn't find anywhere in the food mall so left and walked around the streets. No luck there and after being spoken to by a few locals we headed back to the area of our hotel. More looking but no luck, it seemed every restaurant was Asian but not Thai. We finally came across a Thai restaurant which was good - singha beer and pad Thai, what more does a girl want. On looking in the lonely planet we realised we were staying in the Indian part of Bangkok - great area but not good if you wanted Thai food.

We got dolled up to go to the famous Banyan Tree Hotel that night for a drink at the bar with a view to kill. It was just amazing!!!! I could have stayed up there all night just staring out to the world. After taking a few photos we headed up to the bar (lift floor was 59 then it was up a couple of flights of stairs), found a table, sat down and was given menus then the rain started. Light to start so we thought it would pass then within seconds was full on. So no sooner had we arrived than we were off again. Thankfully we hadn't ordered or paid for drinks. Being 59+ floors up it was a tad windy as well as very wet. I felt sorry for the people who were up there enjoying a lovely dinner. We went down to the lobby for a drink but decided to leave - you can drink in any lobby (or bar) and it wasn't that flash. It definitely would be cheaper elsewhere. So off we headed to the Patpong Markets, which we had planned and in the taxi changed footwear. As I said to Kirsty its the cheapest visit I've ever had to an amazing hotel before. I have the photos and a story so that's something.

It was still pouring with rain when we got out of the taxi. I'd heard a lot about these markets as well as read different articles/notes, its certainly different to what I imagined. Certainly not as big and not nearly as many lady boys bars as I'd been advised I'd see. Don't get me wrong the lady boys were there - some in full light you could tell, others was near impossible. We were asked a few times if we wanted to see a show, and every time we declined. We were handbag hunting although every stall owner/worked wanted us to look at there stuff - '"I give you good price", "you like" we heard a lot. One of the handbag shops we went into we were told a handbag was £350, now bear in mind these are fake bags, great fake bags but nonetheless fake bags. We said no thanks and walked on.

Back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and get directions to Face restaurant, while we were getting directions I noticed an elephant out of the corner of my eye, yes a real one, walking down the main street. I was shocked and saddened.

Once we received our directions we were off again and what a good choice of restaurants it was! There is 2 parts to Face - Thai or Indian. We were torn but as we are in Thailand went with the Thai part. The food was absolutely delis, I will totally be recommending this place and Cabbages and Condoms to people coming to Bangkok.

Sunday we had breakfast in the hotel then set out for some pampering - we each had a package comprising of body scrub, body wrap, massage then soak in a bath with rose pedals. It was pure bliss!!! I could have booked in for the week :). And given it was Thailand it was super cheap!!!

The saying time flies when you are having fun is oh so right. We managed to fit in a pedicure before leaving for the airport, although my blood pressure did rise a bit as we were running (quite literally) late. Of course we got a slow taxi driver but made it in the end and had time for a super quick drink in the lounge before rushing off to buy lunch (very late!!)/dinner then boarded the plane back to HK.

We arrived back to HK at 10.30pm and the second we were back in the airport knew we were back in HK, every man for himself pushing to get .