From the authentic and even exotic street foods to the fine dining restaurants to roof top bars etc, Bangkok has it all, not to mention the retail shopping side and night life entertainment galore. I guess with our Aussie dollar, it stretches even further in Thailand, so you could easily say I would be able to rave it up and live like royalty and spoil myself silly for a whole week without breaking the bank!!!
So, Bangkok here I come ready or not and all I did was eat and massage and wander around and it repeated itself the next 7 days. I usually start the day off by a roof top swim, build up an appetite for a buffet breakfast before venturing out and a typical day would be a 2 hour massage and then walk around and get lunch along the way. Then more walkies to digest lunch and its more massaging and by now, its time to head back to the hotel and freshen up for dinner and normally end the day with another 2 more hours of massage and am happy to call it a day!
Most of my Bangkok trips have been around the Sukhumvit area but this trip I decided to go back to Khaosan. PR took me there a couple of years ago and I liked it as there is a certain buzz about it. The tourists in Khaosan are just normal people wanting to have a good time and not have to splash a bundle on 5stars accommodation. There is a good mix of foreigners in Khaosan be it people on a budget or backpackers, but I can tell you, they sure know how to party hard compared to the starchy prim and proper ones in the Sukhumvit area.
I just wanted to explore Khaosan more on my own. I remembered vividly what we did and so I took the ferry to Chinatown. It makes a good change from the taxi or tut tuts and there is no traffic jam and its dirt cheap!!!  |
| Chinatown |
Its very happening there and after a wander, on my way back after all the walking in the humid weather I will stop for another 2 hours of massage to cool down in the air-conditioning and revitalise my poor feet!!! By the time I am done, I will go head to the hotel and have a little rest and shower and then I am out on the hunt for dinner.
This particular nite, I just had to get to this special Pad Thai store that everyone is raving about on the internet called Thipsamai, and after asking around I took a taxi there and am glad to report that it was worth the journey and it tasted very good. A must try if you ever go to Bangkok and coming from me, it cannot be a bad recommendation!!! The queue was long, the store workers know their game, and the speed they cooked up the pad thai was incredible and it was like as if it was a machine churning out the pad thai wrapped in a thin egg omelette.... yummz! I paid extra for 8 prawns which was nearly double the price of a normal plate that only comes with 2 prawns, but it was still cheap even after the exchange rate conversion.
One of those days, I also joined a "tut tut tour" that was to take me to 8 different tourist spots including a jewellery gallery. I thought it was rather cheap for so many places, so I just hopped on and went with the flow. I have been to most of them before, but thought its something different to do to break up my day. When he left me at the Grand Palace, he never came to get me to drop me off at MBK. Of course by now, I knew something suss was happening as other tut tut drivers were calling out to me left and right and wants my business. I guess they knew I was taken for a ride!!! Well, I did not pay my tut tut man yet as our tour was not officially over. According to the other tut tut drivers, apparently when we went to the jewellery gallery, he already got his coupons for the day and it was to fill up his vehicle and that in itself was worth much more than what he was going to charge me for the so called tour. Lesson learnt - beware of tut tut touts offering cheap city tours!!! On the other hand, if you have plenty of time to kill and nothing else to do, I guess it was "an experience" and I did get to see a few places, but just make sure if you do happen to come across this kind of offer, that the tut tut driver goes to the jewellery gallery on the last stop!!!
This trip, I ate so so so many of the baby pineapples. They are so delicious and thirst quenching especially in the Bangkok heat!!! I guess I will never be able to find them back in Melbourne. Another reason why I like Bangkok is the variety of tropical fruits that can be found there and now that I have discovered these baby pineapple bombs, I have a reason to go back again for more!!
Some of the local street food - cheap, delicious and different for sure!!!
Bangkok is always a boomerang holiday destination for me and if you like a sample taste of Asia, this would be a good place to start your adventures!!!
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