Bangkok: Round II

I would have to say that as a general rule, I don’t really like visiting the same place twice. There is too much to see and do, and never enough time to do it, especially on this trip. I feel like going somewhere twice means you have less time for somewhere new. Having said that, returning to a place that you’ve already been to can be a pleasant experience. You already have a handle on ins and outs like where to stay and eat, as well as what to avoid, so there is less aggravation and you spend less of your time trying to figure things out. Also, you typically see all the major attractions during the first visit, so you don’t have to rush around taking in all the sights. In short, a second visit is typically more relaxed and enjoyable than the first. We’ve actually returned to a handful of cities on this trip (Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Kathmandu), and have enjoyed it when we did. Our second visit to Bangkok was no exception. We ended up returning to Bangkok because overland transport from Siem Reap (Cambodia) to our next destination in Southern Thailand would have taken too long to do all at once, and it made sense to break up the journey in Bangkok. Since we had such a good time our last time there, we decided to give ourselves a few days this time. 


Bangkok at night

Bangkok is unique in the world’s megacities in that hotels, even the high end ones, can be had for very reasonable rates. So, after months of backpacker dives, we decided to splash out on a nice hotel for a few days of comfortable beds, air conditioning, hot showers and flat screen TVs with HBO. We ended up in a suite at the Amari, a brand new boutique hotel with a pool on the roof and a uniformed doorman. The kind of place we could never afford in New York or Los Angeles, but that while significantly more expensive than the places we have been staying, a steal by normal standards. We spent hours reading by the pool or sleeping in and watching movies. After 6 months on the road, we had almost forgotten what it was like to sleep in a king sized bed with real sheets and a duvet, or to take a steaming hot bath. It was so comfortable and nice, we actually didn’t leave all that often. As reasonable as it was though, we couldn’t justify the expense for more than a few days. So, after our hotel holiday, we came back to reality and moved across the street to The Atlanta, a venerable old hotel with peeling paint, art deco furniture, and loads of character. It had a pool (Thailand’s first hotel pool apparently), comfortable beds and was right downtown, so it wasn’t like we were hard done by, but it definitely wasn’t the Amari. 



Hanging out at the pool

What did we do for our second visit? Not much really. Because we had been to most of the “must see” attractions on our last visit, there was no pressure to try to pack things in. We took advantage of the Amari to sleep in and stock up on creature comforts, and we took some time to take care of a few mundane things that we had been meaning to get to for a while. Things like haircuts, postcards and letters, planning our onward travel to Australia and New Zealand, and catching up with friends and family via skype. We even got some wine and food and had a date night by the pool on the roof which was quite nice.

As for activities, we just sort of wandered around a few areas of town we missed last time. We took in the new office buildings in the Silom road business district, the nightclubs in the red light districts of Patpong and Soi Cowboy, people out for a walk in Lumpini Park, and food stalls on the Sois off Sukhamvit. We even got a chance to meet up with a Belgian expat we had met in northern Laos. He works and lives in Bangkok and took us to a really cool restaurant we never would have found on our own, a super trendy place with amazing food and beanbag seating on the lawn full of expats and Thai yuppies. 



Superbowl in Bangkok

I think the highlight though was watching the Superbowl. It wasn’t the game itself, because to be honest, I’ve more or less stopped following sports. Sure I’ll watch the odd game, and can still get into it now and then, but it’s been a while since I’ve really followed any sport. Add to that the fact that we’ve been on the road during the entire season, and haven’t seen a single game or heard a single bit of news (the rest of the world does not care about American football), and you can see why we weren’t really that invested in the game. Frankly we didn’t even know who was playing until we looked it up. However, watching the Superbowl is a tradition, and I can't remember the last one I missed. So we decided to try to see it. Colleen went on line and found an expat bar called The Pickled Liver (best bar name ever ) near our hotel that was showing the game live. With the 12 hour time difference, kickoff was at 7 am. Beer and chicken wings surrounded by Americans screaming at TVs as the sun comes up in Bangkok, one more interesting experience for the books. Actually a lot of my friends in Philadelphia were European and I would often join them for soccer games that were shown live in bars in the early morning, so it was kind of fun to do the same thing on the other side of the world.

So that was our second visit to Bangkok in a nutshell, a fancy hotel, a and the Superbowl, not a bad few days. I’m still a little behind on postings, I guess I’m too busy with all this bloody travelling…

Michael
East Melbourne
Australia