We got dinner at a restaurant right next to the hotel and it was very tasty. The place was a little fancier than most of the other places we went. There was a little bit of Thai taste to everything, but it was actually quite nice. After dinner everyone was dead tired so we went back to the hotel and crashed.
We went to a massage palace that Steph looked up. I say palace because it looked like a palace and felt like one while you were there. Adam and I elected for the 1 hour food massage while the others got 2 hour full body massages. The massage felt absolutely amazing and the only one iffy on going back for more was Amit who said that it just wasn’t for him.
In the down time Adam and I walked through the close by red light district Soi Cowboy. This lived up to its reputation of being showy and not terribly seedy. I would be willing to go to a show there for the experience of it. Close to our hotel is the really seedy area Nana Plaza which I would be hesitant to walk through let alone go into a place there.
We grabbed drinks nearby Soi Cowboy at The Queen Victoria. It was like being in England. We chatted about fantasy novels and then went back to meet up with the others.
The Thai mall is different than the american mall in a few crucial ways. There are a lot more service based places like beauty salons, massage parlors, and printing booths. The second big difference is that it is about 50% stands 30% food and 20% stores. The number of stands make it seem more like the night market than what I would think of as a mall. The stands had much the same stuff that the stores did and they were all pretty much the same as each other. Steph and I had our phones die while at the mall so we didn’t get any more pictures for the day.
We went to one of the major tourist stops in Bangkok, the Jim Thompson House. It was built by a British architect who started the large scale trade in Thai silk. The house and gardens were absolutely gorgeous and the stories about the man and the company were interesting. It was well worth the stop. There were no pictures allowed inside so there aren’t many pictures I got of the house. There was also an exhibit with a Greek bane curated by a Japanese man on the nature of the fabric industry displayed in the form of interpretive fabric art. That part wasn’t nearly as interesting.
We took the train to the national stadium stop to see the Jim Thompson House. Before stopping there we walked by the place and then took a detour along the canal. We ended up back next to the station at a really authentic looking place. We noticed that it was full of foreigners but it seemed like a local food spot. The food took a bit to come out but when it did it was really amazing. Especially the dish I got, the tom yum soup.
We stopped by a very British pub for drinks that was in the sane mall as the tailor. Adam came to meet us and we had a few drinks. They were larger than expected and really large compared to everything else we have been served thus far. The name of the bar was The Huntsman.
After breakfast everyone but Adam headed down to the tailors to pick up sine well priced clothes. The cost came to $40-$50 per shirt but that is really good considering similar quality in the states would be $150 each. I ended up getting 3 black dress shirts to replace the China trip ones that have worn out. Steph and Jeremy got some clothes but I’m not sure about the others. I think Amit and Tina also got some but nick certainly didn’t.
We went to the bangkok baking company for breakfast and had a very western style breakfast with western pricing. The food was pretty good. Jeremy was the only one who slept in a bit and when he was trying to get to the place for breakfast got a little bit lost and walked 10 minutes in the wrong direction.
This morning I also found out that the head monk for Thailand died last week and that the period of mourning for him may push back the lot krathong festival, which may make us miss it.
Five of us waited at beachhead house and got to the airport super early. Jeremy and nick met us there and we hung out before the flight playing some open face Chinese poker.
The flights were mostly uneventful and steph was nice enough to give me a sleeping pill for the first flight. I was able to see The Wolverine and Red2 which were both decently enjoyable movies. We got there and did the ATM run and also picked up some Thailand Sim cards so that we could use the internet and keep in touch while there.
It's an Exciting World 