Wandergliding: Back in Bangkok

November 10^th-11^th, 2024

After a couple of relatively quiet, and very rainy days on Ko Samui, I flew back to Bangkok on the morning of the 10^th and it was kinda cool to fly very close to Ko Phangan. I was able to pick out Nad Rinn Beach, where the Full Moon Parties are held, and even a roundabout that I passed by on my scooter. I could also see Ko Tao, but it was a bit further away.

The Ko Samui airport. This is after check-in but before security...kinda cool that most of it is outside.

After security, some shops and a bar under covered walkways.

The gate, which was quite nice with super comfy chairs around the perimeter.

Taking off from Ko Samui.

Looking down at Had Rinn beach, the white bit in the middle of the pic.

Landing at Don Mueang Airport, I took the BTS (the public rail system) into the heart of the city to the fancy schmancy hotel that Naomi had booked which was called the Eastin Grand Hotel. She was arriving about an hour later than me. The screen of my laptop had started to act up (occasionally getting extra bright on the left hand side of the screen) and on Ko Samui I went to a small computer repair shop and he told me to visit Phantip Plaza in Bangkok. Amazingly, in a city with 11 million people, this plaza happened to be a 10-minute walk from the hotel. I dropped off my bag, eventually found the plaza which was now called “Phenix” and found a computer repair guy. He didn’t speak much English, but another fellow was helping a bit with translating. It seemed dire at first as he called, texted and visited a few other shops, trying to find a replacement screen. Twenty minutes later, he seemed to have found the part and stated that he could have it fixed by the following day, which was amazing as Naomi and I were flying out to Chiang Mai the day after that.

I returned to the hotel and Naomi was waiting for me in the lobby. We checked in and headed up to our room which was on the 32^nd floor! I’ve never stayed that high up in a hotel before. The view looking north was fantastic, although there was a smog layer hanging over the megacity. After getting rid of our luggage, we took the elevator to see what the infinity pools looked like on the 22^nd and 35^th floors…they were pretty sweet looking and we’d have to return to take a swim at some point.

The view from our room.

The pool on the 22nd floor.

Enjoying the view.

And now from the 35th floor.

The lovely smog of Bangkok.

For our first night in Bangkok together, we decided to find a rooftop bar to enjoy Bangkok’s skyline. After some research, Naomi picked the Hanuman Bar at the One City Centre. It took us a little bit of time to find it after getting off of the BTS (the public rail transit) but then we took the elevator to the 58^th floor. Exiting the elevator, we were greeted by a wild light display that lit up the floor, the walls and the ceiling.

We were escorted to another shorter elevator which took us up to the top, the 61^st floor! Passing through a fancy bar area and then through the mouth of a big Hanuman face, we were led to our table. We ordered a few cocktails and an appetizer and enjoyed the view. A little later there was a short dance presentation. It was a nice, albeit expensive, experience.

The fancy bar:

Hanuman!

The lovely skyline:

Cheers!

The appetizer was a yummy mango sushi-type wrap.

The dance:

Everyone got a chance to pose with the performers.

We were at the top of that builiding on the right.

On Naomi’s suggestion, we took public transport to try and find a night market to get some dinner. It took a bit of time to find the place, and in the end we’re still not sure if we found the market that she saw online. There were some food vendors in one area, but I was not keen on the super brightly lit outside dining area. The busiest looking place was filled with diners cooking their own food on hot pots on their tables. That looked interesting but as we approached the entrance, the server there asked if we had ever eaten at a place like this. “Uh, no.” “Well, you won’t like it” was the response, “too spicy”. We thought we’d take a look for ourselves. It was the type of place where you pick the meat and vegetables you want to cook in a hot pot at your table, but none of them were labelled in English and we weren’t sure what some of the items were. Naomi also pointed out that there were no foreigners eating there…okay, maybe not the best idea.

An English couple with a young baby asked us if we knew of a good place to eat, and we responded that we were clueless too. We decided on a spot and Naomi offered the couple to join us. Finn and Sarah, with baby Amelie, were from Brighton and were just starting a three-week holiday in Thailand, their first time in the country. We had a nice chat as we ate and it was nice way to end the evening.

The following morning, we headed to the breakfast buffet, and oh my, I’ve never seen a buffet like it. When you need a map, which was on each table, to know what food is where…you know it’s big. There was a Thai section, a traditional Western area, a bread section, a salad centre and even a Japanese part. Naomi enjoyed trying a bit of sushi for breakfast. It was an impressive meal for sure.

The honey doesn't get much fresher than that!

Bon appetit!

The view down from our table, with a train passing by.

Our first, and main, sightseeing stop for the day was to visit the Jim Thompson House. It is a traditional style Thai house built by an American businessman, Jim Thompson, in 1959. He was an architect before joining the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) in WWII, which was the precursor to the CIA. Near the end of the war, he was sent to Thailand, a country he fell in love with, returning later to live for the remainder of his life. He was involved heavily in the silk industry and was also an art collector, primarily of ancient Thai artifacts. He built the house in order to display his “objets d’art”. He mysteriously disappeared while on vacation in Malaysia. He went for a walk and was never seen again. A massive search effort was launched but he, nor his body was ever found. He was 61 years old.

Walking along a canal towards the Jim Thompson House:

The entrance:

We had a little more than half an hour to kill before the next English tour, so we wandered around the gardens, through some smaller buildings housing some ancient artefacts and then had a cold drink on a second level deck which was connected to the gift shop (of course there has to be a gift shop!).

One of half a dozen buildings on the grounds.

Checking out the gardens:

It was pretty lush.

Our refreshing drinks:

Our tour guide was young Thai woman, and she was fantastic. She shared her wealth of knowledge as walked around the gardens and then toured the two-storey house, which was lovely and exquisite. The tour lasted about 45 minutes and was very informative.

Near the start of the tour in the bottom of the house:

This was an interesting teapot, it didn't have a lid on the top. Instead, you fill it from the bottom through a tube that would not let the tea come back out.

At first this looked like a mirror, but it's actually a door. The tour guide told us that there were a couple of reasons to have the raised step like this between rooms in Thailand. One was that it prevented babies from crawling out of one room, and the other that Thais believe that ghosts or spirits, especially evil ones, only travel in straight lines so they couldn't pass through the doorway either. We got a chuckle out of that one...

One of many Thai artefacts that Jim Thompson had collected.

Naomi felt like this statue really looked at you with inquisitive eyes.

This was Jim's desk where he worked.

The dining room. This is not a traditional Thai dining room as they eat while sitting on the floor, but the guide stated that Jim wanted his Western visitors to be comfortable.

Interesting porcelain deer...

The main living room.

This is a vanity in the guest bedroom. The porcelain cat in the middle is actually a chamberpot.

Hard to tell here, but the little squares are individual Buddhas:

Like this...

This was near the end of the tour, in a different building that showed photographs and other memorabilia of Jim Thompson. These were different coloured spools or satin thread.

Chinatown was our next plan, which was only about 2-3 kilometres away, but as was a hot day, we did not want to walk all that way through the concrete jungle. The Jim Thompson house was situated right by a small canal with powerful ferry boats plying up and down the fetid, black water. We decided to take our chance and head to an intersection with another waterway that headed towards Chinatown. We hopped on the next boat and were a bit confused as the ticket collector came by as we had seen a sign at the pier that it was 100 baht ($4) each, which seemed expensive, but it turned out to only be 12 baht.

Two boats passing each other, there wasn't much room between them.

On the boat:

A couple of stops we hopped off and walked through a narrow walkway of tiny stalls packed to the brim with various types of clothing. Naomi remarked at the gawdy little girl dresses, but I guess it’s just a different culture here. We found the dock for the other canal, but the sign mentioned that the next boat was in a few hours. For some reason they ran first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon. We ordered a ride via the Grab app, but the traffic was at almost a standstill and after 5 minutes, our car remained 8 minutes away. I then received a call from the computer repair store and unfortunately the replacement screen they had found was not compatible with my laptop so it couldn’t be fixed. They asked if it could be picked up by 4 pm, which was less than an hour and a half away. Naomi suggested that we just skip Chinatown and head to the shopping area as I wanted to buy a replacement rain jacket for the one I lost early in my trip, afterwards we would pick up my laptop as we walked back to the hotel.

Walking by the crammed stores:

Back on the boat...keep your mouth closed Naomi...you don't want to drink any of this water!

Passing under a bridge:

A small Christmas village outside a shopping mall.

Back at the hotel, our room was about to be cleaned so we headed down to the pool deck on the 22^nd floor for a drink and then a dip in the infinity pool, just in time to watch sunset in the smoggy skies of Bangkok. We chatted with a nice couple, Cedric from France and Annette from Germany, for 15-20 minutes before the chilly water was too much for both Naomi and me.

That guy doesn't look warm either...

Nice sunset.

For dinner that evening, Naomi wanted to visit a fancy mall called Iconsiam which, on the ground floor, has a food market called Sooksiam. Iconsiam is on the shores of the Chao Phraya River and I had seen it with Pam three weeks earlier. We took the MTS (public transport train) and then hopped on a ferry boat to get there.

Arriving at Iconsiam:

It was an interesting market that’s for sure, but I can’t say that much of the food looked appetizing to me. In the end we had a pad thai at this one little restaurant, which was supposed to be with chicken, but Naomi was suspicious that it was actually pork. Looking at the menu board behind the counter, every item listed was pork related, including “pork intestines”…so it was likely pork. I bought a shish kebab stick with beef and vegetables at another stall and then we decided it was time to head back.