Sawadee!

I flew to Bangkok to visit my sister this past weekend.  It was a public holiday in Hong Kong on Tuesday, so I figured I would take Monday off and just make it a four day weekend.  She has been in Bangkok for nearly a month for orientation and training with a small group of fellow Fulbrighters, before she heads to her specific region (eastern Thailand) to teach English at a local school.

I departed on an Air Asia flight on Friday night out of Hong Kong airport and touched down at Bangkok's old Don Muang airport two and a half hours later.  Don Muang is the older airport so not as new or fancy or sprawling, and the only option is to take a bus or a taxi.  Since I landed at nearly midnight, I opted for a taxi.  The airport does a pretty decent job of helping the farang (someone of European ancestry, or really just anyone with white skin, but probably also clueless foreigners generally) tourists onto taxis with meters, but as I found out when my taxi driver brought me to my hotel, the meter doesn't really matter.  He grinned and proceeded to bilk me of an additional 118 baht, claiming "highway fees".  Oh well.

For my first two nights in Bangkok, I opted to stay once again at the Tenface boutique hotel off of Ruamrudee road.  My sister checked into the hotel earlier, so I walked in to fresh fruit, banana bread and delicious Tom Yum Gai (the tastiest sweet and sour and spicy mushroom and chicken tom yum soup I had ever had) which she had bought for me.

Even better, I had two bags of little presents waiting for me - fun silicone cooking products in all colors and shapes (muffin / cupcake holders, tea steeper, ice cubes tray, pot holders), a tea votive holder, and traditional Thai snacks (dried mango slices, tamarind seeds covered in sugar).  It was the sweetest and most thoughtful gesture, and so nice after a long and frustrating night of travel.  Upon arriving back in Hong Kong, I promptly put the muffin/cupcake holders to use - aren't they so cute?

On Saturday, we went to Lord Jim's at the Mandarin Oriental for the all-you-can-eat seafood brunch.  It was an extravagant and lavish feast, but as usual everything at the Mandarin was done impeccably.  The views of the river and the beautiful pool area were very soothing.

The lobby was beautifully decorated with dramatic, soaring birdcages and floating, neatly folded lotus flowers.

We made sure to show up hungry, and I'm proud to say we went through all of the paces, from the smoking salad bar to the sashimi bar to the grilled rock lobster to the gigantic crayfish to the shrimp cocktail to the soup bar to the foie gras to the dessert table.  I had not one but three mango and sticky rice servings.  Whew.

We then went to Platinum shopping mall, a wholesale mall with five floors of ladies' clothing, shoes, handbags, accessories and leather goods, to do some damage.  Like much of Bangkok, the malls here can be a bit overwhelming - each floor is crammed full of tiny stalls, each completely stocked top to bottom and side to side and crammed full of color and texture.  The prices are really cheap by Western (and Hong Kong) standards - the most expensive item I bought here was a dress for 350 baht, or barely US$12 - but unfortunately, it's a bit hit and miss as most stores won't let you try on the clothes.  Everything is also cut for impossibly tiny (narrow, skinny, short!) people.   Luckily my sister and I were both able to scoop up some nice finds - but the one dress I was certain would fit didn't, and the blouse I was most worried about fit best.

Afterward, we went to the rooftop bar at Sofitel to meet up with a couple of Amanda's friends, to soak up some "hi-so" culture (for "high society," this is a term bandied all around Bangkok and refers to the high class, or just the very wealthy).  The roof bar overlooked Lumpini park, which at night and from our vantage point, was quite stunning.  The bar's walls were completely glass, so that I couldn't help but become mesmerized by the endless stream of traffic, slithering past like a skinny golden belt.  My blackberry picture is so pathetic, you'll just have to use your imagination:

We then went to get hotpot for dinner (oh you know it) just outside of Lumpini park, where a bunch of locals were sweating it out dipping meat and vegetables into the broth, chugging their beers and delighting in the lip-smackingly good som tum (green papaya salad).

And just because my sister and I both happened to be on the same episode of the same show, we fell asleep after watching the next episode of Downton Abbey - a most delicious nightcap.  It was the perfect end to a perfect day.