Friday Flight and First Night in Bangkok

I flew into Bangkok on a 4 pm flight leaving Hong Kong.  I was delighted to learn on boarding the airplane that they upgraded me to business class.  My first ever unsolicited, unpaid for, unbargained for bona fide upgrade!  I don't even have status on Cathay.  Fun.  I suspect it happened because I had been flying in business class for work fairly heavily at the end of last year.

Often the best things in life are the littlest and simplest of pleasures. 

 

A surprisingly tasty duck salad to start.

 I love garlic bread.

 I watched three episodes of Veep, ate a bunch of food, raced through a book on my kindle ("Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, highly recommend) and, before I knew it, had landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport.

 Thank goodness for the premium lane, because that helped me bypass very long lines.

My friends and I decided to get an executive suite, essentially an apartment, at the Marriott Sathorn.  Turns out this was the same place my family stayed last year when we did our Bangkok, Ubon and Chiang Mai family trip!

 I was both shocked and delighted when I realized that the hotel was larger than my apartment.  It is a sad state of affairs that, living in Hong Kong, this is pretty much always true.

 My entire Hong Kong apartment fits into this living room, dining room and kitchen.

There were actually hallways!  I have forgotten what it's like to have a hallway.  I know that sounds ridiculous but think about it.  The existence of a hallway means that you have enough space to necessitate a connection between two or more rooms. 

 As soon as we landed and tidied up, we headed out to dinner.  I was starving.  We went to Asiatique, a new shopping mall and food development on the river.

We went to eat at Baan Khanitha, which has a few branches around town.

 Al fresco dining.

 The requisite coconut.  It was super sweet and piercingly cold.  The perfect welcome drink.

 Sauteed morning glory - with a kick!

 Spicy glass noodle salad - the obsession continues!

 Tamarind shrimp in the forefront.  The spread, generally.

 Crab fried rice.  The chunks of crab provided were generous.

 Seafood dish - fish, squid, shrimp, etc., baked in a fish paste while wrapped in a pandan leaf.

 After dinner, stuffed to our gills, we wandered around the complex,
and then went on the Mekhong, the ferris wheel overlooking the river.

 

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