Bangkok
After Phnom Penh, Bangkok seemed like a very civilised and organised city. And after all the stories I had been told about the place, I was surprised of how ok I found it. I had been recommended a guesthouse called My House by Helen and Susie, and went straight there from the airport. It was easy to get to with the Airport bus (100 bath) and was located only a few hundred meters from Khao San Road in a quiet side street. The rooms were simple and clean and cost 190 bath for a single bed with toilet, fan and cold water. They showed three movies a day, with one at lunch time and two at night, and the whole place had a relax feeling about it.
The first 3 days went to sightseeing, I saw the Grand Palace, National Museum, Wat Pro Wat Kreaw, Wat Arun and took the express river boat. On my second day at Wat Pro, I was just walking around, abit templed out again, so I decided to buy an ice-cream before I explored the last remains of the temple. When I then was ready to do the last of my temple watching for the day, I suddenly saw 5 familiar faces walking towards me. To my surprise it was the Irish girls. They were having a day looking around in Bangkok before they were taking the night train to Chiang Mai. A bit odd that we would walk into each other in such a big city as Bangkok, when we had trouble finding each other in tiny Siem Reap.
After 3 days in My House guesthouse, I felt a bit sick and decided to get a hotel. I booked a room online for 1000 bath and moved from the backpacker part of Bangkok to the business part and close to all the shopping malls. The hotel was a good change, and two days of shopping was good too. I didn’t buy that much, but wandering around at the malls and just looking is an experience in itself. Asian pop culture can be very entertaining just to observe. I also went to the Potpong nightmarket, which was good and lots of fake stuff to buy for almost nothing.
After 5 days in Bangkok, on my best behaviour, I was ready to get back to Europe and London.
From my experience of Bangkok trip. I think that looking for accommodation around Sukhumvit are is the good idea because Sukhunvit is in the heart of the shopping district, both in terms of large department stores and the various stalls lining both sides of the road. The various side-streets provide a proliferation of nightlife venues. For the renowned and well-known spots, you will need to walk onwards past the Asok crossroads to Sukhumvit Soi 21 or Soi Cowboy. This area also offers a wide selection of cuisine to choose from, both in terms of air-conditioned high-end restaurants and open air restaurants offering quite reasonable prices.
Comment by Bangkok Hotels Thailand — September 16, 2009 @ 11:10 am