one night in Bangkok
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Aaron Everhart Wed, Apr 6, 2005 at 12:50 PM
Sunday/Monday. Flew from Honolulu to Narita (Tokyo) on a nice, new
United 777. Watched Oceans Twelve, Secondhand Lions, Bridgit Jones
Diary, and Meet the Fokkers. Nothing makes the time go by better...
Arrived at Narita and rented an airport day room and took a long nap
and had a shower. Went to a noodle shop. I have no idea what fishy
things I was eating, but it was good with a big glass of Sapporo. Next
stop: United lounge; found a big leather chair and made myself at home
while waiting for my flight.
Landed in Bangkok at 11:30 PM, Jennifer met me, and we took a taxi to
Bed, a night club to meet up with some other friends from San
Francisco, two traveling nurses, and a DJ. Bed is a giant concrete pod
on stilts, inside is a two-level night-club/restaurant space
surrounded by beds with pillows. You drink and dine on the beds while
being served by efficient waitresses who climb ladders between levels.
After Bed, Erika, Jenny and I headed to the Conrad hotel in a taxi.
Cars drive on the left. The driver would not agree with a yes or no
answer, so Jennifer spent most the taxi ride going back and forth in
Thai with the driver arguing over the exact location of the hotel.
Nothing is exact here.
Jennifer had us staying in the Conrad. She has a friend who actually
lives in the hotel, but he is in the States for two weeks, so his
deluxe pad was ours. It is a one bedroom suite with kitchen, living
room, walk-in closet, and dining room. Every day the paper comes in a
little sock, the TV remote controls are stored in leather cases. Woke
up the next day, Jennifer was already gone, she flew to Hanoi, Vietnam
early. I will catch up with her in a few days....
Erika and I spent Tuesday in Bangkok on errands riding up and down
Sukhumvit Road via the SkyTrain. Jenny left a few things un-done
before going to Hanoi, so we went to the post office, picked up a
framed painting, and bought a puzzle for her. I learned that one
dollar buys you 40 Baht, Thai currency. This is place a shopping
paradise.
We had lunch at the Greyhound cafe in a big mall. The hip cafe with a
rip-off of the familiar Greyhoud Bus logo. No rules here. My dish was
called "Complicated Salad" it was so spicy, I had to order a milk to
kill the burn. I pride myself on being able to tolerate spicy food,
but this really humiliated me.
We all had dinner and good conversation at "Vertigo," at the top of
the Banyan Tree hotel. It is an open-air rooftop restaurant and bar,
61 floors above the streets of Bangkok. Here, a Japanese beef
tenderloin will set you back $149.00. I had a martini, a dinner salad,
a single vegetable skewer, total cost: $75.00. The taxi ride across
town was less than a dollar.
After dinner, we went to the Lumpini Night Bazaar, a large late-night
marketplace selling everything imaginable, from hanging lamps to
soccer jerzees, to statues...but no Japanese steaks down here
probably.
My new friends had a nightcap and I had a coffee in the Karaoke bar in
the Westin Grand, where the other SF people are staying. No, I did not
sing or dance, I practically fell asleep on the couch.
