Welcome to Bangkok, Thailand

Day 8

Enroute to Bangkok

Currently on the plane from Istanbul to Bangkok. About an hour left to go. Eric and I both agree that Turkish Airlines is pretty darn good. On the 9 hour flight, we got both dinner (even though our flight took off at midnight) and just finished breakfast. Dinner consisted of shrimp salad, Greek salad, eggplant pasta or chicken skewers, bread, and rice pudding. Breakfast consisted of yogurt, juice, bread, cheese sandwich, scrambled eggs, assorted cheese and sliced tomatoes. The food is high quality compared to what you get on US-based airlines.

Movies are free. Watched 17 Again. Never realized it before but Zac Efron is pretty darn cute (whoa, back down, cougar!) Another plus, they offer a lot of audio options. Entire albums from Pink Floyd, Madonna and Michael Jackson greatest hits, Def Leppard, U2, etc. Currently listening to the BEST album - "80's Movie Hits". Forgot how many great movies/songs there were back then, from Breakfast Club, to Back to the Future to Beverly Hills Cop and Mannequin. I could barely restrain myself from busting out with the running man and the cabbage patch in the aisle of the plane. Luckily for Eric, he's blocking me in. This may have to be the soundtrack for our wedding. heh.

The only bad thing about these flights from Europe to Southeast Asia, I have discovered, is that there are all sorts of, um, "aromas" you smell. Seeing that I have a pretty sensitive nose, I am learning to breathe from the mouth. I see it as practice for scuba diving later.

In Bangkok!

We finally landed in Bangkok. After getting through immigration and customs, we hailed a cab and headed to our hotel - the Royal President. For $55/night, we have a nice hotel room with a kitchenette and, most importantly, free internet! I immediately headed to a nearby spa - the Ananda spa. Luckily I checked the internet, because they had a special 60 minute Thai massage for 555 baht (roughly $16.50). As Eric was tired, I made the journey to the spa myself. First thing I realized, some Thai streets do not have sidewalks. I was walking on the street while cars and bikes whizzed by. I got the hang of it after awhile, it wasn't too scary. What was daunting though is that there were no street signs. I was pointed in the general direction by reception and just headed out. Somehow I managed to find the spa. It was really nice! I was sad that I forgot the camera, because it was so pretty. Very serene with the smell of jasmine in the air. I was greeted with a glass of iced lemongrass tea and after giving soft slippers, was ushered into a room with nice clothes to change into.

My masseuse "A" was a little Thai woman. Very nice and smiled a lot. Little did I know but A packed a hard punch! In the next 60 minutes she proceeded to hit, flick, knead, twist, pull, kick and sit on me. It was AWESOME! She hit every possible stress point on my body and surprisingly, even with all that abuse, I felt very refreshed and relaxed at the end. I also got a nice cup of hot lemongrass tea to top it off. Because she was so good, I ended tipping more, but all in all, it was still under $20! I know it's a little more expensive in Bangkok, but that was definitely worth every dollar!

Sounds like there are a few typhoons heading towards Southeast Asia. Hopefully we miss them during our time here. we'll see....

We freshened up and then met up with Eric's Uncle Paul for dinner. He took us to a Thai restaurant not too far from our hotel. We seem to be in either a touristy or an expat area. During our short walk to the restaurant, we saw Korean, Japanese, Italian, Australian, New Zealand, and German restaurants. Many Korean restaurants. We must've been in K-Town Bangkok.

For our Thai dinner, we started out with some raw greens and papaya salad. We then had pineapple fried rice, massaman curry beef and chicken, and tom yum soup with coconut. I think it may have been tailored for foreigners because it was not as spicy as I had expected. However, it was still very good. We wanted to end with some mango sticky rice, but unfortunately, they didn't have any. So, instead, Eric's uncle took us to a Japanese restaurant to have Tonkatsu. We had the most amazing tonkatsu - you could tell it was freshly fried, and the pork was tender and as an added bonus, they add cheese as a filling! We also had really great fried oysters. They were very succulent and neither tasted the least bit greasy. The place was full of Japanese and some Korean people, so I guess it's pretty good.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a fruit stand that had so much amazing fruit. Mangosteen, bananas, longans, chermoyas, those red spiny things, and more. I came home with a chermoya. For 20 baht, it was delicious!!!

OK, bed time. Eric's Uncle promised us more food and massages in the morning. Must sleep! To view our pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=theresang1977&target=ALBUM&id=5386916532813002561&authkey=Gv1sRgCN75ps6hkru1Vw&feat=email