We think that we made the right decision. Stay at a luxury hotel in Bangkok versus an expensive, average hotel in touristy Phuket or Ko Samui. The potential rainy weather in the Thai islands definitely factored into the decision.
So we checked into the Dusit
Thani hotel for the next three nights. It has so many amenities and restaurants that one really never needs to leave the hotel. It reminded us of a nice Vegas hotel. Only thing missing was a casino. There are eight restaurants (Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French, Steakhouse, Buffet), swimming pool, large air-conditioned gym, golf driving range, yoga studio, squash court, trendy-looking bar, spa, sauna, steam room and shops. Our room looked like a Ritz Carlton room with the crown molding, neutral colors and large mirrors. We had just one problem with our room. To turn on the lights, you have to put your room key into a slot. For some reason, the lights would turn off on us after a couple minutes. We tried to take it out and put it back in and the lights turned on. Again, after two minutes, lights out. So we called the front desk. Someone came up to look at it. He put in another card and the lights stayed on. Must be something to do with the conductivity of the cards. We assume that they get that problem often because he knew immediately what to do.
First stop was the swimming pool for some relaxation. There we ordered a roast beef and cheese baguette sandwich and watermelon juice. If all the food was this good, we were in for a treat. After three hours lounging by the pool, we headed up to change for dinner.
With so many dinner choices at the hotel, the winner was Hamilton's Steakhouse. Theresa had the beef stew with Australian tenderloin. The tenderloin was juicy and the stew was perfect, not too salty and the vegetables were fresh. I had the President Salad to start,
which had lobster, pan-fried duck liver and scallops. For the main, I had lobster bisque which came in a puff pastry. Worthy of being its house specials.We had to do some exercise after that kind of a meal so we decided to take a leisurely walk. Somehow we ended up at the Patpoon Night Bazaar. Theresa bought a necklace (I think she way overpaid). On the side were lots of rowdy bars with girls dancing on the tables. We kept getting approached by guys asking if we wanted to watch "ping pong". At first, we were confused why anyone would want to watch pingpong this late at night and then it clicked....um, NO THANK YOU! Funny, but for some reason, the guys kept approaching Theresa. I guess they figured if they could get the female on board, the man was bound to follow along for the "show".
Being prudes, we decided to bail on any show watching and headed back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.
Day 45 - "It was Grand" Bangkok, Thailand
Since there was no free breakfast at the Dusit Thani, we decided to sleep to our hearts' content. I think we eventually got up around 10:30 a.m. We made our way down to the Gourmet Cafe to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out for the day. On the menu was a tasty Italian panini with aoili and pesto, chocolate chip cookie and an earl gray tea. Unbeknownst to me, the tea cost a whopping $4.50. I think that it's the hotel's strategy. Since most people don't drink tap water here, they need to order a drink and the drink prices are outrageous. $4.50 for a bottled water, hot tea or a can of coke! Wow, they're lucky I forgive them because their food is so darn good.
We hopped into a cab to head to the Grand Palace. We've been to Bangkok about 4 times now and had not done any sightseeing. We figured we had to at least see the Grand Palace. Lucky for us, the ride took us through chinatown. Chinatown Bangkok is pretty large.
Once we got to the Grand Palace, right when we got out of the cab, we were approached out of nowhere by this guy who claimed to be a "teacher" and telling us that the palace was currently closed until 2:30 for a royal ceremony and that instead, we should
go visit the reclining Buddha and other sites in the vicinity. We were a little skeptical and he kept saying "I am a teacher, I am helping you, I don't want any money." Anyhow, so, he says these other sites are a bit far and that we can easily get there by tuk tuk. And whadya know, right when he said that, this tuk tuk magically comes out of nowhere to whisk us off to the other sites. Luckily we had done our homework and had read about these so-called scammers who lie and say that there is something going on at the Grand Palace and that you can't get in and so you should go to these other sites instead (thereby getting some money via the tuk tuk ride). We quickly walked away and headed to the Grand Palace, which, of course, was open and filled with tourists. The Palace had a free tour every half hour, so we joined up and took a 1.25 hour tour around the temple part and the palace part of the compound. There is a third area that is restricted for the royals and visiting dignataries that we couldn't go into. The area was nice. Very ornate and there was a emerald Buddha (really Jade) that looked similar to the one in Cambodia. It is cloathed in a cloak now because it is Winter season.
It was a hot day. Maybe 90? We decided to call it a day and head back to the Dusit Thani to rest a bit. Then, my mission was to find a place that did facials. Not sure what happened, but my skin is atrocious. But first - lunch.
We settled for a quick lunch at this place on Silom called "The Noodle Bar". It specialized in Thai, HK, Japanese, Italian and Vietnamese noodles. It was just ok. The pineapple fruit shake was tasty though. After searching a bit, we finally found one across the street on Silom. It's more of a medical complex - which does photorejuvenation and botox and those sort of things, but it had a special on a basic facial - $15 for 45 minutes. Figured it didn't hurt to try. The facial was nice - unfortunately no extractions though which is what I really need. In any event, it was a nice pampering. While I was getting a facial, Eric took a stroll to Mickey D's and eventually settled for an ice cream back at the hotel.
After the facial, I rushed back to the hotel because they were offering free yoga at 7:30. Eric and I parted ways - me to the yoga studio and him to the golf driving range and the gym. We were trying to make up for the last month and a half of no exercise. Sadly, we realized we're both out of shape. We could barely do the diluted version of the P90x Ab Ripper workout.
Naturally, after all that working out, we had to eat again. Ok, I had to eat again. We headed down to the Pavilion restaurant in the hotel around 10:30 pm and I had a creamy tomato soup and dessert. The tomato soup was excellent and very interesting. It was a tomato bisque but had some sour granny apple bits in it. It sounded a bit weird at first but it really worked. Probably top 5 things I've eaten on this trip. I topped it off with some watermelon juice and a dessert of tapioca and rice balls in coconut milk. After watching me eat, Eric was now hungry. So we headed out to the local supermarket to get him a snack and ended up at Mickey D's for a "Samurai" burger (to me it looked like a gross pork burger).
Fat and happy, we called it a night.
For pictures of days 44 and 45, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=bigtandeze&target=ALBUM&id=5401075205050560641&authkey=Gv1sRgCNCi5ciig5fxYA&feat=email
No comments:
Post a Comment