First Time in Bangkok

Me and Sue are in Bangkok as part of our usual Chinese New Year travel. It is our first time here, but, despite the writing being just as cryptic as they are in China or Taiwan, we feel more at home here. For one thing, a lot of things look the same: the people, the houses, the weather...

Many things are different though:

• The airport looks great from within. I've never seen unfinished concrete look so nice when accentuated with glass and steel.


• Despite multiple warnings, I think there is less risk of getting ripped off in Bangkok than in Manila.

What have we done?

• Arrived in BKK an hour late at 1:00AM because of the new Cebu Pacific motto "better late than never".


• Got lost taking a taxi to our temporary hostel.


• Found the hostel very nice--super clean rooms and nice wooden floors. Got the same complaints from my wife: common toilets and not so neat backpackers. But, overall, the place and its people were nice. I will come back there when backpacking with my more "not-so-neat" friends.


• Had a great (and very cheap) breakfast at the hostel. Nothing beats pad thai noodles and banana pancakes for breakfast. They also served us some brewed coffee and a nice glass of fresh OJ.


• Checked out. Left our bags at the hostel (yes, they have free storage for 8 hours) and took the BTS to MBK mall. We realized that the hostel was not very near the BTS. It's a 10-minute walk in not-so-nice pavement.

• Sue bought nice looking sunglasses for 150Baht (bargained down from 250Baht). I'm looking to buy one for myself before we leave.


• Sue bought sandals for 390Baht (no discount from Babana shop), which they said was real leather. Sue decided to put them on because she was so happy with them and they looked great with her dress. After an hour, I stepped on the heel while she was about to stride, and, voila, the pure leather strap broke. Good thing she managed to convince the angry store owner to replace the sandals. Moral lesson: don't buy real leather.


• We found a food court called Fifth Street something inside MBK. Food was great. Sue got a set meal of Tom Gum Yum soup, green chicken curry, some vermicelli with vegetables and three-colored rice for 180Baht. It was the best soup I've tried in a while. I was tempted to buy food from the Indian stall--the garlic nan on display was too tempting. I ended up paying 360 for garlic nan, a lamb masala, and some saffron rice. The food wasn't bad, but it was nothing close to Sue's Thai set, which cost half of what I had. The lesson: order Thai when in Thailand.

Now I'm back in Taiwan. I haven't blogged for two months because of work. I'm posting this draft nevertheless. Here are some pics from our trip: