Bangkok
Well we ended up spending the next four days in
8/23/06
The first morning we decided to take the boat across the river and wander around a bit before going to the Lao embassy to get a visa. After walking through alleys and eventually making it to the BTS to take the Sky Train out towards the Laotian embassy, we ended up meeting a man who worked at the BTS and struck up a conversation.
That night we had cocktails on the Executive floor (so those of you who know me, this is why I go out of the way to remain a HHonors Diamond - basically they kiss my ass :-D including lots of nice rooms and free cocktails) and met this hilarious kid Tong who, for a Thai guy just finishing college, is way to western but pretty funny. He ended up chatting with us for quite a while and kept plying us with cocktails to continue the conversation.
Wanting to get out into Bangkok rather than sit in the hotel, we headed out and grabbed a cab for a nice riverside dinner at a seafood restaurant including Som Tam (one of my favorite Thai salads of chopped green papaya, dried shrimp, peanuts and a lime based fish sauce ��" yum), Tod Mun which are sort of a fish/shrimp type fritter with a tasty sweet/spicy sauce) and then a whole barbecued fish with the requisite Singha beers).
We strolled home through the warm, busy night past food vendors and night markets and passed out in our short lived luxury at the Hilton.
8/24/06
The next day was the day to go visit the 
New! this should launch in a separate window but if it doesn't hit back after viewing the video.
We started walking to the 
The Palace was indeed open and it is a very impressive tour on huge, beautiful grounds. We ended up renting the Audio Guides which actually were pretty helpful in describing a lot of the buildings and ceremonies and stuff. The whole place is covered with very ornate Stupas covered in gold and encrusted with mosaics made of mirrors and brightly colored stones. One of the highlights is the Emerald Buddha which is actually carved of Jasper and has been all over
After the Palace we walked to Wat Pho which houses The "Reclining Buddha" - a massive statue with a huge golden head and feet inlaid with mother of pearl.
Next stop was Wat Arun, the temple of the dawn on the other side of the river. Wat Arun is really impressive (I remember liking it last time too) with very geometric spires covered in mosaics actually made from old Chinese plates and tiles, apparently leftovers and ballast from merchant ships. It was hot as hell but enjoyable nevertheless.
After a rest, we thought we would try out the relatively new BTS metro which was fast, nice and clean. We made it to our stop and managed to actually find the major street we were looking for without getting killed by traffic, not bad for the first full day in
We proudly strolled down the Soi looking for the Le Lys restaurant run by a Thai woman and her French husband only to discover the sign that they had moved - see the pic below.
We ended up settling for a small place with reasonably good food where we thought the girls appeared to be ''working" in more ways than one.
8/25/06
Guess we should have taken Ambien once more - we both were wide awake around 4:00am (which for those of you in California is 2:00 pm) and couldn't fall asleep to save our lives so we got up for an early breakfast and headed out to do an MP3 based walking tour we found on the Internet at www.travelfish.org which is a great travel site focusing on Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The tour was of some of
I had listened to just a bit of the stuff at home and heard directions like "walk west from Wat Mahan" so we both bought little compasses at home, but unfortunately, it was so hot the day before that the glue holding them on to their clips melted so we lost them both - back to our bad senses of direction. Once we kindly dismissed the supposed History teacher who informed us that Wat Mahan was "closed until 2:00pm but he knew someplace to take us" we got oriented (ha ha! oriented in the orient - Honey is that derogatory?) and walked to Wat Mahan.
Wat Mahan is a really nice, un-touristed temple and we were the only non-locals there, quite a contrast from Wat Phra Kaew.
The
The next few stops were through a quaint old neighborhood and past an old wood palace, now a school. There is actually a wealthy man in the area that collects Austin Healeys and other old cars and we saw several vintage mini coopers on the street. Around the corner is an entire street of shops selling monk's accessories, as well as tons of Buddha's of various sizes wrapped in Saran wrap to protect them from the traffic fumes.
Wat Suthat is another large complex with very ornate and beautiful carved doors and the largest bronze Buddha in
The Giant Swing is a tall, red, wooden monument that has roots in
By the time we got to the 
Not wanting to give up easily, after a brutal three mile, one hour taxi ride to pick up our Laotian visas, we navigated our way to the supposed new location of the Le Lys restaurant and turned with trepidation onto Soi 7 and there it was!
We walked in and were sort of greeted by a French man, presumably the owner. We all know how well I get on with the French, and he did somewhat have the requisite arrogance, but we settled in for an excellent meal. We started with....well Singha Beer of course... two appetizers, a spicy, lemon grass salad with little deep fried fish and a ground pork and tomato dip with vegetables.
8/26/06
So we changed plans and decided to take the seven hour bus to Sukothai today. I am sitting here writing this on my HP iPAQ (which is doing a pretty awesome job of recognizing my handwriting, especially considering how bumpy this road is) listening to Audioslave, Pink Floyd and the Violent Femmes (weird mix I know).
Earlier today, Cindy had a one hour foot massage while I went to an Internet cafe to start the travel blog and check email before heading to the bus terminal.
loa kawn!
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Le Lys is the restaurant that we unsuccessfully searched for at their old location before finally finding it another night. It is owned by a couple (French husband and Thai wife) and has excellent, authentic Thai food served in a really nice garden setting. There are tables outside in the garden area as well as inside in an air-conditioned, beautifully decorated room. They have small pitchers of ice cold Singha beer and the food is really great with lots of local and regional specialties, especially curries (both the duck and pork curries we had were great). Also, don’t miss the spicy dips nam prig. They do accept credit cards too so if it is a little to pricey for your day to day dining in Bangkok, charge an awesome meal and when you get home to the bill, it will still be cheaper than going out to a crappy meal at Chilis at home. They do accept reservations and are working on a website at http://www.lelys.info/
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OK so it is probably beyond most people’s budgets (unless of course you are a lucky Hilton Diamond member like me and can use points J), but this is a beautiful and new hotel relatively centrally located on the far side of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, next to the Peninsula Hotel and across from the Oriental. The accommodations are beautiful with large, comfy rooms, incredible beds, blackout screens (nice when you are jet-lagged coming from afar) and a gorgeous bathroom. There is a spectacular pool on the fourth floor overlooking the Chao Phraya including a gym with a large workout room, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam bath (just in case Bangkok isn’t hot enough for you!)
The staff is super friendly and they have a very helpful concierge desk (although they do tend to recommend higher end, touristy places for meals). There is a shuttle boat every 15 minutes or so across the river to the River City shopping center as well as to Sathorn Pier where the BTS Skytrain is located as well as the Silom district.
Visiting the sights such as the Grand Palace or Wat Pho is a long walk or a short water or car taxi away. Note that if you stay here, you should ask for a card printed in Thai since the taxi driver’s aren’t all aware of this new hotel. If you are trying to get here and they aren’t understanding you, try saying “Heeltawn” that seems to work ;-)
