48 hours in Bangkok

12th September 2008, the 6 of us flew into Bangkok for a the weekend. It was Katie's Birthday week, and the weekend celebration is just one of the many birthday celebrations that she has lined up for the week.

We arrived in Bangkok around 11pm and went straight to our hotel with a bottle of red wine bought at Airport duty free. I have read about the Reflections Arts Hotel in a magazine and was looking forward to check it out. We got 3 rooms and they were all unique in their own ways. Mine and Katie's room was the "Tropicool Room "and it was very colorful with lots of forestry motives. Sunshine & Tonie's room was the "Fitting Room" - its mostly black and white and decked out like a large fitting room, together with cut out of the Chanel Classic Quilted bag and Hermes Birkin as a decoration. The coolest room has got to be Quennie & Joan's "Boo Shit Room". Its equiped with black light and we have dubbed it the CSI room.

The Tropicool room & The Fitting room


The Boo Shit room & some really cool room decorations


The hotel lobby & the corridoor leading up to our rooms

Saturday morning, we got up at 10am to have our breakfast which consists of homemade pancakes, american breakfast, thai noodle and etc before heading out to the Grand Palace for some sight seeing. The Grand Palace is the current residence of the Thailand Royal Family hence out of respect, those that were not dressed appropriately were given Thai Skirts to wear before we were allowed to proceed.

The girls all looking very lady like in their Thai Silk Skirts

The main building of the Grand Palace (The king is away at the moment)


A little boy studying something outside of the Emerald Buddha Temple

We had wanted to head over to the reclining buddha temple (Wat Po) after the Grand Palace but was told that the buddha is taken a nap until 2pm. In order not to waste precious time, we headed straight to Siam Paragon for much needed escape from the heat and of course some retail therapy.

We spent a couple of hours around the malls in Siam Paragon and then headed back to hotel to get changed for our dinner at Spring & Summer. Spring & Summer was recommended to us by my cousin who used to live in Bangkok. It was a nice modern minimalist restaurant that serves Thai Fusion food. The dining room itself is called Spring and the Summer section is where they serve desserts and coffee. Service was good and we were lucky they didn't give our table away as we were around 45mins late.

We had about 9 dishes all up, but the ones that stood out were the Pad Thai, Lemongrass chicken with Tamarind sauce, Green Curry and Pandan Chicken. We finished up our meal with 3 scoops of ice cream & a soft centre chocolate cake to share. All that food with 1 cocktail each came to round 28SGD per person. Bargain!

After dinner, we headed to the Bed Supper Club but when we got there, we were all too tired for an all night clubbing session, hence we opted to sit down somewhere for 1 drink instead. While walking along Sukhumvit 11, we saw a outdoor temporary van that is serves drinks. Too bad they didn't have enough chairs to sit us, because I think its so cool and won't mind sitting down for a drink :)

Sunday was basically spent at Chatuchak Market bargaining for souvenirs, sun dresses and handbags. However, before leaving Bangkok, we ensure we all got body massages each. I was the only person who opted for the traditional Thai massage and man... my body was still aching 2 days after that. Overall, it was a fun trip with the girls.. but heck it was tiring. I think I am too used to hanging out with myself and travelling on my own to enjoy group travelling anymore. Shall see... next stop - Angkor Wat with 3 others.