Back to Bangkok!

Tuesday December 4, 2007, Siem Reap Cambodia, Bangkok Thailand.

Even though we were booked on a flight at 1 pm, there are many flights from SR to BKK everyday (all by Bangkok Airways) and we hoped to get onto an earlier one. We were at the airport at 7:30 am and were able to get seats on a flight at 9:50 am. We walked around the airport (took us 5 minutes) and then spent some time at a bookstore. There was an outlet for Artisans D’Angkor so we spent some time in there. The stuff is nice, but expensive.

At 8:30 we were really hungry, and got some extremely-overpriced tasteless coffee (since we had skipped breakfast) at some place on the airport. I am being a bit critical since 2 coffee’s cost us almost $5 and they were flat and almost no flavor. After some really amazing coffee in Lao, this was a total letdown.

Our plane ride was fairly uneventful (what do you expect on a 35 minute flight?) and most of our time (my time really) was spent devouring the tasty cheese+cucumber sandwich they gave us.

Back in Bangkok. Ah! Almost felt like coming back home. We love this city so much! The taxi ride was quick and the check-in at our favorite hotel fast. We just dumped our bags and ran out into the city. This time we felt like we knew everything! We took the boat to the Saphan Taksin BTS stop and then the BTS to Prong Pong station on Sukhumvit. Our destination was “Kwan Imm Jay”, a Thai/Chinese restaruant that served only vegetarian food. We got off and after walking a bit found the place. The food was really good, but portions were small (we thought the portions were small everywhere, but I’m dead sure its just because they serve extra-large portions in America). So instead of ordering more food, we decided to walk to Dosa Hut, a couple of Soi’s away. (A soi is sort of branch off a main road). We were at Soi 24, and the Dosa place at Soi 19. Not far ya? Well we walked past all the big and famous malls of Bangkok, loving every minute of it (not the malls! The feeling!). Maybe, it just felt like walking in Bombay and that’s what we loved. We got to Soi 19, only to find that the restaurant had moved to Soi 13 (or was it 11). Dammit. But once Heena and I decide we want dosa, we’ll get it no matter how much pain we have to endure!

So we kept walking and along the way, we got some fruits from a street vendor and Heena was happy street shopping and I was happy soaking in the scene, crowd, traffic – everything. Everyone was dressed in yellow. December 5 (the next day) was the Kings’ 80th birthday and there were going to be grand celebrations. One thing we noticed in Thailand is that people love their king a lot, and on any given day you will see a lot of people (Thai, Indian, Caucasian) wearing yellow (the Kings color) t-shirts.

We finally got to whatever-soi-it-was and found the place. We had the best samosa and sweet lassi we must have had in 4.5 years and 2 tasty dosa’s. Our main reason of going to the Sukhumvit area was to visit the Erawan shrine. This shrine is built on the side of the Erawan Hyatt hotel. It is dedicated to Lord Brahma (the creator of the universe in the Hindu trilogy). This time, instead of walking to the shrine (again a few Soi’s away) we took the BTS to Chit Lom station; through the Erawan Hyatt and we found it. There were a lot of people praying (especially a lot of youngsters, since it is believed that praying here will bring good luck in exams). I also saw many non-Thai, non-Asian people offering prayers! We bought some flowers and incense sticks and offered our prayers. You can also buy wooden elephants and the priest/guard (I’m not sure if it was a priest or guard, since he was dressed in a guard type uniform, but was “inside of the shrine” and taking offerings from devotees) would put it near the statue and then hand it back. We then sat there watching everyone for a while.

Right outside the shrine we saw a coconut water vendor, who had coconuts in ice. So the water should be ice-cold! Yeah! We got one and the water was the sweetest we’ve ever had! Had to get another! It was so good – refreshing and filling.

Mission accomplished (shrine visit, good dosa and samosa with lassi, and veg thai food consumed, topped with great coconut water) we decided to head back to the hotel for the cocktails and hanging out in the towers lounge. Back in our room, we sat by the window for a bit, reminiscing our whole trip and how much we love Bangkok, with views of the Chao Prahya below us.