Our flight from Siem Reap to Bangkok was at 1 PM. There are several Bangkok Airways flights on that route daily and we hoped to catch and earlier done. We reached the airport at 7:30 AM and were able to get seats on the 9:50 AM flight, which would then allow us to have more time in Bangkok. We walked around the really small airport and then spent some time at a bookstore. We spent some time at the Artisans D’Angkor; nice things, but expensive.
At 8:30 we were really hungry, and got some at some place on the airport. The two coffee’s cost us almost $5 and they were flat with 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 they did serve a delicious snack of cheese+cucumber sandwich!
Back in Bangkok. Ah! Almost felt like coming back home! We love this city! The taxi ride was quick and the check-in quite fast.
We dumped our bags and ran out into the city. We felt quite comfortable with our way around the city! 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 vegetarian restaurant. 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 King, 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. Just a couple of Soi’s, you’d think? 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). 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 King’s’ 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 reached the restaurant. We ordered samosas, sweet lassi and 2 dosa’s; all three of them were the best we’d had in a long time!
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. 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 to keep them 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 loved every place we visited, with views of the Chao Phraya below us.
