We had arrived to Bangkok last evening at about 8PM. Got a taxi from the airport to Sukhumvit to our 4**** (star) hotel, Park Plaza Sumhumvit. Boy, did we feel dirty&smelly after about 23hrs of continuos travelling from Jomsom, Nepal to Bangkok, Thailand. And boy did we appeciate the clean, good smelling, soft sheets in the soft, king sized bed in our room, on the 10th floor on our hotel and a warm, good pressured shower(!!) after our two week adventure in Nepal!! :D
After sleeping long and peacefully, we got up at about 1 PM. Dressed up, etc. and headed to the vibrating buzz of Bangkok - a city I have long longed to see! Our hotel was near the Asok skytrain / Sukhumvit metro station, so we got the metro. Explored Chinatown, then got a taxi to the way too much touristy Khao San Road (that was pure anxiety, I tell you, but we had to see it!). From there we wanted to find a good restaurant, but that then sure wasn't so easy. After walking like over an hour, getting a bit lost and funding nothing we waved a taxi and asked to take us to some area which has good restaurants. He dropped us near the Chao Praya river, and from there we found a nice little guest house/restaurant called "the Happy House", where we got our first authentic thai currys and they were cheap and tasty! Recommendable. =) And the place had a good wi-fi, too!
Ate, had coupla Changs and headed off. While eating I had browsed through Foursquare's explore with "pubs" and found a place very near by, where you could some sheesha. So we decided to walk over there. Very near the Happy Houde it was a place called "Saweesha" or smth, on an "alley" full of tourists, and party feeling but we nevertheless wanted to smoke one sheesha, so we stayed. They shamely only had apple flavour (like we have at home chololate mint AND orange already ;), but it was ok. Took drinks&beers and smoked the sheesha slowly for coupla hours, watching the people passing by. I'm sure Bangkok will have a lot to offer but this time it's only a brief visit, tomorrow morning we're having a flight to Koh Samui and we begin our island travelling and the true _relaxation part of our vacation ;)
After the sheesha we took a cab to our hotel, though we would've wanted to pay a brief visit to Sukhumvits food market BUT our taxi driver did not know the right place, I believe. He just took us to some dining hall, seafood "market", like a huge restaurant. What we thought, the food market being a local street food market. So we then just asked hin to take us to a shop near our hotel, where we stopped some water etc., and went to bed. Nice to see Bangkok, I liked it, but it'd demand a whole lot more of time to really SEE it. But maybe at some winter vacation or smth then. ;)
When we got to our hotel we still ordered two foods from our hotel restaurant, but they weren't so good at all, than those we'd had in the Happy House for the lunch, and they were more expensive. Only good thing was that you could eat in your own room and just order from the room service. When you get older, you once in a while really appreciate the 4 to 5 ****(*) star hotels and their luxuries.. ;)