Bangkok

We went to Bangkok with the excuse that we were celebrating our 1st year wedding anniversary. We took quite awhile deciding on the date, the airline and the hotel, and if you ask me, I might have changed all 3 decisions on hindsight.


We ended up going the weekend the red shirts decided to have their peaceful protest. Thank God it was really peaceful but that also meant the shops in the area were all closed that evening, and for some strange reason, the hotel reception adviced us not to go to the Suan Lum bazaar that wasn't anywhere near the protest site. Nonetheless, it was quite cool to see the sea of red shirts from the train we were in. (Just imagine all the shopping centres along Orchard Road closed and the whole road just packed with people dressed in red instead of motor vehicles.)

This was my 1st time taking a budget flight out of Singapore. Faith & Boon Yeow calls Jetstar 'LATESTAR' and it sure lived up to it's nickname. Our 9.20pm flight home ended up a 1.10am flight. No more LATESTAR for me if I can help it.


Another 1st for me was taking the train from Bangkok airport right to the doorstep of the hotel. Previously, I've always taken a taxi. But with the notorious traffic jams and the fact that we had a lot of time on our hands (we landed at 9am), we decided to take the train. I would highly recommend this mode of transportation if your hotel is within walking distance from a BTS station. We took the airport rail (15 baht) to Phaya Thai station and then took the BTS 1 stop to Ratchethewi to Asia Hotel (15 baht). All this in under 1 hour.

Asia Hotel was great for it's proximity to the BTS. It's one of the few hotels in Bangkok that is linked directly to the station. The hotel is terribly old but I was banging on getting a newly renovated room. While we got upgraded to a premier room which was huge and probably really classy in the 1980s, it was too run down for my liking in 2010! ;p But at the end of the day, it was just as well that we didn't pick a hotel near the peaceful protest area which many well-known and popular hotels are situated!


Biggest purchase for me: Wacoal underwear
Biggest purchase for Edmund: a pair of spectables with transition lens


Due to the protest, we had less opportunity to shop... a blessing in disguise for Edmund! haha!