Our time in Bangkok was not unlike the 1984 track by Murray Head which featured in the Tim Rice & Björn Ulvaeus musical “Chess”. No chess playing but definitely more than a little excess. Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand and its largest urban which seems to sprawl forever. Whilst it is Thailand’s most densely populated city with over 12 million people, it does not feel over crowded.
We stayed in the fabulous Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel and were again upgraded to its Club Level. The hotel is a little tricky to find (in fact our cab from the nearby train station spent over half an hour trying to find it) as it is set well back from the main street (which also means it’s quieter than most). A tip if you’re staying here is to take a fixed price taxi from the airport, rather than the train, and make sure the driver knows where it is before you leave.
The modern water feature blends perfectly with the hotel’s facade and it’s the first indication that the hotel is quite revolutionary in its interior styling. A spacious lobby and hotel foyer welcome the traveller as do the efficient reception staff and it was barely a moment until we were personally escorted to the club level for complimentary beverages and check into our suite – it pays to be a Gold Member.
We were advised that the Club Lounge was available to us all day for complimentary tea, coffee, fresh juices and at 4.30 the open bar service commences (for 4 hours) but that food only commenced at 6pm for 2 hours. Ahh, and the problem is? We then headed to our suite which was staggering distance away and opened the door to our delightful suite, not only visually beautiful with accents of hot pink and gold, but also very cleverly designed and a great layout. Too few hotel rooms have such interior design genius in them and so its always a pleasure to stay in one when it does.
A quick nap and a change of clothes and it was soon 4pm and time for cocktails. The cocktail waitress was really lovely – no menu – but ask her for a drink and 9 times out of 10 she knew how to make it. I started with a refreshing but rather strong Mojito before heading onto an equally overpowering Cosmo (pictured below) – what were these drinks double strength? And no sooner did I sip the last drops from my glass the cocktail waitress appeared in front of me to collect my glass and fulfil my next order. Really great service, but a very quick and easy way to get completely smashed.
Fortunately it was 6pm and the food started coming out so we could try and counteract the alcohol – delicious chicken tikka with mint yoghurt, spicy calamari, amongst many other hot and cold offerings, there was also a good array of salads and a cheese board (which also had sliced meats including a good aged jamon) and other nibbles.
With my husband egging me on to keep drinking (I think he wanted to see how drunk I could get without thinking abut the repercussions) I politely requested the waitress start making me half strength cocktails (although I still think she was making them double strength!). I just managed 2 more before being completely overwhelmed and pretty much unable to sit upright in my chair. I decided I needed to make a quick exit from the lounge to sleep it off. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to bet by 8pm before!
I was woken after 10pm by Tony who wanted to take a trip to Patpong – it had been a long time male fantasy to see the ping pong show there but I was still too unwell to fathom leaving the confines of the room (or the bed for that matter) and so I suggested he go on his own, which he did. For those that know us you can get the story directly from Tony. All I will say is that he did get to play ping pong, and he did keep himself nice, although he did get rather hassled by the bar women and had to keep buying them drinks to shut them up. It would have been safer, easier and definitely cheaper for him if I’d been there.
Day two and I hit the fabulous gym for a few hours – a great range of cardio and resistance training machines with an awesome view high over the city. There’s nothing like a good workout to cure a hangover and by the end of it I was feeling human again. An afternoon of working in the Club Level was a very civilised and productive way to end out time in Thailand.
Ding ding … Round 2. Yes we returned to the Club Level again for cocktails and canapes but this time I was must more restrained and limited myself to 2 cocktails “half strength and very weak please”. As always with the lounge it’s easy to get enough food to sate you for dinner so we didn’t need to go out, or even leave the hotel. And Round 2 was a far more successful evening with balance and poise in preparation for our 4.30am wake up call and our 7am flight home.
It was sad to be leaving Thailand – we’d had a great time in Chiang Mai and our time in Bangkok was far too short (I’d not even stepped outside the hotel which was a shame). We were greeted with a beautiful sunrise the morning we left: it started with slow golden-blue hues and grew richer in colour during our very fast taxi ride to the airport (can you say 130 in a 100 zone?)
We are sure to return to Bangkok at some point – another visit to Chiang Mai is planned for the near future – and this time I may even leave the hotel and see what the city has in store for me.
I just got back from Thailand in March. We flew Eva Airlines, which was the cheapest we could find at the time. It was pettry comfortable and the staff was nice. Since they are a Taiwanese airline, they lay over in Taiwan. You may find another airline that flies cheaper/direct if you leave from England. We flew from California.If you can speak Thai, or are going with someone who does, you can get your hotel when you get there. Hotels are generally cheap because of the exchange rate, which was about 38 baht to a US dollar (not sure how a dollar converts to pound, about double I imagine). If you book your hotel through a travel agent or online agency, you will pay about 3 or 4 times what you should. If you get there and speak only English, you will pay about twice what Thai people pay.We had to hop around Bangkok because my wife’s family lives scattered about, so if you want, send me a note about where you are planning to go/see and I can recommend you some places to stay.