Bangkok

Recently, I spent four nights in Bangkok and it was so much fun. I wouldn't say that would be enough to discover such a big active, fun city. But, for me, four nights was probably enough to satisfy my interests, which are mostly food and market related, including my first visit to the city's Chattuchat market.

Both long and short vacations are relaxing for me as I work 7 days a week and don't have weekends, but I do take lots of breaks. That's just how it works out. My friends wonder why I take so many short holidays. I mean of course it's to relax and relieve any stress and luckily, from Vietnam, there are lots of places close by and sometimes there are cheap airfares.

Bangkok is not my favorite city in Asia but I don't mind going back for a short vacation as I love Thai food very much and also Thai people are very friendly. I'm not sure how many dishes I tried and their names but it was very tasty though occasionally too spicy for my tastes. At times, I felt like I was crying and smoke was coming out of my ears while I was trying to finish the food. It was so much fun eating like a local and it's also a way for me to learn the culture of the place I'm visiting. That's the most important thing for me.

Besides the fantastic weekend market at Chatuchak, I loved Klong Toey produce market as well. I love the way Thai people present their vegetables and meat and, similarly to Vietnam, kill some animals in the market to ensure freshness. The Klong Toey market sellers were so friendly, showing me how to kill fish, frogsand smiling when I asked to take photos. I smell their meat and I saw fish jumping up and down. Like in Vietnam, the local markets are the best places to do food shopping.

Bangkok night life was a bit much for me especially Pat Pong where it's all related to sex and nudity but that's what Bangkok's famous for. There was way too many people asking me the same question, sex DVD? sex show? boy or girl? It was a bit confronting at the beginning but I felt annoyed at the end. Anyhow, it's something they you only can see in Bangkok and I experienced it.

One of the highlight of the holiday was the Sofitel Sukhumvit Hotel. It was great with super refreshing cocktails and bubbles from 4-7pm and a beautiful swimming pool during the afternoons after long walks discovering the city. I'd love to come back to Bangkok again and definitely will stay there.

Bangkok

On the trip to Bangkok last year with Mum, we stayed at the Vista Residence Bangkok. This is kind of a boutique hotel, small, great food and extremely friendly. The receptionist is the hotel owner's daughter who had been studied hospitality in Switzerland so she's fluent in English and basically she knows how to manage a hotel very well. After the political problems last year, the hotel gave a great promotion for accommodation such as stay 1 night get 1 night free and Internet and breakfast which was great for us as we were staying in Bangkok for 4 nights. The hotel is located about 200 meters away from the National Stadium and the sky train station is nearby which was pretty convenient. We used the skytrain everyday to go to the shopping centres and different places around Bangkok. One of the other highlight of the hotel was the food as the chef served delicious food with nice presentation.

Following the recommendation of the hotel staff, we took the skytrain to Chit Lom, one of the biggest shopping centers in Bangkok which seemed to be having lots of sales. We wandered around the center for about 2 hours and I bought a tennis bag, tennis shoes and my family bought too much stuff to mention. There were so many sales but unfortunately they are still more expensive compared to Hanoi especially sport stuff.

The next day, we hired a taxi to the floating market and on the way back we visited the King's Palace. My family had a great day and a funny thing happened involving my sister trying to pay for a postcard. She wanted to pay for 1 more postcard but her English is limited and they had a very funny argument which we were laughing out loud about on the way back to the hotel. My sister said "More One" instead of "One More" and the seller didn't understand.

During our stay, we also visited some pagodas, markets and night life in Bangkok. We all loved the foot massages and we had one almost every night after the long days discovering Bangkok.

My family enjoyed Bangkok very much especially my mum. She particularly loved the pagodas around Bangkok and the hotel staff. Thanks heaps to the hotel staff and the taxi driver who all treated us so well. Hopefully I'll see Bangkok again in the near future.

Bangkok

On the way back from Greece, we stopped in Bangkok for a couple of days. After the long flight, I felt exhausted and took a nap in the hotel before having a bowl of Thai noodle soup from a lady on the street near the hotel. In my jet-lagged condition, I remember saying it was one of the best noodle soups I'd had.

We started our new day in Bangkok by booking a floating market tour for the next day and going for a spot of shopping at the big plazas. We took the Skytrain and I immediately noticed how Thai people generally obey the rules for queuing and on the roads much better than we do in Vietnam.

When we reached the Siam shopping centre food court, a funny coincidence occurred. There I was, standing at the Thai food stand, which was next to the Vietnamese one on one side and the Greek one on the other. Pretty strange considering we were in Thailand after a trip to Greece but on the way to Hanoi, Vietnam!

Bangkok is a big city, noisy, polluted and full of eye-opening sights, especially around the PatPong area! Of course, there are lots of things to see and do in Bangkok but it's just like any other big capital city in the world. What makes it unique is the sweet local people. An example of this is the kind old gentleman who acted as our tour guide to the floating market and the Royal Palace.

All in all, our two day stopover in Bangkok was a nice way to get used to the timezone.