Bangkok

We arrived safely in Bangkok at around 12:45am. Our flight didn't have a gate so we got shuttled by bus to the arrivals terminal. Immigration was a breeze at that time of the morning and we were off quickly in a taxi to our hotel. The ride was about 30 minutes and that was with no traffic. Exchange rate is very favourable at about 30 to 1. Our taxi ride cost us about 370 Baht which included two road tolls and an airport surcharge.

Our hotel is very central in Siam Square. We stayed at the Novotel and after asking for a non-smoking room got a room on the top floor of the hotel with great city views. Arriving at 2am can be rough but we managed some good shut eye and were ready to go and explore come morning time. Breakfast was included in our room rate and consisted of a large buffet featuring both Thai and Western style food. I wasn't too keen on curry dishes for breakfast so stuck more to Western items. I have to say the fresh fruit and fruit juices by far were my favourite. Tried a couple new fruits - jackfruit (never heard of this one and can't describe what it tastes similar to but was quite good) and something I'm calling Thai pear.

It's about 40 degrees here this time of the year. We head out for the day around 10am and already at that time knew we were in for a hot day. It's quite humid as well so my hairstyle for this trip will be a ponytail. Everything is inexpensive here for us so buying bottles of water is not breaking the bank. I think the most costly bottle of water has been 10 Baht so far and it's not hard to find places to buy from. In fact you can buy just about anything on the streets.

There is a sky train station a short walk from the hotel and for 120 Baht you can get an unlimited travel day pass. We took the train up to Mo Chit station so we could go check out Chatuchak weekend market. This is supposed to be one of the world's largest markets. We spent a couple hours there looking at a wide variety of items including shoes, "designer" handbags and clothes, silk scarves, nicknacks, food, hats, wallets, and many more things. The market is a maze of stalls and did get congested with people at times.

I found a little Middle Eastern neighbourhood called Soi Arab and thought it would be fun to check out. We ended up having lunch at a Lebanese Russian restaurant. Still can't figure out how those two compliment each other, but the Lebanese food we ordered was really good.

Afterwards we took the sky train to one of the many malls this city has to offer, Terminal 21. This mall has 7 or 8 floors, I can't remember and each floor is named after a different city, like London and Paris. It's here where we found a DQ and someone got very excited. For only 80 Baht we each got a blizzard and the flavours were much different than back home. I had mango with almonds and Z had coffee Oreo. Both were really good and quite refreshing after being out in the blazing sun and heat.