The previous day (26th November) was spent… nowhere. When I woke up, it was raining heavily. I had breakfast from the hotel restaurant and then just stayed indoors for much of day, doing some work online. The plan for today was to go to Maeklong ‘Railway’ Market, but it was far out and given the weather conditions, there was no guarantee I would get there in time for me to see the trains pass through.
Today (27th November), the weather only got slightly better.
I had a Magnum for ‘breakfast’
I decided to have an early lunch and walked around the area heading towards Asoke BTS.
I ended up find this spot on Soi 11, choc full of restaurants and a few pubs
I ate at Shalimar Sharma’s (pictured above) simply because I had reached that stage when I missed Indian masala. It had a North Indian thali which cost ฿250. Feeling full, I then began my day by going to Siam Center.
I had seen a huge billboard stating Psy would be appearing on stage here todayEven though I was officially sick of the song, I thought why not just get a glimpse of the guy in person at this press conferenceBeing a work day, there weren’t too many fans either. Mostly press, and tourists.I heard way too much “Gangnam Style” in Thailand. Like, every-freaking-day!“Gangnam Style”-fever reached fever pitch in Thailand, they even made elephants do the dancePsy was finally in the building!Before taking to the stage, Psy left a message for the King of Thailand, who was hospitalizedEven passengers waiting for the train were looking at what was going on
After a crazy night of rain ruined what was otherwise a memorable day, we were relieved to leave Chiang Mai in sunny weather. We reached the airport in time for our Thai Airways flight to Bangkok.
You got to love the livery on Nok Air’s planesI sat by the window as usualThe journey was just an hour long, so not much of a “meal”The old Bangkok airport, I’m assuming
Landed at Suvarnabhumi airport on timeRamesh and I took the BTS train to Phaya ThaiThis is the first time I was taking the airport express during the day
Once we got to Phaya Thai BTS, we switched trains to get to Victory Monument station. We had booked a room at HI-Mid Hostel, which described itself as a stone’s throw away from Victory Monument.
It wasn’t that easy to find and we had to call up the hostel for directions. Once we did find the place and checked-in, we were quite… stunned.
This is probably the best “hostel” room we had seen!The bathroom in our room even came stocked with soap and good shampooThis is the lobbyThis is the kitchen, where guests can have breakfast. Usual hostel breakfast that is.This is the recreation room. Take our word for it, this hostel is awesome!
Our double room cost ฿1350 (Rs. 2700/$40/€30) for one night. Hi-Mid calls itself a “boutique hostel” — which is absolutely the case. This place is more like a 1-star or 2-star hotel. You really don’t get the same vibe here compared to your usual backpacker hostel. We didn’t find too many backpackers either. The only downside to this area, which we realized at night, is how few options we had late at night when it came to eateries. Clearly this was not a big touristy area, and it showed.
Hi-Mid is situated just after the red ‘Siam’ building
After freshening up, Ramesh went mall-hopping in Bangkok and I went to attend SM Town. You can read about how that evening went here.
Date: 23rd November 2012
The next day, Ramesh and I decided to check out Bangkok’s IKEA store.
It was tiring to climb these steps everytime we needed to get to the BTS stationAnusawari Chai Samoraphum — or Victory Monument — is a major landmark in Bangkok (Couldn’t help but notice how badly the center lines at the bottom are drawn. How did that one guy screw it up so bad? 🙂We walked to the BTS station
This was a tower above Terminal 21 mall
Ramesh and I withdrew some money from Citibank’s ATM because I read on Citibank India’s website that ATM withdrawals made using our debit cards don’t incur any transaction. Ramesh used his HDFC debit card and I used my Citibank Maestro card. We got very good exchange rates on direct conversion and none of that 150 baht withdrawal fee usually charged by Thai banks.
We then took the bus to Bang NaThe IKEA store was located in Mega Bang Na mallUltraman!There were a whole bunch of Ultraman merchandise on sale. It was to promote a new movie — or something.Our plan was to have lunch from IKEA’s ‘cafe’ tooWe loaded up 🙂 I tried the salmon for a changeWe even checked out the Home Pro store and I picked up a few items from here
Once we done with our shopping, Ramesh and I headed back to Hi-Mid to collect our bags. This was the end of Ramesh’s journey as he had to head to the airport to catch his flight back to Bangalore.
I on the other hand had two more days, but decided I just couldn’t stay in this area despite how great the hostel was. I realized I needed to be somewhere toursity where I had all the conveniences of 24-hour 7-11s, eateries and bars. I initially thought of Khao San road but with all my luggage, I dreaded how to get there. So I just hopped on the BTS and chose to see if I could get a room near Nana BTS.
My usual jaunt, Thai House Inn, was closed, so I ended up staying at Maxim’s Inn at the end of Soi 7/1. I got a single room for ฿750 (Rs. 1350/$22/€16), and although I wasn’t terribly pleased with it, I was tired and just wanted to dump my luggage and lie down.
Even though there were a few bars on this street, it was still quiet inside the hotelIt’s a bad photomerge, I know, but you get the ideaThe a/c room was clean and the wi-fi worked great!
The last three days had been hectic for me — especially our last day in Chiang Mai and then the awesome SM Town concert the very next day!
The other reason I like staying in the Nana area (besides being just 3 stations away from Siam interchange) is because of all the Middle Eastern food available.
Today, Ramesh and I were going on the Golden Triangle tour — one of the most popular and common full-day tours tourists do while in Chiang Mai. I had been to Chiang Rai and the point where Thailand’s border meets Laos and Myanmar in 2010. But I didn’t get the chance to hop across the river and set foot in Laos, because it’s much easier to do that when you go as part of a tour group.
The first stop on this tour was Sam Kamphaeng, famous for its hot spring fountainThe water really was quite warmFelt quite hot when I just poked my finger in the waterYou can even buy eggs to boil in the waterIt shoots pretty highThat’s it really. This was more of a rest stop.
One and half hours later, we reached Chiang Rai province. The van dropped us off at the famous White Temple.
This was our English-speaking guide. He gave us a brief introduction and the told us we could roam about freely for around 30 minutes.“Alcohol is a sin” — A piece of advice ignored by practically everybody.When I first came to the White Temple in 2010, I was thoroughly impressed with the work doneAlthough I was still impressed by the main structure, some opinions about this place were starting to changeA panorama from Ramesh’s phoneIt was time to go in
