Last Supper

Katie and I made the most out of our last day in Bangkok.  We slept in Sunday before putting on our walking shoes and hitting the town.  Around 10:30 we left the hotel and started walking towards the main shopping malls which just happened to be ground zero for all the recent fighting.  Along the way we met a very nice lady making her living by weaving kids dolls from rope/string on the sidewalk.  Unlike a lot of the beggars and the people selling "copy" stuff; her product was very nice and only 200 Baht ($6 us).  We bought Abby a horse and kept walking.  According to the GPS we walked 5.22 miles before we got to our destination.

The first thing we notice at ground zero was the burnt mall.  This place was home to some very high-end stores and is situated between two other very high-end malls.  It's amazing they were able to burn it; it's not like you just throw a match against the window.  I still wonder how they did it.  The whole place was fenced off but from the skywalk we were able to get a great view.  The fire damage was obvious but after further investigation we noticed a significant number of bullet holes.  We couldn't stop staring.  Check out the photos in the Bangkok album - the link is a few posts below.

Our first stop was the MBK mall.  This mall is 7 floors of knockoff merchandise including jeans, CDs, DVDs, watches, perfume, belts, jewelery, shoes, etc etc.  We couldn't believe how much crap they packed in to this place.  Katie and I were having the time of lives shopping around; wheeling and dealing.  We started to run low on time; we wished we had come here the day before.  We decided to cut our time at this mall short and go over to the high-end malls.  In retrospect this was a big mistake but if we hadn't done it we would have regretted it.  The high-end malls went on forever.  It was never ending name brand store after name brand store; some stores we saw multiple (three or even four) times.  We were told because of the recent fighting and the fact it's "low season" that everything was on sale --- LIE - shoes were still $800 a pair, belts were $600, etc etc.  We didn't buy a thing at these malls.

By the time we made it through the 3 malls we were 2 miles or so from the MBK mall with only 2.5 hours before dinner.  We decided to hop on the sky train and head back to the hotel.  Another lesson learned; if you're ever in Bangkok stay at a hotel near the sky train and take the sky train everywhere.  It was so much faster then any taxi and just as cheap (actually cheaper).  If our travels ever bring us back here we'll probably stay at the Intercontinental just for it's prime location relative to the sky train and the best shopping.  As we zipped towards our hotel we applauded our decision to take the train; the traffic below was gridlock.

The train didn't stop at our hotel (about 4 blocks away) so we jumped off at the river location and took a hotel ferry boat from the train stop to the Oriental.  Back at the hotel we cleaned ourselves up and prepared for dinner.  The restaurant, Siroco, was just a few blocks from our hotel so we decided to walk it.  We arrived at the building and took the elevator up to the 64th floor where the restaurant was located.  We were escorted out and WOW -- what an amazing view.  Besides the view, the restaurant was so impressive.  My knees got a little week walking around but after the first glass of wine I started to stand a bit taller.  The way they designed this rooftop restaurant made you feel like there wasn't any railing.  I looked at the pictures we took and they don't come close to doing it justice.

We walked to the bar for a couple drinks before being seated for dinner.  One thing we noticed right away were the prices.  This place wasn't cheap.  I can't imagine a restaurant in Manhattan costing more.  We ordered a bottle of wine, made our selections and sat back to enjoy our last supper.  The wine that the sommelier suggested was amazing, the food was amazing, Katie was/is amazing,,, it couldn't have been any better.

As we finished up dinner, God treated us to an amazing light show.  Off in the distance was a huge thunderstorm with brilliant lightning.  We went back to the bar to finish our wine and from there I took over 100 pictures trying to capture the night sky.  I deleted most of them but posted my favorites in the album.  Katie and I both agreed we didn't want our trip to end and if it wasn't for my beautiful daughters that I miss so much we would have stayed longer.

As we headed back to the hotel we passed a nice looking spa so we decided to stop in for one last massage. Katie and I toured the place; it was very clean; we were sold.  After a couples 90 minute massage (1000 Baht after trip, $32 US each) we headed back to the hotel.  We got to bed late per our plan to be very tired so that we could easily sleep on the plane.  Big day of travel coming up Monday: 4:20 AM pickup at the hotel for a 6:50 flight to Japan.  Planned landing in Tampa: Monday night 11:55 PM - ETA at condo, 1:45 AM - total time from alarm bell to home = 33 hours.  See everyone soon!