· Owner of a 'Ronery' HeartBangkok, Thailand · 31st Jan 2008 · Posted by Annie
Back in Bangkok. Seems like we are always drawn back here. Maybe its because we like Bangkok or maybe its just because its such a central hub. Either way, its a great city where you I'm sure you can see, get, do whatever you want.
Anyway, this time we needed to come back to Bangkok for a reason though, a good reason. To pick up our suits! Very exciting. Chris got 3 very elegant and professional looking suits tailored and I got 2. We both got a bunch of shirts and Chris got a few ties as well. We also needed to buy some Japan Rail Passes for our trip around Japan. We figured that we would probably be doing a fair bit of train travel so best to save a few pennies and buy the discount ticket available to non-Japanese visitors to Japan. However you need to buy the order for such tickets outside Japan so we had to get this done while in Bangkok. In finding the place from which to buy said tickets, we had to take a couple of rather treacherous rides on the back of motorbikes, me wedged between the driver and Chris. Very funny but not too comfortable. I still can't figure out how girls here manage to ride side saddled on the backs of scooters and bikes.
Umm, other things on the agenda were buying a winter jacket each coz Japan is gonna be really cold and we are so not looking forward to that aspect of things. MBK ended up being a great place to get jackets - Chris got an 'original' 'gore-tex' Columbia shell and fleece and I got a very white 'original' A & F. Gotta love those original copies lol. During this brief stint in Bangkok, we also got to see our friend Bunna a couple of times. On one occasion he invited us out to dinner with his family who were visiting him from Nz. They were all really nice and we had a great time telling them all about our holiday so far over a middle-eastern feast. We ordered so much food that there was enough for us to take away in a doggy bag for the soi dogs outside ('soi' means lane in thai).
One evening, Chris and I were wandering around Khao-San Road rather aimlessly thinking it would be cool to find a bar to sit in and have a drink. Then out of the blue someone hands me one of those annoying pamphletes advertising crap and it turned out to be a bar just around the corner. We gave it a shot and it turned out to be really cool, a rooftop bar called Gazebo. Apart from a cockroach the size of a hotdog crawling over my foot after scuttling around our table for a while and scaring the crap out of Chris and a group of birthday girls giving us free cake in return for having offered to take their photo for them, there was a live band playing covers of lots of random popular music, including Metallica songs! But the best song of all was "Owner of a 'Ronery' Heart"... RONERY! It was soooo funny and very cute. The guy had a great voice but ronery... I'm so ronery... (see: "Team America, World Police" soundtrack). Heheh.. :)
On our last night in Bangkok we met up with Bunna and Liz at the Barn-Tree Hotel, one of the most glamorous in Bangkok. Chris and I felt decidedly under dressed even though we were wearing the nicest clothes we had. Anyway, the attraction isnt actually the hotel itself but more so the bar on the roof of the 59 storey building. It's a very elegant open air bar and restaurant which as you can imagine has spectacular views out over Bangkok. Dad, I'm sure you would not have appreciated the height! Chris and I had actually read about this bar in a travel magazine before leaving nz but figured we probably would never be able to afford to have a drink at such a place. The drinks were on the expensive side but probably no more expensive than Motel on Courtney Place in Wellington. What made Chris and I feel even more out of place though is that we had just come from Khao-San Rd, where all the budget travellers like ourselves hang out at hostels and cheap bars that serve buckets of booze. For the first time since first arriving in Bangkok, we had dared try a plate of noodles from a street vendor. We had witnessed many other tourists buying their meals from the many street vendors lining Khao-San Rd but had chosen to play it safe and not indulge in the 20 baht (75cents) goodness. However, since it was our last night and we didnt have much time before we had to meet Bunna and Liz, we thought, screw it, lets try some. It was a super yummy stir fried noodle dish with some veges and it fed both of us for 20 baht! We so should have been eating meals like that more! Anyway, the best part is that we found a taxi that would take us to the Barn-Tree Hotel before finishing our take-away meal and bottle of juice so we took it with us and ate as much as we could before getting there. However, arriving at the hotel was somewhat embarrassing when we were greeted by some very very formal looking doormen while we were still holding the remains of our 20 baht meal to go. We asked the taxi driver if he would mind keeping our rubbish in his car so that we wouldnt have to take it in with us and he kindly obliged. Shame! I truely dont think they would have even let us in with our little plate of noodles and chopsticks. Anyway, the evening was very pleasant and it was really good to see Bunna and Liz one last time before leaving Bangkok.
So this is our last time in Bangkok for a while. A bit sad really, it's a very cool city. But at the same time, I'm pretty sure we'll be drawn back here sometime soon - gotta come back to Thailand and see all those island paradises that we didn't get to see this time round! Yay Thailand!!
Anyway, this time we needed to come back to Bangkok for a reason though, a good reason. To pick up our suits! Very exciting. Chris got 3 very elegant and professional looking suits tailored and I got 2. We both got a bunch of shirts and Chris got a few ties as well. We also needed to buy some Japan Rail Passes for our trip around Japan. We figured that we would probably be doing a fair bit of train travel so best to save a few pennies and buy the discount ticket available to non-Japanese visitors to Japan. However you need to buy the order for such tickets outside Japan so we had to get this done while in Bangkok. In finding the place from which to buy said tickets, we had to take a couple of rather treacherous rides on the back of motorbikes, me wedged between the driver and Chris. Very funny but not too comfortable. I still can't figure out how girls here manage to ride side saddled on the backs of scooters and bikes.
Umm, other things on the agenda were buying a winter jacket each coz Japan is gonna be really cold and we are so not looking forward to that aspect of things. MBK ended up being a great place to get jackets - Chris got an 'original' 'gore-tex' Columbia shell and fleece and I got a very white 'original' A & F. Gotta love those original copies lol. During this brief stint in Bangkok, we also got to see our friend Bunna a couple of times. On one occasion he invited us out to dinner with his family who were visiting him from Nz. They were all really nice and we had a great time telling them all about our holiday so far over a middle-eastern feast. We ordered so much food that there was enough for us to take away in a doggy bag for the soi dogs outside ('soi' means lane in thai).
One evening, Chris and I were wandering around Khao-San Road rather aimlessly thinking it would be cool to find a bar to sit in and have a drink. Then out of the blue someone hands me one of those annoying pamphletes advertising crap and it turned out to be a bar just around the corner. We gave it a shot and it turned out to be really cool, a rooftop bar called Gazebo. Apart from a cockroach the size of a hotdog crawling over my foot after scuttling around our table for a while and scaring the crap out of Chris and a group of birthday girls giving us free cake in return for having offered to take their photo for them, there was a live band playing covers of lots of random popular music, including Metallica songs! But the best song of all was "Owner of a 'Ronery' Heart"... RONERY! It was soooo funny and very cute. The guy had a great voice but ronery... I'm so ronery... (see: "Team America, World Police" soundtrack). Heheh.. :)
On our last night in Bangkok we met up with Bunna and Liz at the Barn-Tree Hotel, one of the most glamorous in Bangkok. Chris and I felt decidedly under dressed even though we were wearing the nicest clothes we had. Anyway, the attraction isnt actually the hotel itself but more so the bar on the roof of the 59 storey building. It's a very elegant open air bar and restaurant which as you can imagine has spectacular views out over Bangkok. Dad, I'm sure you would not have appreciated the height! Chris and I had actually read about this bar in a travel magazine before leaving nz but figured we probably would never be able to afford to have a drink at such a place. The drinks were on the expensive side but probably no more expensive than Motel on Courtney Place in Wellington. What made Chris and I feel even more out of place though is that we had just come from Khao-San Rd, where all the budget travellers like ourselves hang out at hostels and cheap bars that serve buckets of booze. For the first time since first arriving in Bangkok, we had dared try a plate of noodles from a street vendor. We had witnessed many other tourists buying their meals from the many street vendors lining Khao-San Rd but had chosen to play it safe and not indulge in the 20 baht (75cents) goodness. However, since it was our last night and we didnt have much time before we had to meet Bunna and Liz, we thought, screw it, lets try some. It was a super yummy stir fried noodle dish with some veges and it fed both of us for 20 baht! We so should have been eating meals like that more! Anyway, the best part is that we found a taxi that would take us to the Barn-Tree Hotel before finishing our take-away meal and bottle of juice so we took it with us and ate as much as we could before getting there. However, arriving at the hotel was somewhat embarrassing when we were greeted by some very very formal looking doormen while we were still holding the remains of our 20 baht meal to go. We asked the taxi driver if he would mind keeping our rubbish in his car so that we wouldnt have to take it in with us and he kindly obliged. Shame! I truely dont think they would have even let us in with our little plate of noodles and chopsticks. Anyway, the evening was very pleasant and it was really good to see Bunna and Liz one last time before leaving Bangkok.
So this is our last time in Bangkok for a while. A bit sad really, it's a very cool city. But at the same time, I'm pretty sure we'll be drawn back here sometime soon - gotta come back to Thailand and see all those island paradises that we didn't get to see this time round! Yay Thailand!!
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