One Night In Bangkok

There is an old Chinese proverb that says “He who walks through airport doors sideways goes to Bangkok”. Whilst that proverb is very insightful, it has nothing to do with what I am about to say…

We arrived at the Bangkok international airport early morning on Friday 13 July 2007. It was only an overnight stopover in Bangers on our way to Europe, but we had a jam packed day ahead of us.

After pushing our way through the congregation of hawkers at the airport exit gate we made our way to the taxi rank and negotiated a couple of taxis to take us to the Rembrandt Hotel on Soi 18 just off Sukhumvit Road. There was a bit of traffic on the roads, so door-to-door from airport to hotel was about 45 mins.

We arrived at the hotel at around 7.00am with fingers crossed that our request for an early check-in would be honoured. To our despair, it wasn’t. Our travelling buddies, Renae and Brendan, were in the early stages of a flu and the long flight had dehydrated them somewhat. They were looking to have a shower and relax in the room. Instead, we stowed our luggage and hit the streets of Bangers.

We decided to embark on a journey to the MBK Center. To go check out the scene in some air-conditioned style. We jumped on the Skytrain (Bangkok Mass Transit System) at the Asok Station, which was just around the corner from the Rembrandt. We disembarked at Siam Station and walked a couple of blocks up to the MBK.

With great excitement we arrived at the entrance to the grand MBK Center at around 8.30am, yet the automatic doors would not open. We peered inside with a feeling of trepidation. The MBK was empty. A small note on the front entrance marked the operating hours were from 10.00am… on a Friday!!!

We back-tracked to the Siam Square. Closed. Opening hours: 10.00am. Dejected, we jumped the Skytrain back to the hotel and sat in the lobby enjoying our complimentary welcome drinks until we finally got access to our rooms at around 11.00am.

After an hour of relaxing, refreshing and recharging we met our friend Nut who kindly took us on a shopping tour around Bangkok. Panthip Plaza was a bit of a favourite. Brendan acquired himself some cheap iPod accessories.

Nut then got us all back to her place were we met up with Ben. Armed with tickets to an Asia Cup match, we jumped into Ben’s pick-up and drove across town to Rajamangala National Stadium, where Australia was playing Iraq.

The stadium is quite large with a capacity of around 65,000. For this match, the crowd attendance was only around 10,000. Of this, 9,990 were Aussie supporters and the remaining 10 were Iraqi supporters. Funnily, the 10 Iraqi supporters were from Auburn in Sydney. Sadly, the 10 Iraqi supporters were constantly surrounded by around 20 armed Thai military for the duration of the game.

The 9,990 Aussie supporters were extremely vocal for the first half of the match. However, due to the poor performance of the Socceroos, it wasn’t long before the singing and cheering of the 9,990 Aussie’s was drowned out by the singing and cheering of the 10 Iraqi’s.

We stayed until the death of the match. The Socceroos, in a dismal performance, lost 3-1 to the superior Iraqi team.

From the game we made tracks to the Seafood Market and Restaurant which is on Soi 24 off Sukhumvit Road. This place is really cool because, as the name suggests, it is both a seafood market and a seafood restaurant.

You grab a trolley and hit the market, picking out as much fresh seafood as you think that you can eat. When you get to the check-out to pay, you tell them how you want your goods cooked. As you are guided to your table, with a drink waiter standing by to take your order, your fresh seafood trolley is ushered away to the open kitchen where twenty ‘iron’ chefs are working feverishly to fulfil orders.

We had a banquet that night.

Izumi and I finished the night after dinner. As we had an early morning flight the next morning, and we had an 18 month old child in tow, we made our way back to the Rembrandt.

Nut, Ben, Renae and Brendan continued the night at the Patpong Night Market.

1. The Yokohamarama
2. A Trip To Khon Kaen
3. Ajista
4. Postcard from Thailand
5. Quarter Pounder Japan