Thai Easter Break

Bangkok: 22nd - 25th April 2011

The Easter holiday provides the perfect excuse to get out of Hong Kong for a few days and go exploring. This Easter we headed to Bangkok. It was Astrid's first visit whilst Ian hadn't visited the Thai capital for over ten years. There has been a huge amount of investment and development in Bangkok in this time to the extent that it looked and felt a very different city from the one Ian visited in 2000/01.

It was also a different style of travelling this time around which in all likelyhood lead to the formation of a different impression. Backpacks exchanged for hand-luggage, hostel upgrade to hotel. We stayed in the Pullman hotel which was very pleasant, located in the Ratchathewi district, close to the Victory Monument and adjacent Sky Train station. The Sky Train is perhaps the city's most symbolic investment legacy alongside the huge shopping malls that have sprung up across the city. It's an overground metro system linked to an underground line resulting in large swaves of the city and main thorough-fares being shrouded by ten storey high concrete pillars and supports for the one, two or three-levelled train tracks and pededstrian walk-ways adding a Blade Runner-esque quality to the city at night.

We initally ecshewed the Sky Train and opted for an old-school Tuk Tuk to transport us through the hot, sticky, dusty and aramo-filled back-streets to our first destination, a very tasty Thai lunch at the Erawan Tea Rooms. Adjacent is the Erawan Shine with a four-faced buddha, our first tourist sight of the trip. It was a hot day, 33 degrees, significantly hotter than Hong Kong, so we decided to escape the heat with an authentic Thai massage at Health Land, followed by a Frie Curried Crab dinner at one the local-favourite Somboon restaurants. We headed to the top of the Banyan Tree for a couple of cocktails on the 61st floor roof-top bar which offers superb views across the transformed cityscape.

We were up early the next morning as we headed to the Dumnoen Saduak Floating Market which is a good two hour drive from Bangkok. This was a little bit of catharsis for Ian as he remedied his visit by public transport ten years previously which saw the market closed by the time of his arrival. The floating markets are a little bit crazy with floods of tourists, but its still a great spectacle and lots of fun to visit. On return to the city we headed down to the river for a boat trip but we were stopped in our tracks by a biblical thunderstorm. We retreated to the restored Centre World Mall which showed no ill effects from almost being destroyed in the political unrest that took place in Bangkok in 2010.

On Sunday morning we caught the Sky Train to huge and hot Catuchuk Weekend Market where we picked up a couple of lamps for our new apartment. The afternoon saw us visit the Divina Spa where we relaxed for a very pleasant couple of hours, although Ian felt that his 'berry scrub' was like being covered in jam. After the spa we tried once again to go down to the river, once again a tropical thumnderstorm was on the way but we just about made it in time to enjoy a trip down the river before the daily electrical storm lit up the sky and opened the heavens. Our final evening saw us visit Sra Bua, a very funky Thai-fusion restaurant that re-invents classic Thai cuisine with innovative ingrediants. It was very tasty and lots of fun, check out the potted carrot with edible mud.

All in all we had a great weekend in Bangkok!