Bangkok unguided
There was no activity booked for today so we slept a little later than yesterday and went down for breakfast around 8 am. We were back and ready to go out a little before 9 am.
Majella had been keen to see the floating markets but would ideally have meant an earlier start and, though interesting, would not have been ideal for shopping which Ben wanted to do. Instead we planned to go back to the China Town market we had visited on Sunday.
Our outing with Ken on Sunday had shown us how to use the MRT (subway) and the BTS (skytrain). The easiest way to China Town was to walk down to the Sukhumvit MRT station, ride to Sam Yot station, and walk to the market. I had some problems then, and later in the day, feeding notes into the vending machines which seemed to be fussy about orientation and alignment but otherwise all our travel today went smoothly.
A short walk from Sam Yot station we found some market stalls at the entrance to an alley. For a while the alley was lined on both sides by stalls selling fabric and other sewing materials. Majella loitered through there. She made some purchases and Ben joined in. As we walked on for what must have been a kilometre or more the specialties of the stalls changed and we crossed a couple of streets. Ben and Majella both found more things to buy.
Eventually we passed into a section that was wholesale only so we backtracked and took a side alley that became focused on fresh food. We backtracked again and found a coffee shop where we paused for coffee. They had nothing Ben wanted to drink so he had to wait until we moved on again and found 7-11 where Majella encouraged him to try something other than Coke. He tried a green drink with a pineapple flavour but was not overly impressed.
By then we had enough of the market and we were headed for Wat Mangkon station. Majella had identified Si Lom as a place of potential interest for shopping. We caught the MRT to Si Lom, alighted, and found the Si Lom shopping mall. We wandered through a couple of floors but found nothing to interest us for shopping so we walked back out to the street and on to look at Lumphini Park. It was hot in the sun so we did not venture far into the park.
Instead, we headed for nearby Sala Daeng BTS station and rode to Siam where Majella had identified Siam Paragon for a visit. She was still chasing the Lamoonn jam she had been eating for breakfast and had found that Gourmet Market sold it and that there was a Gourmet Market in Siam Paragon.
As we entered Siam Paragon it was clear it was not our usual shopping style. The first stores were encountered included Dior, Hermes, and the like.
Majella’s other interest in Siam Paragon was Sea Life Bangkok, an aquarium in the basement. I was not persuaded that the middle of Bangkok was the best place to see ocean life but Majella was keen and we went to find it. As we reached the bottom of the escalator we were greeted by an effigy of Tom Cruise – Madame Tussaud’s is an associated attraction of the aquarium. When Majella approached the sales point to buy tickets the only options were the Big Ticket or the Combo Package, both including Madame Tussaud’s and more in the latter case. Tickets for the aquarium only had to be purchased online.
I used the QR code provided nearby, worked through the process of selecting what we wanted and a hour time slot (1 pm was approaching so that was it), struggled past all the attempted upsells for extras, and selected checkout. My ApplePay seemed to go through but no email with tickets arrived and neither was there a new debit on my credit card. I was wary of trying to pay again lest I pay twice. We abandoned our attempt to visit the aquarium. As we left we noticed that tickets for the virtual reality experiences could be bought. Ben opted for swimming with sharks in VR. That involved wearing a headset for the vision and sitting in a seat (with seatbelt) that moved during the experience. He pronounced it interesting but noted that the visual element was low resolution.
We went back up to the food court which had a plethora of options. Initially Majella thought a Subway would suit her. Ben was undecided. We walked about considering options. By the time we got back to Subway, Majella had decided she was not hungry for lunch. Ben had a footlong meatballs with cheese and I had a 6 inch fried chicken. Majella managed a bite of the latter.
Ben had spotted Gourmet Market just around a corner so we went in search of Lamoonn jam. We didn’t find it but we did see a lot of interesting food.
After a little more wandering in Siam Paragon we walked back to the nearby Siam station and caught the skytrain toward Sukhumvit and our hotel. We went two stops beyond Nana which is nearest our hotel to Phrom Phong where there was another Gourmet Market to try.
We found the Gourmet Market on the fifth floor of a nearby shopping mall but, sadly, it had no Lamoonn jam either. Getting up the levels on the escalators seemed straightforward but getting down was a challenge. It seemed the arrangement had been designed to facilitate getting up and forced us past as many different sales points as possible on the way down. That’s probably a clever retail strategy. We made it back to Phrom Phong station and took the skytrain 2 stops back to Nana station from which we walked back to our hotel.
By then it was a little after 3 pm. We rested a while and then went up to the pool. Ben and I swam – he for somewhat longer than I – while Majella sat to watch and relax. By 5 pm Ben had swum enough and we went back to our room to relax a little before finding dinner.
Nobody felt like walking far for dinner. We had already done a lot of walking – 16000+ steps according to my Fitbit. Around the corner and a little way down Sukhumvit 11 we found Saffron, an Indian restaurant. By then we had passed a variety of other offerings but this one looked good. We sat on the outside deck where we had a view of action up and down the street. Ben ordered chilli chicken and coke, Majella selected chicken tikka and white wine, and I had butter chicken and Singha beer. Rice and naan were shared and we all tasted each other of the dishes. The food was tasty and none was too spicy though I did try one of the green chillies served as an accompaniment and stopped at a nibble.
By 7:30 pm we were back in our room relaxing. Tomorrow we pack and head for home.
