Bangkok - Day 5 - Work over, let's see what this is all about

The next day I woke up with a hangover.  I'm not going to lie, I crawled out of bed and if you could have seen me it was not a pretty site...Just be thankful I'm not one of those people that take photos of everything.

scraped myself down to get breakfast, can't remember what I had, but I'm thinking it was mainly fruit juice and coffee based...

Today was the first day to myself and I had plenty of choice as to what to do.  One of the guys on the workshop had marked out the different places on a map for me and recommended different stuff what the kind of thing I was after.  He also recommended the places not to go to!

Today I didn't feel up to full on sight seeing so being the technogeek consumer I am I thought I'd go to one of these technology mall places. I chose a place called Panthip Plaza.  It's basically a couple of thousand computer and phone shop's / stalls rammed into a big 6 floor mall. Imagine Bluewater for geeks.

I got a cab over there (no I didn't go on a tuk tuk and have no plans to) and he dropped me somewhere near, I went for a stroll over the bridge and found the entrance to Panthip Plaza.

As you walk in it is quite a shock to the system, relatively organised chaos. People with every type of mobile phone you can imagine, I almost bought a Ferrari 599 shaped mobile phone but they wanted too much even after some extreme haggling so I left it.  Now you don't come to a place like this unless you actually want to buy something, I had a bit of a shopping list planned out. I was looking for some kind of tablet, i'd seen reviews of what people call the fake ipads (epads or other variants) that although cheap chinese made things were running android 2.2 and not actually that bad. I also was looking for a few sony camera attachments.

I spent the next 3 hours wandering the mall, It flew by all of a sudden i realised it was lunch time and I'd not bought anything. I had already spotted a small stall on the 4th floor that had these epads. It's quite amusing really they make out like they are as good or better than ipads and give you the hard sell.  I did well, about 20 minutes negotiating and some back and forth typing numbers into a calculator, stripping out of all the crappy accessories i didnt want and showing them that I had a dell streak in my pocket so I'm quite aware this is a chinese knockoff I managed to get them to sell me the 10" version for less than the 7" version, something like 2300 baht ie about £47. She didnt look particularly happy when we shook on it so can't imagine she made much money but they didn't look like they'd had a single customer today (and that's why I chose them)

I did go into a number of camera shops that stocked sony stuff but none of them had the specific stuff I needed so in the end I headed back to the hotel.

In the afternoon I just chilled out a bit, by the pool etc, to be honest I was still a bit knackered so I probably didn't make the best use of the day but then again I had a new tablet to play with.

Now it's not going to convert any ipad fans any time soon but for the money you can't complain, once I'd stripped off all the crappy stuff on it I didnt want (most of it chinese) and installed stuff i did want from marketplace it started to actually become quite a good little device.

That evening I was meeting up with another colleague from the uk who had been on holiday not far from here and was now back in BK for the night. He was meeting a couple of his mates who live here so I tagged along.

I hopped in a cab outside the hotel and as soon as we started moving the cab driver (who spoke perfect english) turned around and said "why didnt you take the sky train, traffic very bad between here and there"
Now seeing I had no idea how far apart here and there were it was a bit of unknown risk but I said I wasn't in a massive hurry and then spent 45 mins in the cab having a nice chat with the man.  (it still only cost me £2)

He was right of course, the traffic was pretty bad, but to be honest i've seen worse, at least people werent driving into each other like Jakarta!

Got to Sukhumvit Soi 7 where I'd been told to head...and those who know BK well probably know where this is heading...

I get out the taxi and he told me to walk left so I did...as I did...I saw the 'other side' of bangkok. I mean metaphorically not geographically.

Some of you have probably heard of Pat Pong, well this street was one of its poorer cousins. Bar after Bar after Bar with Girl after Girl after Girl. 'oh my' I thought to myself where have I been taken. Pretty soon I realised I was actually in the right place and there was a bar half way down the street with the guys I was meeting.

We had a beer and then a couple of us hadn't eaten so we walked around the corner to a kind of open thai canteen restaurant that was serving mostly locals real thai food. I had a seafood in sauce with seaweed and was really really nice.

After then we met back up with the guys and it was decided due to my never having really seen the bangkok night life before that we would head to soi cowboy.  A short cab ride later and we were there. It was similar to the first place only bigger, brighter and even more places of that ilk. A man with lower morals would have been in disneyland! However as they say I'm a good boy and know where my bread is buttered!

Although the sites were obvious and unsubtle the evening consisted of a couple of beers and some good chat in 2 different bars, their names escape me but I think one was like Barracca or something.

Part of me felt a little uneasy most of the evening as I was told that most of the girls were poor farmers daughters who came here to make money the only way they knew how and I found that a little sad. But on the other hand I'm glad I truly saw that side of BK.

After that it was a much shorter ride back to the hotel (the traffic had gone) and I headed into the lobby bar for one more drink with my bar tender friend Pick, he gave me some free thai whiskey to try which was really good!

It was late and the jet lag was laughing in my face now so I crashed.

Bangkok - Day 4 - The finer side of living

Woke up this morning feeling fine...got something spe... sorry

Got up had breakfast but this time opting for some more local cuisine including some raw salmon sushi and a few other delicacies.

Work went really well apart from a few technical shenanigans but we got over that pretty quickly.  After the course had finished one of our colleagues who lives just outside Bangkok had invited us over for dinner at their house.  I was completely knackered as the jet lag and work had been hanging on my eyelids for the last few hours so at bare minimum I needed a shower to wake me up.

After the shower I met up with the guys and we hopped in his car. It was about a 45 min drive to his place but was nice because it gave me a chance to see some more of bangkok other than the central part.

I had a lovely evening at their place, met his english wife and their thai children of 11 and 5, who were adorable, What was really amusing to me was that she had cooked a traditional english chicken roast! This was brilliant and delicious and made a really surreal counterbalance to where we were.  Their home is amazing, it's like one of those places you see in hollywood.  Beautiful white stone house in security gated complex with amazing pool and bbq area. If I ever end up living in a place half that nice I will be happy (I probably won't).

I didn't take any photos as 1.didn't take my camera and 2.just didn't seem appropriate!

but had a great evening with wonderful company topped of by Kem (the 11 yr old) announcing he had an electric guitar! well, that's like telling me they had a ferrari in the garage, I had to have a play. Ended up giving an ad hoc guitar lesson to boot.

Was a lovely evening and again I got real insight into what life is like for many ex pats living over here. It's not exactly a bad life!

After this I got a cab back, here is the other thing about thailand, the taxi's are so cheap! I got a 45 min journey and is cost about £2.20. I tell you if I lived in Bangkok I don't think I'd bother owning a car. Actually what am I saying, petrol is so cheap I'd probably have a V12 monster...

When I got back I didn't quite feel ready for bed and in the lobby bar they had a singer and band doing various western covers. They were really bloody good!

although the introduction into Bieber into their set was uncalled for.

Another discovery here was a bar man called (i think he said) 'Pick' who spoke pretty good english and made amazing cocktails! Ive had a few in my time but this guy really knew what he was doing, tasting / adjusting I had a couple and all were a 'taste sensation' (imagine peter kay)

At about 1am I thought enough was enough and headed up to my room to sleep.

Bangkok - Day 3 - Bonjour and Skyscrapers

So the alarm wakes me up at 6.30am...which to me of course feels like 12.30am...the last thing I want to do is go and do 12 hours work but alas that's why I'm here of course so being a good little boy I don't complain and the days workshop all went swimmingly, but before I got there we had breakfast to contend with...

Now the buffet in this hotel is extravagant to say the least, you can literally have anything you want. you want fry up? of course. you want 200 types of fruit, no problem! you want sushi followed by sweet and sour pork balls in a fiery chilli sauce, knock yourself out!  As I was nursing last nights psycho pizza fire from hell I went for some simple bacon and eggs, but what I realised as I looked round the place was just how different people's breakfast culture are.

I spotted one little (guessing chinese) guy eating a fish salad with fruit

Another eating what looked like pad thai or some other similar dish

Another having noodle soup

Another with piled high waffles covered in syrup

and I could go on...It made me think about just how different peoples palettes must be at 7.30 in the morning. but anyway I digress...

Work went well... I'll not bore you with that...

That evening I had a choice to go with all the delegates on the organised restaurant boat by the hotel for my evening meal or join my colleagues somewhere else... I went for the colleagues option.

Before meeting up with them I went for a quick swim in the pool as the temperature at around 6.30pm was like bath water both in or out.

Was very pleasant and helped relieve some tension from quite a stressful first day.

One of my colleagues bailed due to being knackered so I met up with the other one who is a great french guy now living in singapore.  We went to a place called something cafe, can't remember the first word, which his wife said did good thai food. unfortunately that was over 3 years ago and they had changed ownership, the food was purely european and although the service was very bad, eg wrong dishes appearing, the food when it did arrive was very nice. They had no idea how to make a good Mojito though!

After the meal we got a cab over to the Banyan Tree. This hotel is a tourist hot spot as it has the open top restaurant / bar on the roof...Vertigo / Moon Bar.  I had always been planning to go here as many people had recommended it, but even more so as Helen and Tom (V's sis+hubby) had only just gone there a few weeks back.

Had some great Banter around the differences between england and france (well more the english and the french) but also got some real insights into what life is like as an ex pat in asia.  The return on your money and quality of life seem to be right up there. We also had some very good realisations about how as England we think that we are right up there in terms of best places to live in the world / well off country / public services and in some respects its true, but in many respects we are kidding ourselves I think.

While up at the Moon Bar I took a few photos of the view:

As you can see the view is something pretty special and no better place in my view to sit with a cocktail chatting about the world...

After this we hopped back in a taxi to the hotel and I went to sleep as the jet lag was creeping up on me like some kind of creepy sleepy thing.

Bangkok - Day 2 - Arriving in Bangkok

So as I sit here thinking about packing up my things and maybe having a last visit into town before I go I realised that my plan to do 'small and often' entries has failed. So instead Ill try to do an overall summary of my trip to bangkok.

The flight over was good, no drama, only managed to get about 4 hours sleep but actually this served a purpose, as I was awake for the second half of the flight so when I landed at 3.30pm BK time I and my body could kind of believe it was the afternoon.  The highlight of the flight over was the descent into BK. It's rainy season here at the moment which basically means every day they see random scatterings of the most amazing thunderstorms. The descent through the clouds where the pilot was obviously given leeway to fly around the thunderheads was an amazing sight, never seen weather quite like it!

Got off the plane thinking about where I needed to go and the possibility of whether I was supposed to or not have a visa (which I didn't) and with my head full of journey logistics I totally forgot about one obvious difference between England and Thailand...the temperature! It smacked me in the face like a microwaved kipper covered in chilli sauce!

After a stroll through arrivals and what seemed like a 4 mile hike to immigrations I remembered my trip to Jakarta last year where to get into the country I effectively had to bribe the official due to a mix up in visas so off course not having any kind of visa this time I was thinking it could be tricky. Turns out Thailand is much more relaxed, straight through no issue.

So i picked up my driver at arrivals (well he picked up me) and after getting some cash out (which just looked like asian monopoly money to me) hopped in the BMW 7 series and enjoyed the blast or air con, complimentary  cold water and wifi connection! dammit they know how to do service in this town!

On the drive to the hotel the driver who spoke some english was pointing out various buildings and parts of town to me. I never realised BK was so damn big! one thing I did spot was this...

It seems our recent hammering by barca hasn't affected the branding out here, sponsored buildings no less!

As anyone who follows me on these little jaunts knows for me the interesting bits and highlights are all the querky little differences between where I'm from and where I'm going, it's always the little things for example spotted this sign on route to the hotel...

Not sure why but I really like this sign.

So anyway we arrive at the hotel, I am staying at the Shangri La hotel in the south of the city...and as soon as we pull up I can tell 'I've done well' with this one, the staff are incredibly attentive and friendly, everyone of them says hello and smiles, can't do enough for you etc etc that kind of 5* service that someone like myself who stays in a lot of 3* middle of the road not quite a truck stop but nothing like the ritz kind of places, could get accustomed to!  Plus the client has apparently negotiated a good rate so it works out at less than £70 a night! my first insight into money going much further in Thailand.

Check in was also an experience, Im greeted at the car by 2 people, 1 to take my stuff and 1 takes me straight to my room where they check you in there, talk about streamlined service!

My room was only on 6th floor (guess it was a stretch to far to hope for a 30th floor suite ;0D ) so the view from the window over the river was nice but not spectacular.

however what it did enable me to do was get a good look at some of the transport used in BK, seems to be 3 main areas, road (taxi, tuk tuk and motorbike taxis), railway (BTS sky rail type thing), but what I didn't know was just how much they relied on the river for transport, hundreds if not thousands of boats flying up and down all the time...

Now what actually happened as soon as I had checked in was that I had to go and work... I had to go setup for 2 simulations running the next day, luckily in the same hotel. 

Once we had finished with the work stuff for that night the 2 colleagues I had been working with together with another who lives in BK and was meeting us went for a few drinks and a meal at the italian restaurant they have in the hotel complex.  This was where I got my first view of the thai perspective to 2 things:

1. Food cost levels in reverse - what I mean by this, is in the UK if you want to go out for a meal but don't want to spend a lot of money and want something simple but tasty a typical go to is italian right? pizza pasta whatever... and if you want to spend a bit more and go for something really good a nice Thai restaurant would be a good way to go. At least in Guildford that is definitely the way I see it. 

It seems obvious now thinking about it but still was interesting was it is the total opposite here. Don't get me wrong there are very nice / posh / expensive thai food places also but there seems to be a large premium paid for european food.  Our meal worked out at close to $100 a head for starter and main and it was all fairly typical italian food (very nice though I might add) Angelini's is the name if you ever fancy top class Italian in BK.

2. Perception of 'spicy' - now this one may seem a tad obvious but their levels of spicy are somewhat elevated! so to help any budding thailand visitor out I have created a conversion table using a well known western chicken restaurant as the europe benchmark...

UK                                     Thailand

Lemon and Herb                 Doesnt exist except in some deserts

Mild                                    Won't kill you but you better like spicy food

Medium                              Mental, will contain at least 10 hot chillies

Spicy                                  You'll be lucky to eat it all and survive

Hot and Spicy                     Your not coming home again.

And this is based on real field research, trust me! Those who know me know that travel is closely linked with food in my world and Ive been sure to try some of the best and most interesting food while ive been here but there is always a common theme - Chilli!

I learnt this lesson on the first night,  I ordered a 'Bangkok' pizza and the waitress asked me if I liked it spicy, I having a few beers under my belt went, of course! This pizza could have powered the next nasa mission, i only got 2/3 the way through it before admitting defeat! However it was also covered in sushi which was a unique but delicious addition

After this meal I went back to my hotel room and crashed as the next few days were going to be long and hard work.

Had a lovely evening with a colleague and family at their home in bangkok even gave their 11 year old son a guitar lesson.

Was reay nice to see the exat living side of bangok

I wish this hotel would stop leaving scary looking fruit in my room...

Went to the rooftop bar vertigo tonight, amazing view

Not that this photo does it any justice.