An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Quite the leisurely morning as we relaxed in the room enjoying our view of the river, the longboats and the smokey haze, breakfasted at the buffet, then relaxed some more before meeting Nok in the lobby. We got to the airport and went to the VIP lounge (with our new first-class upgrades!) but it smelled like old salami, so we went to the general boarding area which was certainly comfortable enough. The flight back to Bangkok was one hour, but getting to this hotel, which is actually connected to the airport by a walkway took just about as long. We dropped our stuff in the room, then headed into town to the Oriental. En route, we were struck again by the unbelievable amount of new building (over-building?) going on everywhere. The city is a bit like Houston in that it’s sprawling, with no true downtown but with big office parks and towers all around.
We got to the hotel, and went first to Cabachon Jewelers, where we picked up a little momento of Bangkok for Wendy. Milton went for a ride in the exercise room while Wendy charmed the manager into upgrading us into their palatial massage suite for two. This time we opted for Swedish with essential oils, and loved it. We then returned to The Veranda, our favorite diner. We had some of our old favorites — lemongrass soup, coconut milk soup, chicken w/green curry over vermacelli noodles, and some new — salmon tartar and grilled prawns. All acompanied by coconut juice and pomelo juice. This is certainly the happening place: just tonight we eavesdropped on a group at a nearby table who were with the IMF and World Bank, here to oversee the rescue/stimulus efforts, and earlier had met the daughter of a prominent investor who’s here to aggressively buy up some distressed hotels.We taxied back to the depressing area around tonight’s hotel (actually looking more like the future envisioned in Total Recall) and decided to stay at the Oriental when we’re passing through next month.
As this is basically our last day in Thailand, some observations: as Buddha images are sacred, one is not allowed to take any out of the country in any form; oddly enough, though, all the jewelry shops and tourist places sell Buddhas of all sizes in a variety of materials. In Myanmar, we saw the women paint their faces, cheeks mainly, with yellowish-gold powder (which we also saw for sale) looking actually like dried sand, as they see it as beautification and also to block the sun. Everyone here, certainly everyone in a service position and everyone not elderly, is always bowing with their hands together in front of their face as though to pray, as a gesture of respect, greeting, parting, etc. (Guess it’s like saying “Shalom”). Even on a tv game show that we watched while waiting in the airport, the contestants did it toward the mc.