One Day in Bangkok

Today's adventures included visiting the Chatuchak open-air market, the malls in downtown Bangkok, and an amazing rooftop bar, as well as getting a Thai massage.

The hostel was good-- clean sheets, adequate privacy, people from all over the world, and just enough noise in the morning to wake me up reasonably early. I'm here tonight as well. Before going to the market, we had breakfast and walked by a nearby temple:

The Chatuchak weekend market (link: wikipedia) is a maze of shops and food vendors:

 I look tense because I've seen these items at about 5 other shops, and because it's hot.

There were a few amazing items, such as this Predator statue built from scrap metal:

Among other things, I bought some cheap but shiny sunglasses:

 

We took an elevated train to downtown Bangkok. Most of the people in the malls there, like in the market, looked like Japanese or Korean tourists, or local youths hanging out on their weekend. Nevertheless, American pop music played loudly at most stores. 

Though many things (taxis, food, lodging, massage) are really cheap here, I did check that Armani suits cost just as much as at home. 

The mall did include a McDonald's serving a "Pork Samurai Burger" and a Ronald statue making a local greeting:

One store served about 10 flavors of gelato mochi. This was excellent.


For a Thai massage, Kipp and I went to the Thai Privilege Spa near the mall. I now understand why people like spas so much-- it made me feel really relaxed and happy, like running for a few hours but without the effort. Traditional Thai massage is like a normal massage plus a stretching routine. A 1.5 hour massage session cost about $25, which is amazing. My only complaint was that the masseuse was too polite to call me on any of my first-time-spa-user faux pas.


We had dinner in a Thai restaurant in the mall. The food was unlike Thai food in the USA. I suspect it may have been Japanese-style Thai food.





The rooftop bar we went to afterward (Vertigo) was about 60 stories high, with an amazing view of the city.

 

Tomorrow I plan to see some more sights, book travel for the rest of the trip, and get fitted for suits.