Our Last Week in Bangkok :'(

EARLY RETIREMENTSLOW TRAVELTRAVELMEMORIESRETIREMENTTHAILAND

Liz

10/9/20266 min read

It's hard to believe but we are in our final week of Bangkok - where has the time gone?

Day 22 (11 Sept) - Silom, Sala Daeng and Dusit Central Park

As it gets closer to our time to leave, R keeps reminding S and me that we have not yet managed to visit Lumphini Park for their free dance and aerobics exercise class, which takes place every day around 5 or 6 pm. Clearly, that is not going to happen with me and especially not in this heat!

However, we are happy to have a walk around this area of this city, as we have not managed to cover it yet. So, off we went, starting around the Sala Daeng and Convent Road areas. We nipped into the nearby mall for a quick look around but decided it was better to just head to the Dusit Central Park for some lunch, the shops and the views. The food court here has quite a lot of Michelin-rated restaurants, and there is loads of choice. After lunch, we visited various shops, though I think Her Highness has either a low bank balance now or has zero capacity left in her suitcase, as she has reduced her purchasing spree! Once we had had enough, we called it a day and hopped on the BTS back home.

Day 23 (12 Sept) - Back to Wireless Road & One Bangkok

Today's plan was to visit the hairdresser (R and I definitely need a haircut!), have lunch at a lovely Korean Place we have been to before in the All Seasons Mansion complex on Wireless Road, and then head over to One Bangkok for a walk around.

It started off so well, my friends, but later became a nightmare...

As we were heading to the hairdresser's for our group appointment, we were slightly early, so we decided to look into a little mall place that we had walked by numerous times in the past when we were staying at our Airbnb in All Seasons Mansions. It was a sort of small department home store which seemed to specialise in kitchen and cooking appliances and accessories. However, it had a lovely little cafe which overlooked Wireless Road, so we decided we had time for a quick coffee before our appointment. It was lovely, and I would happily revisit this quiet cafe. Then we went for our hair appointments at the Niche Salon, and the ladies were great - we used this same hairdresser last year, and they even remembered R (well, I guess he stands out a little!).

Then it was off to Hongdae Station for our lunch, and it was great. Huge portions and very tasty. I've previously gone for their noodle dish, which is delicious but messy, and I had white trousers on this time, so I thought I'd try something else. I went for their beef and vegetable dish with rice, S got a soup broth dish, and I can't remember what R got. They were all delicious.

After lunch, we then hopped in a Grab to One Bangkok for a wander. We walked around for a little bit, and I think S bought a few items in a couple of shops that she hadn't visited before, and then disaster struck. I started to feel quite unwell. I suddenly got quite clammy, and I just didn't feel right, so as we were walking, I started to eye up where the toilet locations were. Yes, dear readers, that delicious lunch was no more because I was spewing my guts up for over an hour and a half in One Bangkok. Each time I thought I was over, it wasn't, and I couldn't go any distance because it was constant. A staff member even approached S & R, where I was sitting, to see if I needed to go to the infirmary. R advised that it was food poisoning (there were mushrooms in the lunch dish I had), and he was timing my bouts of throwing up, which were slowly getting longer. The problem was: would we be able to get home by taxi without me throwing up? Well, thankfully, I didn't spew my guts in the taxi (although I had a bag ready for that eventuality), and I made it to the front door of the apartment before I had to sprint to the bathroom once again.

So I definitely have an intolerance to mushrooms that are not the usual ones I buy in the supermarket at home. It was a horrible experience for all of us, and R is convinced that we are banned from One Bangkok now. I, on the other hand, am just thankful that we were in there and that I had plenty of access to lovely, clean facilities (which, incidentally, I left in a clean condition after each use!).

Bangkok, Thailand

Day 25 (14 Sept) - Samyan Mitrtown and Queen Sirikit National Centre

Well, yesterday (13 Sept) was fairly quiet as I was still recovering from my gut explosion, so we decided not to go too far, and besides, we were now on our final days of getting last-minute presents and items that we wanted to take back home with us. We took it easy and just stayed around the Ekkamai area.

The following day, I was much better, and we decided to visit the Samyan Mitrtowm mall and the temple next to it. Unfortunately, both were quite underwhelming, so we didn't stay there very long before jumping back on the MRT to visit the Queen Sirikit National Centre for lunch.

By the time we had lunch and walked around the centre and were just about to head out to have a walk around Benjakitti Park, the heavens opened up. So we decided to stay a little while longer and went for coffee. The rain didn't clear up, and we called it quits and headed home instead of getting our park walk in - we'd have to leave that for another time.

Day 27 (16 Sept) - Our Last Full Day in Bangkok

Noooooo, it's our last full day in Bangkok before we go home! As usual, the time has gone by in a flash. Despite the fact that we had a few days when some of us suffered some form of illness, we have had a great time, seen loads of stuff, eaten loads of delicious food and bought loads of stuff. We have experienced the rainy season, and it really wasn't much of a disruption to us as we worked around it, and we were usually home in the evenings when it sometimes came too. I think because we were usually never too far from either a mall, a cafe or a covered walkway, and we took our umbrellas in the bag with us, we were pretty covered. The weather was still just as hot as usual, so most days were bright, warm and sunny, which was great.

On our final day, we just went to several local stores and shops around the Ekkamai area. We had some lovely drinks in Rolling Roasters coffee shop. Then afterwards we popped into Pinki's Deli, a sandwich shop next door, for lunch and had the most amazing sandwiches with a shared bread platter with speciality butters.

Then it was back to the shops to pick up some food and drink items to make leaving gift bags for the lovely security guards at our apartment and the one next to us. We are going to miss their happy smiles and greetings every time we passed them. What did we say about the lovely Thai people again?

Then it was packing, tidying, cleaning and getting ready for our early morning pick-up for the airport. It's always so sad to leave Bangkok and strange to think that it had never been a place on our 'must-visit' list. It just goes to show how wrong you can be!

The flight home was pretty uneventful, and thankfully, we had plenty of time for our connecting flight on the return journey.

Looking forward to when we will return to Bangkok again, but in the meantime, that's a wrap on this adventure.

Day 26 (15 Sept) - Another Food Experience - Copper at the Gaysorn

As we have almost finished our trip, we decided to see it out with a visit to the Copper Beyond Buffet restaurant that is located in The Gaysorn Amarin. We didn't go for the buffet options but a 7-course signature option that was available on the Klook app. We felt this was more than enough for us and gave us a good number of options too. The food was excellent. I so wanted to try the truffle mushroom soup with croissant, but it wasn't worth the risk - the two horrors with me, though, selected that as an option. S also ordered the oysters, and I had swapped one of these for one of my large prawns. She tried it but didn't like the oyster, whereas I was actually pleasantly surprised by it. It was good. I also went for a papaya salad, which I asked for a little spice, but I found it was still too spicy for me, which was a shame. Overall, it was a great experience, which we all really enjoyed.

After lunch, we headed to Centralworld and the plan was to have a relaxing coffee in a nice little spot that we discovered the last time we were there. However, we found that this area was no longer there, and it was in the process of being renovated, so it was all closed off. We had a look around for a few other bits and pieces; Ms S once again managed to buy something, and as it was starting to get busy, that was our cue to begin the move back home to the apartment.