Travel Day – Hong Kong to Bangkok

Up early and off to the airport to catch a noon flight. This was my first time flying Cathay Pacific and I must say, I will do it again. Compared to Air Canada, the service, food and the overall experience is superior. Apologies to any Air Canada followers. Please don’t take away any of my Aeroplan points!

We were served a hot meal and two rounds of beverages in a 3 hour flight.

Thai Stats

Arriving in Bangkok. We were met by Tipp from Destination Asia. She escorted us to the toilets and out to the van. Once inside, she turned on the microphone and began giving us the run down on Bangkok. There are so many past kings called Ram, they number them. I believe they are up to 20 now. The King of Siam, who the late wonderful actor Yul Brenner played in the musical The King and I, doesn’t have a number. He was the King of Siam. Thailand changed its name from Siam in June 1939.

The population of Thailand is 76.2M and in Bangkok proper there are 9M with a 12% Chinese-Thai population.

Sukhothai Bangkok Hotel

We checked into the Sukhothai Bangkok Hotel which is beautiful and serene. We are escorted to our rooms to discover it is a queen size bed. This was remedied within a few minutes. Our room is overlooking a water feature with lily pads.

From check-in, we had enough time to get ready for dinner and meet the gang in the lobby.

Saffron Cruise

I marvel at the amount of traffic in Bangkok and at every red light, it looks like a motocross race as the bikes, tuk tuks and cars vie for position. There doesn’t appear to be any road rules. We are let out in the underground, make our way to ground level and are confronted with a wave of hot air, hordes of people, eating and shoppingo be any rules. Motorbikes ride between lanes and even on the wrong side of solid lines,

Bumper-to-bumper all the way to the Icon Siam mall that once again has the high end stores such as Dior, Versace, and Hermes. The market area is spectacular and set up like a Sook and one I’d be willing to return to.

We are now outside and a fountain that runs at least a few city blocks long is gushing with colour and each burst is higher and higher with pinks, blues, reds and greens. Music is playing and the plaza is magic with people enjoying the views and doing their best to stay cool. There is so much life here.

We are having dinner tonight on a boat on the Chao Praya River. It is called the Saffron Cruise and please make sure you do this if you are ever in Bangkok. This 5* dining experience is such a treat. The chef from the Banyan Tree Hotel created the menu. The food is amazing and you certainly won’t regret the views. Here are some of the meal items we had:

The evening was amazing and although we wonder how we will cope with the heat, we know it will all be worth it.

Hopping back into the van, we head to the hotel with our bellies full and our heads bobbing due to exhaustion from the heat, food comas and a travel day.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with Tipp, the guide and will be exploring Chinatown, the Reclining, Golden and Emerald Buddhas, plus other significant, historical locations.

Until then…