The R&R Big Adventure

Happy New Year!

Monday morning and we could finally meet up with family and friends from home. R’s brother David, his husband Tony, and a good friend of theirs, ‘Tetley’, were in Bangkok for a few days for NYE, before continuing their Asia trip via Chiang Rai to Laos. We met up with them after their trip to the Jim Thompson House (the former American soldier who famously revitalized the Thai silk industry in the 1950s) and went on a boat trip along the tributaries of the Chao Praya river (‘no stopping, no shopping, no Chinese’ was the saleswoman’s pitch to passers by). We had the boat to ourselves, and it was an enjoyable way to spend ninety minutes seeing a side of Bangkok you don’t see from the roads. Back on land, we went our separate ways back to respective hotels to get ready for a night out (NYEE). The evening started with a delicious Thai meal in a local restaurant close to the Night Market, before we headed to the famous gay bar district in Silom Alley. We did a bit of a bar crawl – one of the very smiley barman took a shine to Tetley before we left and headed to DJ Station – a bar/complex down the road. I don’t think we have seen a place quite so packed the night before NYE. It was a later finish than any of us had planned, but we all had a good time.

Unsurprisingly we had a late start on Tuesday, and met for lunch at D&T’s hotel. Smiley barman had been texting Tetley, but it hadn’t progressed to colour swatch stage for his potential room in Clapham. We headed back to our room for a rest, before getting ready for the big night. We were going to be spending the evening at the Four Seasons Hotel which was well positioned by the river to see the firework displays. The hotel was an amazing piece of architecture in its own right – a towering entrance lobby with reflecting pools, huge concrete art installations, and vases of all shapes and sizes, clustered together, full of amaryllis and ilex berries that would fill several florist shops. There was an army of staff ready to greet, assist and walk guests to the various areas that would be in use for the evening – they must have employed at least a couple of people just to light the hundreds of candles that lined the walkways and corridors. The evening started with cocktails by the riverside, followed by a delicious Thai tasting menu, and finishing with more drinks, a band, DJ and fireworks by the river. It certainly was an eclectic crowd – some very wealthy people (a few ‘Berlin Bankers’ in lounge suits; extremely glamourous women wearing something that clearly wasn’t from a chain store) and quite a few very attractive women, with some very ugly men, looking very bored. A few second wives looked like they were on the prowl for husband number three. One guy looked like a smaller version of Rudy Giuliani, replete with statuesque blonde on his arm. The evening was amazing – the staff were brilliant (and it was great the hotel let them stop working and celebrate midnight with a glass of bubbles with everyone else) and the fireworks were spectacular – there were about three or four separate displays going off around the city at one point.

Like anywhere else in the world though, it was impossible to get a taxi afterwards (despite pre-ordering) so we all ended up walking part of the way back before eventually we could get cabs to pick us up. It was lovely to spend a short but sweet 40 or so hours with D,T&T. They went back to their hotel, as they had a flight the next morning, whilst R and I decided in our wisdom to drag the evening’s celebrations out with a few more drinks in Silom Alley (where clearly several glitter cannons had gone off at midnight) into the early hours.

We really did feel it yesterday morning – the sum total of our day was to wander round the enormous shiny new shopping centre opposite our hotel for a bit (clearly a lot of money around for some people in Bangkok) and walk round Lumpini Park next door (and see a few water monitors on the banks of the lake), before heading back to our hotel. We didn’t linger after dinner and had an early-ish night (relatively speaking for the last few days). We certainly felt refreshed this morning.

Whilst we did miss the UK in the build up to Christmas, we certainly didn’t miss it this morning, thinking of those having to face the back-to-work blues on 2^nd Jan, and a long, dark January ahead. Oh well, the forecast is looking good for Chiang Mai, where we will be spending the next few days.