Second Impression

My first time in Bangkok, Thailand, though very enjoyable, left me with a few not so good impressions of the city.

I mean, where else can you see fake LV bags sold in front of the very posh LV store itself? Or people picking ingredients for their street salad using bare hands as the seller picks his own nose? Or whenever you exit the grand lobby of the hotel, you're greeted by a chaotic market?  The only good things that stuck in my mind were the luxurious malls, the great budget shopping, the crazy night life and the massively awesome breakfast buffet of delectable Thai food.  The temples? We were brought to the lesser ones.  Worse, we had  a mandatory visit to a jewelry factory!  Heavy traffic and unscrupulous taxi and tuktuk drivers didn't help either.

But all that changed when I went back as part of the Asian tour with my bosom buddy ETS.  This time, we came prepared, thanks to extensive research!

I love the Suvarnabhumi Airport!

We were very happy that there's a train directly linking the main airport terminal  to the city center!  How convenient is that?!  Plus, unlike Singapore and Kuala Lumpur where only the main terminals have express train to the city, Thailand doesn't have a budget terminal, so you're somewhat on equal footing with the rest of the tourists :-)

This is just the freaking Makkasan train station, the other end of the express train from the airport.  It 's like it  was built just for the two of us because we're the only ones there!

Our spankingly hip room!  That's what we love about BKK, the hotels are great at half it's neighbors' prices.

I can so eat here!

Of course, what else but the mouth watering Tom Yum!

First dose of yummy Thai food, "bagoong rice"...

...that goes with this!

Nothing special, just for the name written in Thai :-)

Nearby 711 for our...

...milk before bed and...

...cookie fix, which we don't have in Manila said ETS!

Needed to revitalize after the grueling Cambodia leg.  Great that the hotel has a spa right at the ground floor where we got some good pampering the Thai way, right ETS?! LOL!

The Bangkok leg started out right, and I was so ready to be pleasantly surprised!