My brother’s friend is honeymooning in Bangkok soon and Songbae asked Sue if she had any tips. Well, having lived there for two years, the tips just tumbled out of her. Here they are.
“i would recommend:
1. brunch at the shangri-la. open only on weekends. go there HUNGRY b/c no matter how hungry you are you won’t be able to eat all that you want to when you get there. there’s SO MUCH delicious food (but it’s all more like lunch or dinner food rather than breakfast, e.g. sushi, roast, etc).
2. drinks/cocktails at distil on top of the state tower. this is just next to vertigo which is more famous but more loungy and relaxed. but definitely check out vertigo also while you’re there… its quite spectacular.
3. wat pho (reclining buddha) and wat pra kaew/grand palace. wat pra kaew is the emerald buddha and is the most important buddha to thais. after walking around the wats, recommend getting to restaurant ‘the deck’ just before sunset and sitting on the balcony on the 2nd floor for dinner while the sun sets behind wat arun (you’ll be located on the riverside).
4. massages… lots of them. lots of places… to go. regular price should be about 200-300 baht/hr or 1.5 hrs. but once you get fancier (own room, etc) the price goes up quickly, e.g., 400 to 1200 baht an hour for thai massage.
5. spa. all of the nice hotels have good spas.
6. bak klong talaat. 24hr flower market that has an amazing array of orchids and other exotic plants and flowers. best to go sometime after 10pm.
7. at some point you may want to try using the river or canal boats to get around just for the experience. i love being on the river. going to the wats or the flower market or shangri-la for brunch all offer opportunities for taking a boat up the chao praya river.
well, that’s just a few of my favourites … there are heaps of other things to do in bangkok too!
congrats… and best wishes for a long and happy life together!
SUE.”
