prncess674

One Night In Bangkok….

Okay so technically it was three nights in Bangkok but it makes a way cooler introduction to quote the classic song.

Preface

I guess I should give you a little back story on how this trip came to fruition. Early May IO12609 sent a few of us an email expressing a desire to spend a week in Thailand starting out in Bangkok and then continuing onto the islands. Not having the time off due to a new work project I agreed to take the flight over with her and head back to the states when JSD & IO12609 went onto the islands. The group of “recruits” eventually included stimpy, auh2o, wingless & kokonutz. Tickets were booked and all we had to do now was wait for June 30th to finally get here! The question you are asking yourself is, was this a mileage run? No, I ended up buying an expensive Q fare. I don’t need the miles, my EQM balance as of now is 87K and my business travel is not letting up, so I will probably end the year with 200K+. Was I there for business? No this trip was all about seeing a new city with awesome friends. My coworkers thought I was nuts for spending approximately 60hrs in airplanes/airports just for 60hrs in BKK, but as bizarre as it sounds it was totally worth it to me, spending time with friends is a rare gem in life that I don’t take lightly. I also considered the time getting there as part of the fun. Now onto the fun….

JFK-SFO UA Flight 5 p.s. configured 757 – Business Class
Thursday, June 30,2005

I woke up at the ungodly early hour of 4:30am at the Westin Times Square and by this point my upgrade for this leg of the trip had NOT cleared. Very stressed I crawled into a car having nightmares of a 6 hour transcontinental flight in economy. I decided to give United one last call and lo and behold my upgrade had JUST cleared! I should note that the flight was showing heavily oversold in economy so that is why they hadn’t clear any upgrades prior to day of departure. Feeling much better that I wouldn’t be crammed in coach I called kokonutz to tell him the good news. Koko had a flight leaving at almost the same time as me but from IAD. I don’t normally call people at 5AM.

JFK business class check in line was long but luckily you can use the easy check in machine now for international itineraries. The machine spit out nice pretty gold business boarding passes for each of the legs of my journey to BKK. Security was a breeze even though the elite line wasn’t open. Still having about 30 minutes prior to departure I headed up to the RCC where I used the time to submit my time and expense report for work. Not wanting to have to possibly gate check my rollaboard I headed to the gate with plenty of time. I took my favorite seat on this plane (9A). Menus and pre departure drinks were passed out and a nice male FA offered to put my bag in the overhead storage bin. Now I didn’t ask and I was shocked that he offered. I gladly took him up on the nice offer.

Sufficiently tired I slept through when they passed out the individual DVD players and head phones. The cart was rolled out for the breakfast service. Breakfast choices I thought were uninspiring.

Main course choices were:

• Asiago cheese and asparagus omelette with fresh seasonal fruit, oven roasted three potato hash, baby spinach, pork sausage and pepper sauce.
  
• Fresh seasonal fruit platter with yogurt

Not in a fruit mood I chose the omelette which I thought was practically inedible. Not a big deal, there is a pre landing snack on p.s. flights and I had 20 hrs of international business class in front of me. I knew that I wasn’t going to go hungry.

The 6 hr flight to SFO passed quickly, I slept a bit and then watched a few DVDs. Shortly before arrival the carts were out again for the pre landing snack.

Choices were:

• parmesan-crusted breast of chicken and parma ham with a side of fresh
• Cheese plate with fresh fruit

Deciding a bit of protein would get me going I chose the chicken dish. It was a pasty white looking herb covered chicken breast that tasted as horrible as it looked. It too went mainly untouched. Just prior to touchdown I made my way to the lavatory and spoke with the nice male FA and commented that I was headed onward to BKK. I asked if there were any unopened liter bottles of water that I could have since they always seem to run out on the trans pac flights. He graciously handed me and told me to have a good trip. We landed right on time at SFO. I checked the monitors and noticed that Koko’s plane was just about to touch down so I decided to head to his gate and then we could walk over to the RCC together.

The domestic SFO RCC is your average RCC in drinks and food service. It was very crowded this morning and amazingly hot! We both logged onto our computers and made assorted phone calls. The time passed quickly and JSD joined us shortly there after. JSD was on the later flight from JFK. IO12609 called and let us know that she was waiting in the International RCC. The three of us bussed it over to the International terminal where IO12609 greeted us warmly with drinks. It should be noted that UA is apparently now cracking down on passing out multiple drink chits. You were always only allowed 2 but now they stamp your boarding pass to prevent people from collecting multiple chits. Cheese and cookies were munched on while catching up with each other, we might have had a few cocktails but I could be wrong.

more to come...

prncess674

SFO-NRT, UA Flight 853, Boeing 747, 5124 miles

The crew of 4 all pulling our Tumi rollaboards quickly made it down to the gate where we took our seats. (We took over all the seats in row 17 ABGH). Pre departure champagne was had by all and we toasted to a good trip. Menus, slippers and amenity kits were passed out as well. The slippers were a nice touch which weren’t present on my last Asia flight. We all perused the menu and it looked like the Obento meal was the meal of choice for all four of us.

The menu was as follows:

• Braised short rid of beef with red wine demi glace; sage and onion stuffing soufflé and California stri-fry with mushrooms
• crispy pan-fried halibut with sweet chili sauce; sugar snap peas with carrots and steamed rice
• Japanese Obento selection; an appetizer of crabmeat in layer eggs, shrimp sushi, chicken sansho-yaki, scallions and miso paste, broiled tuna and cha-soba noodles, a main course of beef tenderloin with mushrooms, steamed snapper, five kind mixed vegetables, hakusai with fried bean curd and sesame steamed rice; served with green tea

Stimpy had warned us that the Obento meal had been pretty mediocre at best. It wasn’t very good but the other choices didn’t seem great either so of the three bad choices I think I made the best of the worst.

After dinner the cart was brought out for dinner and aperitifs. Koko had the cheese plate and I had the caramel cheese cake. We both had a glass of Sandeman port. I had a few bites of the cake but never touched the port. Koko later told me that he relieved me of my glass of port when I drifted off to sleep in the after lunch coma.

After my cat nap Koko fired up the laptop and we watched Saw, a murder thriller. Unfortunately I fell asleep and missed the ending. Koko was now tired so I popped open my laptop and watched Hostage with Bruce Willis. All I can say is that this movie is horrible, don’t bother.

After everyone woke from various naps there was a bit of musical chairs so we could talk to someone else. Considering the length of this flight it passed quite quickly. Good friends can always make time fly.

Pre landing snack choices were:

• BBQ pork with cabbage and onion on roasted portabello; with fresh fruit appetizer
• Fresh seasonal fruit plate with creamy yogurt

Once again the food was unmemorable., I had the pork and didn’t like it.

We landed at NRT airport right on time where as transit passengers we had to reclear security. The fabulous foursome made our way to the RCC where we would become the saucy seven (or should that be sauced seven). Arriving a few minutes before us from LAX were auh2o, wingless and stimpy. The famous NRT beer machine was put to good use as we all waited for our turn to use one of the shower rooms. Emails were checked all around, but no one could make phone calls since US based phones don’t work in Tokyo. The RCC has wi-fi but it was very temperamental.

A shower felt so good! It makes it tolerable to know that in just an hour you will be boarding a flight for anther 6 hrs of flying.

NRT-BKK, UA Flight 881, Boeing 747, 2887 miles
Friday, July 1, 2005

Flight time was approaching and we all headed down to the gate and settled once again into the upper deck. Koko and myself were in 18GH, IO12609 and JSD were in 17AB, wingless and auh2o were 15BG. Stimpy unfortunately was stuck in economy. Row 18 was a big disappointment and are some of the worst seats on the upper deck. Pre departure champagne was had by all. No amenity kits are passed out on intra Asia flights which I consider to be super cheap on UA’s part.

We sat at the gate on ground hold for close to an hour which was okay with us since they let us mill about the cabin and chat. The only bad part of the ground hold was they wouldn’t give us any “adult beverages” during the delay. Never fear koko and his stash of minis were near. Black Russians were mixed seat side.

An hour late we were finally off into the wild blue yonder. At this point I have been in airports or on planes for 22 hours and a 6 hr flight is still in front of me. Menus were passed out and once again the choices were pretty pitiful.

• Filet mignon on polenta cake with red curry coconut sauce with baby bok choy
• Chicken and vegetable yakisoba; mushroom vegetable sauté with yakisoba noodles and sauce
• Grilled salmon, shrimp, scallop with hobo-miso marinade; ****ake mushrooms and rice with black sesame seeds

Koko and I chose the beef with red curry sauce. Once again it was merely tolerable. Koko saw me pushing the steak around my plate and relieved me of it. Very tired at this point I passed on dessert (tropical fruit sherbert medley) and settled in for a few hours of sleep.

SanDiego1K

All this and Bali, too, in July, Rachel?

Great report - I always enjoy your writing style.

Rejuvenated

Thanks for sharing. Great Report. ^

CMK10

Good report, though I have a slightly different take on Hostage, I spent $10 on it (thanks New York theatre prices) and was suffiencently impressed, and I am not the type to take the spending of a ten spot lightly.

Tim2008

Thanks for your report!
I did nearly exactly the same trip in March starting in MSY.

onedog

60+ hours flying for ~60 hours of ground time...that's what FT is for.

Thanks for sharing. Waiting for the rest.^

ljp99

Yup - looking forward to how you all spent those three nites.

prncess674

The troops started to muster when the cabin lights were brought up for landing. As soon as we touched down we all quickly exited the plane so we would be one of the first in line at passport control. I got my first ever Thai stamp in my passport which I thought was quite cool.(No matter how much I travel, I never cease to get giddy about a new different stamp) Our next stop would be the ATM. I had a bit of panic because I couldn’t remember the exchange rate while standing at the ATM dazed and confused after almost 30 hours of travel. I punched out 5,000 baht (~120USD) figuring if I needed more I would just find another ATM. This would be plenty enough to buy beer and a taxi ride into town.

We hopped into a couple of cabs and made our way to the Sheraton Grande Suhkumvit, a Luxury Collection Hotel. I was using points and was pleased to get a grande suite. My room had two full bathrooms each with steam shower and oversized tub. It was a lovely two room suite with a sitting room and large bedroom. There was also a large walk in closet. In room amenities included free high speed internet access, fruit bowl replenished daily, a large selection of bathroom amenities (bath salts, loofah, comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, detergent, shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, bar soap, hand cream, and a few more I can’t seem to remember) The towels were HUGE and soft. There were also two soft robes in each bathroom. The bed was a bit hard for my taste but had high thread count white sheets and nice soft pillows. There were six bottles of complimentary water which were replenished daily and at turn down. They were very appreciated in the heat and humidity of Bangkok.








We had 3 rooms for six of us. Stimpy was down at the Intercontinental but he did mention that his room was very nice. We all went to our respective rooms and quickly changed into shorts and tees so we could quickly grab a beer before the 2am closing time. The troops mustered in the lobby a mere 15 minutes later and headed left out the front of the hotel towards Nana. We found a quaint little beer stand and we thought we ordered beers from a waitress but apparently it was just a local woman who would run down the street to a sidewalk vendor and buy beer and then sell them to us at an upcharge. They were still dreadfully cheap that we didn’t care. The 2am hour approached quickly and the beer stand was closing but not to worry we managed to find another place to drink.

More on the late night antics tomorrow.

SeaMeFly

Very funny, indeed... Good thing she didn't offer you to buy 'anything else' !

QF WP

Rachel, great to hear you are back on a long haul plane flying somewhere exotic. A true air warrior ^

One day we'll get you down to an an Australian FT Do (ozfest, perhaps??) - the Bali do is pretty close to one, perhaps you'll turn up

prncess674

Australia is on my list of must do's and hopefully in the near term must do! I will keep you posted. Right now I just started a huge project that is really great for my career (high profile client, with a lots of potential for my career goals) so I need to let things simmer at work before I take for an extended period of time to visit down under.

prncess674

Would have written more earlier but unfortunately the Gulf Coast is about to pelted by Hurricane Dennis. We have been busy preparing our home for the possibility of a storm smacking us. It looks as though it is going more east and New Orleans will be spared.

Well the beer stand was closing but most of our crew wasn’t tired. A cab driver standing near by offered to take us to an after hours club. This really should have been a red flag, but 30 hours of flying and lots of beer may have clouded our judgment. We piled into a taxi and headed to an unknown club. Said club ended be a Thai whore house. It really wasn’t that bad. The dance floor was lined with Thai hookers but they weren’t bothersome and the beer was still reasonably priced. Koko danced with the ladies but that was all he did. Finally close to 6am we decided to that we better head back to the hotel or we would end up sleeping the day away and missing most of Bangkok. Just as I crawled into bed I looked out the windows and you could see the first hints of sunlight crossing the horizon. I breathed in deep, and thought to myself wow this has already been a fabulous trip and I am now watching the sunrise on one side of the earth where 10,000 miles away the sun was beginning to set at home in New Orleans. I shut the curtains and crawled in between the nice cool sheets and drifted off to sleep.

A mere 5 hours later the sun was shining, my head was throbbing and now the phone was ringing mercilessly. Wingless & auh2o called and were ready to make plan. We mustered the rest of the troops and agreed to meet in the lobby at 11am for lunch and then head out from there. I decided in order to get moving I should probably take advantage of the free coffee. I rang the butler and a few minutes later a tray of hot coffee was brought to the room. Coffee and a steam shower does wonders for me. I ended the shower with a blast of cold water to get me charged and ready to bear the Bangkok heat.

The troops were all accounted for in the lobby and we headed to Cabbages & Condoms on Soi 12. Drinks were ordered all around and the menu was handed to JSD. Somewhere in the last two years JSD became our official “orderer” (I know it’s not a word) when eating at family style restaurants. C&C has all your traditional Thai dishes and he did a good job of ordering a varied selection of food to suit all our taste buds. The meal for all of us was a whopping $50 USD (not bad considering 6 people ate on that with food left over). Instead of after dinner mints they give out condoms which is a unique novelty.

Sufficiently stuffed we walked down to the Skytrain station where we caught the train to somewhere very close to the river. The Skytrain was only 35baht (~$0.90USD) per person and was air conditioned and very modern. We then walked to the river taxi station and hopped a boat to Chinatown. The water taxi was a mere 10baht (~$0.25USD). We then walked around Chinatown and went down one of the most filled narrow alley markets I have ever been to in my life. The first block was neat and interesting but by the third block I was feeling claustrophobic and felt it was so crowded that I couldn’t even look at what was being sold. They were selling everything from fake “Hello Kitty” merchandise to prepared foods, a real hodge podge of wares.

After finally catching our breath we meandered a bit (read: got lost) and finally stumbled upon Wat Po where we were able to take in the sites of the temple. The most impressive was beautiful reclining Buddha 46 metres long and covered in gold leaf. The Buddha's feet are 3 metres long and exquisitely decorated in mother-of-pearl illustrations of auspicious laksanas (characteristics) of the Buddha.



Lisa, JSD and myself decided to head over to the Grande Palace while stimpy decided on one of the super cheap outdoor massages at Wat Po. Auh2o & wingless went in search of beer. Koko never made it to the sightseeing part of the trip. The walk over to the Grande Palace was longer than we thought and we were disappointed when we arrived at the gates only to find that it was closing. This was a major disappointment. Note to others the Grande Palace closes at 3:30PM and houses the beautiful Emerald Budha).

At this point Lisa and I were definitely hot and irritable and I think JSD probably was too but he wasn’t as vocal as Lisa or me. A dip in the pool was in order. We took a taxi back to the hotel and all changed into swimsuits.

The pool at the SGS was absolutely beautiful and refreshing. The tiles are a deep blue and the area is shaded by palm trees and beautiful statues. The pool area isn’t huge and chairs were hard to come by but we managed to find enough for the crew. Koko managed to work off his hangover and joined us all at the pool. Cool drinks and snacks were ordered poolside. The food prices were extremely reasonable. Recharging our batteries was the plan until the sunset. Somehow having a cabana boy bringing you cool refreshing adult beverages does wonders!



We had late dinner reservations at the Oriental Hotel’s Sala Rim Naam restaurant. The Oriental is a beautiful riverfront hotel. We taxied over to the Oriental where you then take a private boat launch over to the restaurant which is on the other side of the river. Once again JSD was handed the menu and with the help of the waiter did a very good job of ordering a unique blend of traditional thai dishes, including a very unhappy fish!



After finishing a wonderful meal we hopped in several cabs in search of the fabled Patpong area of Bangkok. This is where things get pretty sketchy and if you have never heard of Patpong this area is a real eye opener. I will leave some (I don’t even think the moderators would allow full detail) of the detail for the next post.

prncess674

Patpong is an area of town that is hard to describe. It is filled with clubs where I wouldn’t really say they are strip clubs, because to me that describes clubs where women strip for tips. Patpong is full of clubs where women are basically in servitude to the club owners and they perform stunts with a rather personal part of their female anatomy. It’s one of the those things you don’t want to watch but like when passing a car wreck you feel the need to watch. We stayed at the club for a bit, but frankly I ended up just feeling sorry for the girls on stage. At least at US strip clubs you know that the women are being paid handsomely with tips.

The night was still fairly young so we walked over a few streets and found a bar much more to our liking. I think it was called Noriegas. They had an okay DJ spinning American Top 40 music. We found a quaint table outside and proceeded to drink and carouse till they closed up shop around 2am.

Koko was leaving the following morning on the 7am flight back to the states, and since he had slept most of the day away didn’t want to call it night, but we did decide to head back to the Sukhumvit area near our hotel. Everyone was still in there “nice” clothes from dinner so several of us headed back up to change into shorts and t-shirts before heading out again. We headed left out of the hotel and landed at a street side vendor selling beer. It really is quite interesting how there are men who set up push carts filled with ice and beer and just set up shop right on the sidewalk. They have lightweight tables and chairs that they set up as well. The beer was cheap and the conversation was flowing.

Lisa had brought along a dice game. This game was so much fun. It contains three die. And on two sides of each die was either L, R, or C. It is much easier to explain in person but each person wagers a small sum we played for 60Baht per person and had a really fun time. Eventually we just left the entire pot as a tip for our waitress, who was completely overwhelmed. 5am was approaching and Koko had a flight to catch so we walked back to the hotel where Koko grabbed a suitcase and a cab. I crawled into bed knowing that tomorrow would be a full day as well.

Shockingly I was up at 10am. How I got up so early considering I had gone to bed a mere 5 hours earlier was a complete shock to me. Not sure what to do so early I rang the butler for a tray of hot tea. I grabbed the Bangkok Post off the door and proceeded to sip tea and read the paper in bed. Reading the paper in bed is one of the small luxuries of vacation. Shortly there after my phone rang and it was auh2o and wingless wanting to know what my plans for the day were. I didn’t have any concrete plans but I knew food and massages were in my future. We agreed to meet at the poolside restaurant at 11:30am.

Lisa & JSD had ordered the club sandwich pool side yesterday and it looked yummy, so I ordered it today for lunch and I was very glad I did. I was growing a bit tired of Thai food and a good old club sandwich was going to hit the spot with a cool glass of iced tea.

The spa at the hotel is reasonably priced by American standards but still exorbitant by Thai standards. I popped down to the concierge desk and asked if he could recommend a local spa close by. The concierge recommended Chivit Chiva on Soi 19, which is just across the street from the hotel. I had already visited this spa on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed a lovely hour long massage for 1200baht (~$30USD) and decided to go back again today for a Thai herbal scrub and a foot massage. The ladies who worked there were all so very nice but they did not speak English so if you want to have any services I suggest you have the concierge at your hotel call down and make an appointment for you and explain what you would like. If you are looking for the huge American spa with the big communal whirlpool, steam room, etc than this is not the place for you. It is small tranquil spa with private treatment rooms but it is not an American full service day spa. I enjoyed both my foot massage and herbal wrap. Wingless has a salt scrub and foot massage and auh2o had a 90 minute sport massage. Auh2o was under-whelmed with my choice in spa, but then again he can be a PITA (shocking I know ). I was especially pleased considering the cheap prices.

By this point Lisa & James were up and had texted us to meet them at the Oriental Hotel at 3PM. We were scheduled to have our own long boat river ride. Unfortunately a torrential rainstorm started when we got to the hotel. The river was now really choppy even though the rain had stopped so we decided it was best to call off the boat ride. Stimpy had moved from the Intercontinental to the Oriental and had invited us all up to his junior suite for afternoon cocktails. I was cold from the rain and had a cup of coffee. The room at the Oriental was lovely and I would have died for such a beautiful walk-in closet at home!
Auh2o and wingless were fading and decided to call it a night at 6pm (they would later come to regret this, more on that later) but Lisa, JSD, stimpy and myself weren’t ready to turn it in. Lisa and I had scoped out a night market in the Patpong area and we wanted to go back and shop a bit. Stimpy and JSD agreed to accompany us. There were rows of stalls selling tons of fake merchandise (Gucci, Prada, etc.) as well as lots and lots of contraband DVDs. We bought lots of little stuff but nothing terribly exciting. Shopped out for the evening we decided on English pub for dinner, which was surprisingly good. James had a green curry, stimpy had lasagna and Lisa & I had the English breakfast. This little pub reminded me in some way of Henry’s down the street from Sheraton Park Lane in London.

Sufficiently worn out stimpy hopped a cab back to the Oriental and JSD, Lisa and myself hopped a cab back to the SGS. We dropped off our packages at the hotel and decided to head out for one last cocktail before calling it an evening. My flight was the following morning at 7am and Lisa & JSD were headed off the following morning to Phuket.

This time we actually landed in a “real” bar (ie., not a street vendor). It was a bit odd because I don’t think it was a brothel but all the men were white and all the women were Thai. The three of chatted and I proceeded to tell them how I jealous I was that they were headed to the islands and I was headed back to work. A little hungry before bed we headed just down the street a bit and found a vendor selling satay sticks for a mere 10Baht (~$0.025USD). They were absolutely yummy, just the right amount spice and tender meat.

Knowing that I had to get up at 4am to pack we headed back to the SGS around 11pm where we said our final goodbyes. It was sad to say good-bye but knowing that there will be more trips in the future makes it okay. I was tired so I crawled into bed and set the alarm for the frightfully early 4am. Around 2am I woke to hear my neighbors talking very loudly, as hard as I tried I could NOT get back to sleep. Around 2:30am I decided it was useless to stay in bed so I got up and showered and packed my things for the most part. Unsure what to do I fired up the laptop and got on flyertalk. Yes I am a loser, what can I say. I perused FT and caught up on some work email while I waited for the clock to eek by the minutes. I noticed that auh2o was on my buddy list as active which surprised me. I sent him a message and sure enough auh2o and wingless were wide awake as well. Since none of us were going to get any more sleep that night we decided to head to the airport early.

BKK airport was hopping even at the pre 5am time. The agent who checked my passport was a bit perplexed that I was in BKK for three days and had to call over a supervisor. They cleared me after a bit of discussion and I proceeded to the ticket agent. My original itinerary had me traveling BKK-NRT-LAX-JFK. Not wanting to make the extra stop in LAX I asked if the agent could move to the non-stop NRT-JFK flight. She said the flight was wide open in C-Class so she moved me with no problems. My bag weighed a ton at this point and since I would be on the non-stop to JFK I decided to check my bag. The three of us headed past passport control and paid our departure tax of 500Baht (~$13USD). The only things open at this time of the morning were Kentucky Fried Chicken and Duty Free. There is a United RCC and it was really pitiful. A very small lounge with minimal room to sit and seemed rather dark and dingy. They don’t even have bathroom facilities inside the club. Using a clean restroom is probably the single biggest reason I ever go into a club. We meandered through duty free for a while and then made our way to the gate area. I tried picking up a wi-fi signal but they were all pay services and since we only had a few minutes till boarding I opted to not check email at the airport.

The final installment will be the flight home, but for now I have to get some work done.

stimpy

OK, I'll insert my report in here.

AuH2o, wingless slept in and woke up just before the others were landing at SFO. Our flight to NRT was packed in economy, and thus we all enjoyed Op-ups. They went to F and I went up to C. They were kind enough to come slumming back to see me, Piper Champagne in hand. The matron admonished us for killing 3 bottles of the stuff.

Upon arrival we met the others, took showers and felt much better, except one of us who shall remain nameless left his wallet in the First Suite and had some moments of panic until the kind NRT people found it and returned it to him. I was indeed stuck in economy in 46C (exit row) with no IFE. But I was tired enough to sleep half the flight.

At BKK we found the ATM, grabbed loads of Baht and slipped into our taxis. As Princess said, I chose the I-C. 3 reasons and they all had to do with the free mini-bar. Actually I had a free night coupon too. My suite had a full bottle of 2002 Jacobs Creek Shiraz, fruit and a nice leather notepad gift. The 37th floor rooftop pool is amazing at this hotel. One of the coolest (double-entendre) places in town.

We did indeed drink an awful lot of beer that night. Princess forgot to mention the chicken. One of us must have said we were hungry for chicken because the next thing I knew the beer lady had brought us the best tasting chicken I've ever had (you had to be there). I think that was the main reason I didn't have a hangover the next day.

Princess covered the next day well, except I'll say the outdoor Thai massage at Wat Po was an experience. I was a little sore in the back afterwards, but I know I was knotted up from all the flying.

That night we met back up with Koko and went out drinking and dicing as Princess mentioned. I hope she never realizes that I stole a bottle of bourbon from her mini-bar. It helped the mood quite a bit. The dicing was a blast. Very late at night a monk walked by and both the street vendor girl and a passing prostitute gave the monk some money and got on their knees to receive a blessing. I thought this was a great idea so I did the same and so did Koko. Spiritual bliss for 20 baht!

The day after I checked into the fabulous Oriental hotel. The service in this place was incredible. If you are a luxury hotel lover, you have to try the BKK Oriental at least once in your life. As Princess said, we went to a pub for dinner. I remember that we were supposed to record our good lines, and when I choked down the lasagna at the pub I said "serves me right for ordering Italian food at an Irish pub in Thailand."

Princess, Auh20 and Wingless left the next morning. But I'm not MR person. I stayed another day at the Oriental, crying as I left the following day for a free night at the Royal Orchid. Even though I had a nice river suite, what a step down from the Oriental! However I will say that the $50 facial which came with a free thai massage at the Royal Orchid Mandara Spa was very, very nice. 15% spa discount for SPG Plat members! Maybe the free Thai massage came because I have such a great body?

The next morning, I made my way for the utterly not-worth-mentioning flight back to NRT, then LAX. Well at least I had seat 9A going back to LAX. This is my new favorite seat on the new-config 777. One of the pilots sat next to me for a few hours. I guess first class was full.

Ah well, a great week in BKK with some great friends. I gained 9 pounds in 3 days with those great friends, but it's all gone now thanks to the gym and spa at the Oriental.