The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
May 2005 - Bangkok
This was a brief trip to the Thai capital to celebrate Mei's birthday (age: confidential) and we spent the time sleeping, eating, shopping and getting massages. So here's a brief review of that strenuous activity:
Sleeping: (Notice: if you're expecting graphic details of our private nocturnal activities, you're on the wrong website). I booked us into the Banyan Tree Bangkok, expecting something a bit more special than the usual array of 5 star hotels like the Peninsula, Shangri-La, Oriental or the Honey Hotel (for the record, I think this is only my third visit to Bangkok of at least 20 when I did not stay at the Honey Hotel!).
But to be honest, the hotel feels a bit worn and the rooms - despite an upgrade - are very small and poorly designed. The toilet is right behind a thin wall next to the bed and flushes as noisy as a major waterfall. Not good if your bunkmate has a weak bladder (that's me). So next time, for the same money, I'll go to the Peninsula (or stay at the Honey for a month!!!)
Eating: In my earlier days, I spent most of my times in Bangkok at Soi Cowboy (for the record, I think this is only my second visit to Bangkok of at least 20 where I did not visit Soi Cowboy!). But now I actually go to proper restaurants - and there are some great ones on top of the city these days:
- Sirocco, on the 63rd floor of the State Tower must be the "in" place these days: al fresco dining to the tune of a jazz band on the roof of one of Bangkok's tallest buildings with a spectacular view. I can't comment on the food as we only visited the bar on the far edge of the roof terrace - not for the suicidal! Instead, we ate at Mezza Luna, inside the dome of the same complex, which served exquisite Italian food combined with friendly unpretentious Thai service. The beer carpaccio was excellent as was the penne with scallops, but the tiramisu was one of the best I ever tasted. Very light and just the right hint of mascarpone taste!
- Vertigo, on the 63rd floor of the Banyan Tree hotel, claims to be The Tallest Open Roof Top City Restaurant in Asia Pacific. (Wow!). In some ways, its setting is even more spectacular than Sirocco, because the building itself is quite narrow and you thus look down on all sides. But it's a bit less stylish, since you have to walk up to the roof while at Sirocco you descend down a grand stairway to the actual terrace. The other problem we had at Vertigo was that as soon as we had ordered our drinks, it started to rain. There is a reasonably well-rehearsed contingency plan (it does rain often in the tropics) which moves all the diners into the much less spectacular indoor restaurants on the lower floors. In addition, the whole commotion caused a lengthy delay to our food, so we ended up eating a lot of bread instead.
Shopping: I'm not much of a shopper, so this will be brief: there are tons of markets, shopping centers, department stores and the like all over Bangkok. The only one I found useful is the Siam Discovery Center, a well maintained mall with many good brands which were actually quite a bit cheaper than in Hong Kong. A lot of the other malls are either a construction site or a dark, hot, crowded disaster-in-the-waiting.
Massage: We had three in as many days, so I also have an opinion on this subject. (Notice: these were all clean massages, so go and change the website if you're looking for the other kind.) The first and last was a cheap (Bht 350 for 1 hr), simple but excellent Thai Massage at a clean, quiet 1/F shop called Body Tune right next to the Sala Daeng skytrain station in Silom. They did an excellent job that worked wonders on my back.
The second was an expensive and overpriced spa "experience" at the Banyan Tree, which included rubbing a fruit cocktail into my skin (a "scrub") followed by having hot wax poured all over my back (a "back revitalizing treatment"). Granted, the view from the 59/F was stunning but my head was mostly stuck in the hole of the massage bed. At more than ten times the cost of the local Thai Massage it was hard to see the value for money - event with free fruit slices and cucumber sticks!
Conclusion: As an avid reader of my website you may find this hard to believe, but a weekend in Bangkok can be great fun - even without the Honey Hotel and Soi Cowboy!
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