This trip was actually Ari’s business trip. He had been working in Bangkok for the past 2 months, and since this week was a school holiday, Aina and I decided to join him and crashed in his hotel room. Since he’ll be working full time when we’re there, we decided not to go sightseeing at all. Instead, we would just be lazing around the hotel, swimming and window shopping… That was a perfect plan considering we would be staying at Siam Kempinski Hotel, a resort-style of hotel that was located right smack in the middle of the city’s shopping district. So it’s like staying in those resorts in the middle of Orchard Road. Cool!
This morning, Ari flew about 1.5 hours earlier than us, with Thai Airways, paid by his work. Aina and I didn’t leave Singapore until 9:40AM, taking Scoot which was more affordable for us. Although later on, we found out later that we actually flew with Tiger Air… I hate Tiger Air. I have never had any pleasant experiences with them. And their seats were winners in making my back hurt. Hmph.
Aina and I had a super quick breakfast at the Terminal 2 MacDonalds (we like their hashbrown) before boarding, so we didn’t have to eat on the plane. The flight itself was pretty uneventful. I was soooo sleepy, because I slept really late the night before we flew. I tried to sleep on the plane, but wasn’t too successful.
We met up with Ari once we landed at Suvarnabhumi. He was waiting outside for us… Yay, so happy to see him again!
We took a cab to our hotel… And just like the horror story of a Bangkok cab driver we heard of a few days earlier, our cab driver was nuts. NUTS, I tell ya!
He was almost always busy doing something else during his driving… For example: trying to kill 2 mosquitos that were flying around inside his cab. Or he decided to count the stack of paper money in his wallet thoroughly while we were on the highway… He was sooo into counting, that the cab swerved left and right, the cars behind us honking frantically, we were chanting our prayers in the backseat, but he was too busy counting, I guess. He finally decided to pull aside and continued to count his money after we screamed in panic because the highway was turning, and we didn’t want us to die hitting the wall…
the scary taxi dude…
Geez, I’d vow to never take any taxis again here in Bangkok. Although I’d probably break my vow in 5 days, when we have to go back to the airport and fly back to Singapore…
We were so happy when we arrived at the hotel in one piece. But since we got to the hotel at noon, while the check-in time was at 3PM, we decided to drop our luggage at the hotel and get lunch at a nearby mall.
You see, Siam Kempinski is located within walking distance to some of the biggest malls in Bangkok. So we were in shopping heaven. Right next to the hotel was Siam Paragon… So, we explored the food choices at Paragon and ended up having a yummy lunch at Wasabi Fallabella.
Aina was super happy with her salmon sushi, and Ari and I stuffed ourselves with those stuff above. That dish with raw fish was a sea bream sashimi, each with a slice of jalapeño on top. And it was surprisingly good!
After we finished our food, we still had around 1.5 hours to spare before we could go to our room. So Ari took us to Siam Centre, another mall located right next to Paragon. It turned out that there was a Panda Festival at the open atrium between the malls. There was a big sign saying that it was the last day of the Festival, so we decided to go in. I think the festival was a part of the Kung Fu Panda 3 Movie release. But the festival itself focused mostly on explaining Pandas, the real animal, to kids… like what they eat, what’s their habitat like. However, everything was in Thai… so we couldn’t understand anything! Aina lost her interest quite immediately… and we decided just to take pictures at the entrance with the giant family of pandas…
It was soooo hot and sunny outside that we decided to spend the rest of the hour inside Siam Centre, which was fully air-conditioned. The overly friendly janitor struck up a conversation with us after hearing me exclaim my joy at the air conditioner. Apparently, the air conditioning repair had just been completed and we were some of the lucky firsts to enjoy it again. I actually liked this mall… There were so many cute shops in there, and many of the local ones have super cute animal mascots: like a smiley dog, or a teddy bear.
When it was finally 3PM, we walked back to the hotel and was brought to our room… What a luxurious and cozy room! It was larger than I expected. Aina immediately jumped into the bed… Fluffy!
Even our stuffed animals made themselves feel at home…
And check out the floor-to-ceiling glass for the bathroom, with the bathtub right next to the bed! We can bathe while watching TV… Fancy!
The room also had a pretty large balcony, facing the hotel’s garden, which was basically a combination of pools and islands of planters. Some rooms even had direct access into the pool straight from their room terrace… It looked so much fun! Our room was on 2nd floor, though, so no direct access for us. But our balcony was larger compared to many of the rooms in the hotel.
Anyway, upon seeing the garden, Aina and I immediately decided that we would swim in those pools at least once a day. Everyday swimming! Yay!
But nevermind swimming… because as soon as I touched the fluffy bed, I immediately felt drowsy… It was probably the lack of sleep that I had last night, and the fact that we were unable to catch any sleep while we were on the plane. Aina and Ari fell asleep right away, too. Aina even fell asleep curling on the rattan couch. We ended up having an afternoon nap…
The rest of the holiday photos are in Bangkok 2016 photo album in Flickr. Other entries of this trip is at Bangkok 2016.
2 comments
Hello!
I happened to come across your blog (I think I searched “Bangkok 2016”) and had fun reading your post. Which led me to read your other travel posts and I was amazed that you guys brought your little girl Aina to many places at a young age.
I have a toddler girl (27 months old) who has yet to sit on an aeroplane. That being said, the hubby and I plan to bring her on short trip next month so here’s crossing our fingers that all will go smoothly!
I also had fun reading your Hokkaido posts because that was why we went for our honeymoon (in Feb though so it was winter).
Both Ari and you write beautifully so it was a pleasure to read the blog. Have a good weekend!
Hi Sharyn! Sorry, I didn’t see the comment until today! But thank you sooooo much for leaving such a nice comment… It made my day 😀
Good luck on your trip with your daugther. It’s going to be much more fun than you anticipate, and I think it’ll be addicting. If you manage your expectation, traveling with toddler is a lot of fun and very interesting. And you will see things that you’ve never seen during your travel sans kids. Have fun! 😀