Birthdays, Bars and Bike Rides—Bangkok Style

The second half of my Bangkok adventure was just as much fun as the first.

Monday turned out to be my colleague Lily's birthday, which was duly celebrated with a pizza lunch in the office, and some post work libations. Our first drink was at one of the coolest bars in town, House on Sathorn, just across the street from the office. Ensconced within an immaculately restored nineteenth century mansion that later housed the Russian embassy, House on Sathorn now sits on the grounds of the W Bangkok Hotel. The imposing structure gives way to warm, hushed interiors. Post-work Singhas in this dreamy venue would surely become a mainstay of office life if I were ever based full time out of our Bangkok office! 

With the team at House on Sathorn

After a few more pints in another nearby bar called M Pub, I bolted off to Khaosan Road for an extra special reunion with my friend Nikki. When I was a kid, I went to an amazing summer camp in Princeton called Albemarle. After I was too old to attend as a camper, I returned as a staff member, spending two years as a "zombie" (the kitchen staff, who wake up uber-early to set up for breakfast, hence the nickname) and another year as a counselor. My three summers as a camper and three further ones on staff at Albemarle have long lingered in my memory as some of my best memories. 

So when I saw on Facebook that Nikki, one of my former campers, was in Thailand, I shot her a message. It turned out she was in Bangkok for one night, and one night only, and so we hatched a plan to meet up for drinks at a cool bar called Madame Musur, just off Khaosan Road. 

What a great time we had, sipping cold beers, singing old camp songs and reminiscing about all the good old days! We brought up practically every name we could remember from those summers. And of course, there was plenty of post-camp life to catch up on, including what brought each of us from the great state of New Jersey to the magical land of Southeast Asia. 

It turned into a pretty late night, but it was so great to catch up with Nikki that it was totally worth it!

Tuesday was another fun night out with some office colleagues, including Ellie who was celebrating her birthday just one day after Lily! We started with burgers and Manhattans at a whisky and cigar joint cleverly called Whisgars. And then we migrated across the street to the uber-cool subterranean Maggie Choo's, where cheongsam-donning girls in matching black wigs sit upon swings and perch on ledges above the bar all while a jazz band performs in the dimly lit speakeasy displaying concrete busts of Queen Victoria and old paintings of schooners. 

As the group dwindled, ultimately leaving only my colleague Pauline, birthday girl Ellie and myself, we headed to Park Society, the rooftop bar of the Sofitel So, within walking distance of my hotel. A Clover Club complete with the dreamy view made for a perfect nightcap over the twinkling metropolis.

I could hardly believe it, but Thursday was my final day working out of the office. We all headed out as a team for farewell drinks after the five o'clock whistle, first at a new bar called Bunker and then back to M Pub for some cold pints and live music. 

Friday was a public holiday, and so I was a tourist again, and would remain one for the remainder of my trip. With my work days behind me, my accommodation also ran out. The company didn't mind paying for my return flight on Sunday, as long as I was able to sort my own hotel for the last two nights. I left it to the last minute, and in the end, I just wound up booking two extra nights in the Urbana, although I did have to switch rooms because my own was not available. The new one would be ready after 2pm, but I had to check out of my first room before noon. And with such a short time left in Bangkok, there were places to go and things to do, so I left my bags in the lobby and headed out!  

I took the river ferry up towards Khaosan Road and booked a bike tour for the following morning. Back in 2012, when I spent my Easter vacation in Thailand with Ally and Courtney, we did a nighttime cycle around Bangkok through Grasshopper Adventures that remains one of my favorite memories of the trip. And since Grasshopper also offers a morning tour of the city, it seemed like a no brainer to sign up for it! 

Then I hopped the bus to Dusit Park, where I planned to visit Vimanmek Palace, the last bona fide tourist attraction on my nearly-complete Bangkok to do list. The world's largest teak mansion, Vimanmek was once inhabited by King Rama V, though only for around five years. An English speaking guide took me on a private tour of the stunning home. What made it so compellingly intriguing for me was the personal side of the Thai monarchy on display. While many royal residences are decorated with oil paintings and silver statuary, Vimanmek was filled with family photographs and gifts from friends.  

In addition to the stunning park, a few other museums are also located on the grounds, so I checked out one detailing the history of Thai fabrics and another concerning royal white elephants before heading back home, with a stop for pad Thai before another boat journey to Sathorn pier. 

I wanted to be fresh as a daisy for my bike tour the next morning, so I decided to have a quiet night. (Because it was a Buddhist holiday, there was also a county-wide ban on alcohol for twenty-four hours, making it easy for me to lay low.) I wandered up Convent Road to Patpong, which hides an authentic French bistro in the midst of the debauchery of one of Bangkok's best known raunchy nightlife districts. In candlelit Le Bouchon, I feasted upon fois gras ravioli and an off-the-charts poached pear with ice cream. (Mercifully, they were still allowed to drizzle the ravioli in port and poach the pear in red wine despite the daylong prohibition.) 

Grasshopper Adventures certainly did the right thing by putting the word adventures in their name. If you are up for a leisurely cycle along quiet paths, their tours are not for you. But if you're up for a wild ride through the heart and soul of Bangkok, look them up next time you're in town! 

Many of the paths we rode along were scarcely wide enough for a single file line of cyclists. A few inches in the wrong direction, and you'd either be up against someone's wall or in a foetid canal. But what a way to see the city. We stopped for tasty Thai snacks under a bridge, explored a neighborhood temple and even rode a ferry with our bikes.

As our group wound its way back towards the Grasshopper Adventures headquarters at the tour's conclusion, I spied a structure in the distance that was undeniably the Giant Swing, a tourist attraction I'd read about but never seen. So after a root beer and wipe down in the air conditioned waiting room, I said goodbye to the group and headed over. 

Back in the day, a certain festival involved Brahmans swinging in arc formations in an attempt to grab bags of coins. The ceremony was cancelled in the mid-1930s due to fatal accidents, and the structure deteriorated over the ensuing decades. Alas, all that remains these days are the swing's massive pillars, themselves replacements of the originals, which had decayed beyond repair.

However, the temple adjacent to the swing, Wat Suthat, is most impressive indeed, with large wooden doors (said to be carved by King Rama II) and a stunningly painted interior. My Frommer's guide boasts that none other than Somerset Maugham declared its roof line to be the most beautiful of all Bangkok's temples. Who am I to disagree?

I had some tasty tom yum near the river before another ferry took me back to Sathorn. And I popped back up for one last stop in the office to collect my ties, suit jacket and laptop before heading home. After all the biking and wandering in midday Bangkok heat, one last swim in the Urbana's pool was certainly in order upon my return. 

For my last night, Kim and Punch were taking me out in Thong Lor for a crazy Saturday night on the town, Bangkok-style. We had an amazing dinner at a place called Soul Food Mahanakorn, before bar hopping all over the trendy district. At one spot, the Iron Fairies, a sultry jazz singer, Tere', who turned out to be from Philadelphia, serenaded us barflies with classic numbers and indulged my request for The Way You Look Tonight. Although bars close early in Bangkok, it was still a night to remember, for sure.  

You'd think a 2pm flight would still give you a nice chunk of the day to enjoy before heading to the airport. But between packing, checking out and allowing for uncertain traffic conditions, all I had time for was an ice coffee and some local street food before heading off, but hopefully many future trips to our Bangkok office are in the cards for me! 

Back in Bangkok

I'm lounging on the bed in my hotel room in Bangkok right now, peering down upon the non-stop traffic flowing along Sathorn Road, twenty-seven floors below me. I've been here just shy of a week, and I'm only midway through the fortnight I plan to spend in the Big Mango.

Ever since I started working for my firm—in August of 2014—I've been pushing my boss to send me to our Thailand office. Unfortunately, there wasn't ever really a bona fide business purpose to justify such a trip. But last October, I switched roles and began working very closely with a team based here.

Almost immediately, I was in near-constant phone and e-mail communication with a group of people I'd never met. And so each time my boss came to Hong Kong, I'd beg, "Dan, is there any chance I can make the trip over to Bangkok? I really think it would be great to meet everybody down there." He'd usually retort with some vague promises of a future visit, but a couple of weeks ago, he called me to say it would finally happen. 

I arrived last Monday evening, late at night. After clearing customs, I hopped a cab straight to the Urbana Sathorn Hotel, just about a ten minutes' walk down Sathorn Road from the office.  

Anyway, the first week at work was great. Getting to know the team on a personal level has been so much fun, and they've all been so kind to me, taking me for lunch, buying me Thai ice teas in the morning and even presenting me with a sweet smelling bouquet of jasmine flowers for my desk. Of course, there have even been a few nights on the town, too. And I look forward to more to come!

Out with the team!

But as fun as the week was, I was extremely excited for my free weekend! In spite of a solid night out on Friday, I was still up at the crack of dawn on Saturday, excited to have a full day to explore at my leisure. 

I've been to Bangkok a couple of times, and I've checked most of the major "tourist attractions" off of my list. Of course, I'll always be up for a return visit to the Grand Palace or the National Museum. But leading up to this trip, I made a list of places I wanted to hit up that I've not been able to include on previous itineraries. 

After breakfast at the hotel and a pit stop in the office to Google directions to my desired destinations, I made my way to the Thai Red Cross to visit the Snake Farm. Despite its rustic name, the farm is actually a research center in the middle of the city. If you go during the week, you can even observe an actual venom extraction. Alas, my only significant free time is on weekends, so I'll have to save that demonstration for a future vacation. However, even on the weekends, there is a daily snake handling show.

The Thai Red Cross

To both the delight and trepidation of the gathered crowd, unflinching snake wranglers presented a bevvy of poisonous cobras, kraits and vipers, in addition to less toxic pythons and tree snakes. There was bi-lingual commentary in the form of a funny, young Thai man who—in between corny jokes—informed us of the various eating habits and characteristics of the serpents.

Twin cobras

As a nice finish, the team brought out a massive but 'docile' Burmese python, with whom we were allowed to pose for photographs.

The "docile" Burmese python

The BTS (Bangkok's sky train, as most visitors refer to it) was my mode of transport to the second attraction of the day, Jim Thompson's House, one of Bangkok's most popular tourist spots. It's actually a place I've wanted to see in the past, so it's a bit perplexing how it took until now for me to finally visit. 

Jim Thompson was an American who came to Thailand during the Second World War. Enamored with Bangkok and fascinated by traditional Thai culture, he moved here permanently afterwards, with an ambition to revive Thailand's silk traditions. When costume designer Irene Sharaff used his fabrics for The King and I, he shot to international fame, and he purchased land near a klong (a Thai canal) to display his treasures.

Jim Thompson's House

His "house" is actually a collection of old teak structures from elsewhere in Thailand, which he purchased and had reassembled in an idyllic garden setting. He added some Western touches, like chandeliers, Italian marble flooring and indoor toilets, but he also adhered to time-honored Thai customs, like raising the houses on stilts to safeguard from flooding during the rainy season and tiling the rooftops with traditional stones. 

Jim Thompson slept here...

Thompson mysteriously disappeared on Easter Sunday in 1967, while on vacation in the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. But his efforts to restore the Thai silk industry to international importance were successful, and his house stands as a testament to his legacy.

Thompson's garden

Funnily enough, the next stop of the day was also a museum consisting of reconstructed teak homes reassembled in a garden: the Suan Pakkad Palace Museum. In fact, as I started along down the road away from one destination to the next, a Thai lady asked me where I was headed. When I told her, she practically rolled her eyes and said, "Why? It's the same thing as the Jim Thompson House!"

I'm glad I wasn't dissuaded by her lack of enthusiasm, because the Suan Pakkad Palace Museum is a gem of a place, and I feel very fortunate to have seen it. While both the snake farm and the Jim Thompson House were popular attractions teeming with other visitors, Suan Pakkad was mostly deserted during my visit.

Suan Pakkad Palace Museum

My friend Angele's brother Elie just moved to Bangkok a couple of weeks ago for a six month internship. I'd met him when he came to visit her in Hong Kong, and when she put us in touch via Facebook, we exchanged contact information. Earlier that day, I'd sent him a WhatsApp to tell him my itinerary. But I was still shocked when I heard someone call out my name in the hushed upper floors of one of the teak mansions of Suan Pakkad!

The Lacquer Pavilion

It was fun to catch up with him, and after we left the museum, we stopped for a Singha at a little roadside cafe in the shadow of the BTS line. Another friend had earlier suggested I check out a cool little rooftop bar near Victory Monument, and when Elie and I realized we were only two stops away, we headed there.

The name of the place is Sky Train Jazz Bar, and although it's only on the fifth floor (and in a walk-up building, to boot), it's an amazing little spot where I hope to return for many repeat visits. We indulged in perhaps a few too many ice cold Singhas while the sun set and those BTS trains just kept whizzing past!

Sky Train Jazz Bar

Down below afterwards, Elie and I made some Thai friends while we feasted on roadside curry in what appeared to be a happening nightspot. The buzzing Saturday night atmosphere was palpable, as hundreds of mostly local twenty-somethings all gathered with one another for street food and chit chat. 

New friends...

Afterwards, I hopped on the BTS home, took a shower and... promptly fell asleep! I had intended on getting dressed and heading back out, but it just wasn't in the cards. Maybe I'm getting old. But it was an amazing, exhausting day, so I think a good night's rest was well deserved. 

Owing to the early night, I arose even earlier this morning than I did yesterday! And so it was no problem whatsoever to be seated at the quaint Christ Church, just across the street from Urbana, in time for 7:30am mass. 

Back at the hotel, I had breakfast before heading out for more adventures. While Google had proved invaluable yesterday, and their directions worked out perfectly, the sights I selected for today—Siriraj Hospital's Medical Museum and the National Museum of Royal Barges—were not as easy. Apparently, a local bus was my best shot at getting to the general vicinity without multiple switches, but the names of all the streets were only listed on Google in Thai, and so I could only get a general idea of where I was going. 

Outside the Urbana, bus 149 approached, and I held up my hand to flag it down. It slowed a bit and the doors opened, so I grabbed the handrail and pulled myself aboard. I wasn't even fully up the steps before the bus was back on the highway again! 

I found a seat and forked over the nine baht fare to the ticket lady, whom I asked if the bus was headed towards Siriraj Hospital. A perplexed stare informed me that she didn't understand where I wanted to go. "It's all right. I'll figure it out," I told her. Sathorn Road seems constantly gridlocked during the week, but the bus hit very little traffic as we made our way through Bangkok. 

Bus 149

Unsure of where to alight, I kept my eyes pealed, and eventually spotted a sign that said, "Siriraj Hospital" with an arrow indicating the proper direction. At the next stop I hopped out, and duly found the massive complex. The museum itself was more elusive, but a little wandering among the vast grounds and I stumbled upon it. 

I say "it" but "them" would be more accurate, because Siriraj Hospital actually houses a whopping six museums! A ticket for three hundred baht gains you entrance to the lot of them. 

On the grounds of Siriraj Hospital

The first museum is a history of the sight itself, which is housed in an old train station. It's a good mixture of the story of the hospital and how it came to be, in addition to the development of Western medicine in Thailand. 

The museum is housed in an old train station.

But the cooler exhibits were those ensconced in the Forensic Science and Anatomical Museums, where displays of deformed medical specimens and skeletons are preserved, including skulls of car accident victims, mummified corpses of murderers who had been sentenced to death, and many conjoined sets of twins. 

The exhibits are a little macabre.

After I was sure I'd seen every possible bit of the museums, I tried to figure out how to get to my next destination to see the National Museum of the Royal Barges. This is where the government houses and displays the teak boats used in formal river processions, and it's located just across a short canal from the hospital. At the water's edge, I could literally see the barges from where I stood, but there was no ferry to take me across! 

I had to settle for a pedestrian crossing via a bridge, which was a little annoying. But once I was inspecting the intricately carved and painted boats, it didn't seem to bother me any more. 

Intricate detail on one of the royal barges

Like Jim Thompson's House, this museum has been on my radar for a long while, so I'm glad I was at long last able to admire these unique royal vessels. The figureheads were immense and colorful, while the long, slender bodies of the boats were carved and painted with fanciful mythological figures and eye-catching geometric designs. 

Impressive figurehead

After leaving the museum, I took a wander along the klongs and down small alleyways, eventually emerging on a major road lined with food stalls. I was desperate for a Pad Thai, but I inspected each stall and none seemed to offer the dish that, in my memory, had been available pretty much everywhere. Exasperated, I came to the final one, and asked the owner, "Do you have Pad Thai?"

"No," he informed me with an uptick in his inflection, "but what we have is much better."

Defeated and starving (though not yet quite convinced) I said, "Sure. I'll try it." I needn't have doubted him. The noodles and chicken in a delicious sauce was pure perfection, and I enjoyed chatting with the friendly owner who clearly took pride in his food as he watched me down it with relish.

Amazing street food

At this point, I'd checked the day's two items off of my Bangkok to-do list, and I was content to head straight home the same way I'd come, perhaps rewarding myself with a nice swim in the Urbana's pool. Back towards the hospital I went, as I retraced my steps searching for the bus stop to whisk me home. I found it easily enough, but something convinced me to keep walking, and on the next corner, I saw a sign indicating that a ferry pier was nearby. 

"A ferry?" I thought to myself. "Let me investigate if there's a way home via the water." 

To my utter delight, when I got to the pier, I discovered there was actually a boat to a place called "Sathorn." I asked the ticket lady if that meant that the boat went to Sathorn Road, and she said, "Yes. Sathorn. Fourteen baht." 

View from the pier

So in addition to successfully visiting both of the sights I planned to see today, I got a bonus sunset ride down the Chao Praya, past the Grand Palace, Wat Arun and all the other beautiful sights along Bangkok's signature river. 

Chao Praya sunset

Sathorn Pier, it turns out, is just a little bit further down the road than our office building. Walking along the road in my suit and shirt during the week is far from enjoyable, but in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops, it was a lovely little jaunt. And before long, I was back at the Urbana, finally ready for that dip in the pool. 

Twilight dip at Urbana

Bring on week number two, Bangkok! And keep your eyes on this space for more of my adventures in the Land of Smiles!