Bangkok, Thailand

I'm putting together a list of pros and cons of Living in Hong Kong. Call them Nam's Top 10 reasons to live and NOT live in Hong Kong. I'll post both lists after I spend enough time here to give it my due diligence. But so far, I think the biggest advantage of living in Hong Kong is the convenience of traveling to many of its affordable neighboring countries, Japan not withstanding. Though I thought Japan has been in a decade long recession...everything is still so darn expensive! Anyways, with the weak currencies in Australia and South Korea, it's a traveler's dream to use HK as a hub. That said, I guess we're paying a premium to live here.

The first country we visited was Thailand. Undeterred by the recent airport riots, we booked a trip to Bangkok for the weekend after Christmas. Being the land of "smiles" and "angels", Thai people sure don't like any of their Prime Ministers. It was only 16 months ago, the premier was exiled by a coup and then, last month they forced the PM to quit. They change leaders as much the Forty Niners change their offensive coordinators! Hopefully, this new Oxford economics grad-PM will bring peace to an unsettling country. Even my Thai taxi driver said he doesn't like any of the PMs, not even this new one. From what I could tell visiting temples and traveling around town, the country is more of a theocratic state. They seem very happy worshiping Buddha and they love their king. Why does a constitutional monarchy need a democratic governing party? I say let the King rule if they can't agreed on the right party!

The trip was pretty cheap. It was only about $1k USD for 3 nights at a 5-star hotel with airfare for the both of us. I think everyone was scared to go to Thailand after the rioters caused the airport to close down and left thousands stranded for over a week. We were however, motivated while demand was low =) It turned out to be an awesome trip. A definite top destination for me. I'm would go back again for sure. Maybe Phuket or Chiang Mai next time though.

Here are some pictures from the trip...

The Suvarnabhumi International airport in Bangkok opened in 2006 with a $4.6B USD price tag. The architecture is super fancy.


The Marriott is on the river, which most nice hotels are but this one is relative far from all the activities so it's more quiet. We like it a lot...there's a nice swimming pool overlooking the river.


The hotel ferry took us to the other side of the river....runs every 15 minutes. Check out the Benihana ad. This hotel is full of western foreigners.


Tao feasting on her breakfast buffet at the Marriott.


We had Italian for our first dinner in Bangkok. Who would have thought Thailand would have good Italian food. It was actually super good! Our dinner was only $80 USD total with fresh grilled seabass, seafood with handmade pasta, two glasses of wine, dessert, cappucino, and appetizer! It's called Zanotti if you get a chance to go.


Cleansing her hands with Purell before her $1 USD bowl of Thai Pho at the floating market...yummie.


I think this bowl was a little bit more expensive since it's sold from the boat restuarant.


Talk about traffic jam. Luckily, we were on a motorized boat so we just ran over every paddle boat on the river...muhaha


This has to be the best fruit cart ever...fresh exotic fruit. Our favorite was the preserved sour guava fruit, dipped in chili pepper salt.


These logans are super sweet!


You have to barter to get anything here. Price range for the same item varies drastically from boat to boat and shop to shop.


Deep fried banana...They handle your money and bread the bananas at the same time...highly multi-taskability


There's a variety of temples (Wats) which could be seen from the city ferry. We took the ferry to the Grand Palace. It was only 25cents USD for a ride.


This is the entrance to the Grand Palace. Tao had to put on her sweater since you have to dress properly as a sign of respect. Women have to cover the knees and the shoulders. Men have to wear shoes and pants, no shorts


Inside the palace


The most worshipped temple lies the reclining Buddha. This statue is humongous so I had to get it from this angle to capture the entire structure.


We took a tour to a few religious sites including this reclining Buddha.


This is the weekend market where they sell all the cheap imitation stuff. They have all kinds of arts, clothes, spices. The fried squid with sweet and spicy fish sauce was so yummie. We washed it down with a cold bottle of Singha beer.


Taro pie at a fancy Mikey Ds. Super good! You must try it if you haven't!


This is Ayuthaya, the former capital of Thailand until the 18th century.




When the Burmese invaded, they cut off all the Buddha heads so the entire ruin is full of headless Bhuddas.