Beyonsyth does Bangkok!

Next it was my friend Alex's turn to get married. We all piled into our
Jetstar plane on Friday evening headed for Bangkok. We arrived late
and got into our taxi and drove to our hotel Café Ice Residences. The
hotel was basic but the staff were very friendly and we had the whole
place to ourselves. We had a drink and then went to bed. The next day
we woke up early and had a cooked breakfast before heading off to
Chatuchack Market for some shopping. We walked down the road
and hopped onto the sky train at Chong Nonsi. We flew past the city
and arrived at Chatuchack market 30 minutes later. The market was
huge and we split up into smaller groups. The market was selling
everything and anything from clothes, bags, jewellery, baskets, hats, kitchenware and sunglasses. The weather was boiling and we stopped
at one of the local stalls for some lunch. We returned to the hotel hot
and tired. We showed and got ready for the hen do night out. The
theme was Beyonce and we dressed Alex up in a glittery gold
sequined dress. We had some champagne at the hotel and played the game Mr & Mrs. We then hopped into a taxi and headed off to the
Banyan Tree hotel for more drinks. The Banyan Tree had an
awesome rooftop restaurant and bar called Vertigo which overlooked
the whole city. The view was amazing and we took loads of photos. We were a large group and slightly disrupted the couples trying to
have a romantic quiet drink. We drank some delicious cocktails and
then headed off for dinner at the Namsaah Bottling club. The restaurant was in an old colonial styled building but the decoration
was flamboyant and cabaret style. We had a private room reserved
upstairs which we decorated with fun props. The food was delicious
and we drank more cocktails and wine. After dinner we were ready to
dance so we headed off to our next venue Maggie Choo's a famous
speakeasy bar. We arrived and walked downstairs through an empty bar and then reached a door at the far side. As soon as we walked
through the door we were transformed into a fantasy world of cabaret girls and dwarfs swing on swings and dancing to awesome music. The
bar was packed and seriously fun. We then left and somehow ended
up at a Ping Pong show which was terrible and completely killed the
mode. A disappointing end to a fun evening.
The next morning we ate breakfast slightly later and made our plans
for the day. Six of us went for lunch at the Issaya Siamese Club a restaurant set in a colonial building in a residential area with a world
class chef Ian Kittichai. The food was Thai but with experimental
cooking methods. The decor was relaxed with vibrant painted walls
and fabulous cushions. The food was delicious, I especially liked my

smoked salmon fillet and the deconstructed baked Alaska. After lunch we went to Yunomori, the first authentic Japanese Onsen in Bangkok. The whole decor of the onsen spa was minimalist and calming. We got into our black mesh underwear and dipped into the pools. There were 6 pools in total and we followed the order they suggested moving from boiling hot baths to freezing hot baths and then steam
room and wooden barrels. The whole experience we revitalizing. After
showering we then went for a 2 hour massage. Afterwards everyone was completely relaxed and walking around in their kimonos. We didn't want to leave. We jumped back in a taxi to our hotel and met the others. We then got ready and went out for dinner at Soul Food
Mahanakorn. Everyone we pretty tired and struggled to eat the 6
course meal. We slept well that night!
On our final day in Bangkok we decided to do some site seeing so we
headed to the river and hired a James Bond style speedboat to take us through the backwater canals. The speed boat was narrow with a
colourful canopy. We whizzed across the river and into the backwater canals. We saw a monitor lizard and hundreds of fish. We went past
some very poor parts of town where the houses were made of wood
and held up on silts. We also went past lots of Buddhist temples. The
boat ride was about 45 minutes and we arrived back at the starting
point just before lunch. We then split off and some people went
shopping while my friend Rosie and I went to Jim Thompson's house.
We had a tour of the house and admired his artwork before having
lunch and then heading back to the hotel to grab our bags before
heading to the airport.