And back in Bangkok...

I'm back! In Bangkok! While I didn't get to do my 14 hour train ride from Surat Thani to Bangkok overnight, I did make it back to Bangkok on a 50 minute flight with Bangkok Airways. I am pretty much convinced that this is my favorite airline EVER. The waiting area at the airport in Samui, the gate from which we departed, was filled with couches and pillows and tables and cute little rattan armchairs. AND there was free wi-fi and snacks and drinks. I've never seen an airline treat its customers (all of them, regardless of travel class) so well. And the Samui airport...WOW. There's this walkway to the departure gates, before you go through security, that's lined with restaurants and shops and even a spa. It's called "Samui Park Avenue" or something along those lines. It was ADORABLE.

So yeah, I took this super fast flight again, this time into Bangkok. I collected my bag and walked out to get a taxi to my hotel. I think this hotel just opened in May, so people are really confused when I tell them that I'm going there. Thankfully, I had the address in hand, so even if the name of the hotel was not familiar, the address was locatable.

This hotel is pretty awesome. It's huge--like 23 or 25 floors, and all of the rooms are like little condos. I have a fridge, a stovetop, pots and pans and plates and silverware, and a WASHING MACHINE. I will return to the US with clean laundry, which I personally think is awesome. There's also a really nice LCD TV and a couch in the living room. The room is huge, and everything is so new and clean. I'm a serious fan. The location is on a little alley (soi in Thai) off one of the main roads in Bangkok, Sukhumvit. This main road has tons of huge shopping malls, and the BTS skytrain system. Traffic can get really bad in Bangkok, so this metro train above the city is incredibly useful. I walked from the hotel to the nearest station, and went to one of the HUGE shopping centers. I say "one of" because I walked from one station (the main one, Siam) to another and between them there were at least 3 gigantic centers. These are not malls like I've seen anywhere...they are ginormous and have 50+ restaurants, multiple cinemas, and crazy amounts of stores. They are kind of indescribable.

I had dinner in one of them, CentralWorld, though I wasn't actually looking for these huge malls with pricey designer wear, but the smaller stalls that I had seen lining the street as my taxi took me to the hotel earlier in the afternoon. Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate these myriad stalls that I saw previously...though I have not given up hope. My plan for tomorrow is to visit one or both of the night markets in Bangkok. One of them, Patpong, is apparently rather sketchy, situated right in the middle of a red light district. It has apparently cleaned its act up in recent history, but there is maybe still some seediness left over. But it's also supposedly a must-see for tourists, so I'm gonna head there despite its less than stellar reputation. The other market, Suan Lum Night Bazaar is supposed to be classier, so I definitely plan to check it out as well.

Anyway, I wandered around the huge monstrosity that is CentralWorld (I think it's the largest shopping center in South East Asia) and then continued on the Skywalk to another BTS station to take the train back to the station nearest my hotel.

I spent the rest of the evening relaxing...and doing laundry. I've been trying to come up with a plan for tomorrow, and checking in for my flight back to the US (though I am apparently only able to check in for the flight from Bangkok to Tokyo...which is REALLY frustrating, because the 45 hour flight from Tokyo is the one I really want to be able to choose my seat for!!). It's been a quiet day, and I am seriously already trying to figure out when I can come back here. Anyone want to do a two week trip with me in January? Tickets are under $800, round trip...!