Not much between despair and ecstasy"
-Murray Head
Back in the City of Light and happy to be here. Some of my fellow travellers despise Bangkok, but once you get away from the backpacker places, it's a breathtaking city (in more ways than one). I splashed out on a boutique hotel in the Silom Road area which is pleasant while still lively (less punters and more high end hotels and locals). The hotel is a sleek, compact affair with just the right touches of good taste: lots of white plaster walls and real wood furnishings, a sunflower over a wooden bathtub, a hip little hotel bar, and dance music playing softly in the halls. Dance music? It eventually became apparent that I am staying in a place favoured by gay travellers: the good taste, the dance music in the halls, the gay staff, and the men's guide to Bangkok in the room! All this for about $120 a night (including a nice breakfast).
It was also a good choice location wise, as I planned to visit the Dome, an outdoor rooftop restaurant where I had an exceptional meal and service (visiting a restaurant alone, one relies on more heavily the service to make the experience). I started with a Southeast Asian Martini (a blend of gin, lychee liqueur, ginger and kaffir lime) and squid cakes in sweet chili sauce (yay, finally felt safe eating squid!). The had spicy Thai morning glory and Bresse chicken in lemon sauce. As my Aussie companions would say: so good.
OK, now I'm off to Auckland for the next stage of the adventure. Happy Christmas to all!
PS: the sidebar pics include some of the Thai-glish that I love to capture: the first one is the info booklet in my hotel (it's a fancy way of saying "six" channels) and the latter was a SkyTrain platform advert (I would have visited but was concerned that they were not specialized enough...)
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