7/28/10 – 8/1/10 (bangkok)

Bangkok

For a moment we had forgotten that we were traveling and made Paul's condo our home. Our mornings consisted of Jon waking up early in the morning to start working on video projects while I lounged around the house reading and tidying up. Jon has really enjoyed having an office that he can work quietly without much interruption. Then we would have a light lunch at home. Each day in the afternoon I would go out to do something. I relaxed by the pool reading, updated our daily details blog, got a Thai massage, and visited a local used bookstore across the street. There is a grocery store right next to the condo so getting groceries was super easy and allowed us to get fresh things every day. At night we usually watched a movie before going to bed. There is a lot of sightseeing we could’ve done in Bangkok but we really wanted to spend this time for Jon to catch up on his recap videos of our travels. And there were enough things to keep me entertained so I didn’t bother him. It worked out perfectly.

One of Jon’s biggest accomplishments was completing Chef McDang’s video for our blog. We wanted to have it posted before leaving Bangkok. Now he is tackling our New Zealand recap video and hopes to have it done before we leave Thailand. We took a lot of video footage in New Zealand and it was one of our favorite destinations so it has been a challenge condensing it into a few minutes. When I look at the footage it seems like it was so long ago and makes me miss that time since it was at the beginning of our journey. After Jon completes the New Zealand recap he will have Australia, Indonesia, Cambodia and soon Thailand. The work never ends for him but it will be worth it years from now when we read our blog articles and watch the videos.

We also got to catch up with one of our favorite traveling couples, Mike and Barbara. We mentioned in a previous article how we serendipitously ran into them at the floating market. We arranged to meet them for dinner near Kao San Road, where they were staying. They also planned to travel for six months and Bangkok is their last destination before going back home to the UK in a few days. They followed almost the same route as we did so it was great to compare our experiences. The last time they did their world travel it was for fourteen months. They were the first people we met at the beginning of the trip and it had a special meaning for us seeing them at the tail end of both our trips.

Another big highlight was our visit to Soi Cowboy last night. We decided for our big night out to have drinks and dinner at the Long Table, which is a restaurant on the 25^th floor of a building. We got there right at the end of happy hour and were able to get a glimpse of the sun setting and the city nightlife starting. The place was very chic and reminded me of places in LA. Their happy hour is tricky. We got a mojito each since it was buy one drink get one free but then when Jon finished his they brought him another mojito. Then we figured out that the happy hour special applies to the person rather than to the table so we ended up having two very strong but good mojitos each. After dinner we headed to Soi Cowboy, which is probably the sleaziest part of Bangkok. We heard that the girls can do some amazing tricks and figured it was our one chance to check out this very popular street. We grabbed a drink at Shark Bar and observed the action. Unfortunately we didn’t see any tricks though we had fun watching the interactions. We may not have seen the historical sights such as the Grand Palace but we did experience what it was like to live in Bangkok.