Bangkok: Same difference

BANGKOK, Thailand – Third time here, first-time excitement still. This city never runs out of thrills. Frequent flyer feeling philosophized in a night market T-shirt – “Same, same but different.” Really amazing.

Cebu Pacific flight 5J941 is all-too-smooth from Clark, feathertouching right on the dot – 2300HRS, August 4 – at Suvarnabhumi, setting the all-too enjoyable four-day, four-night Thai experience, courtesy of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Novotel Bangkok Platinum, opened only last December, makes a most pleasant home for the traveller – located right at the very heart of the commercial district;  a veritable wonderland for shoppers – right on top of the Platinum Shopping Mall, reputed to be Bangkok’s largest fashion mall for one-stop wholesale shopping.

But a few easy paces from Novotel are Siam Square, Siam Paragon, Gaysorn Plaza, Amarin Plaza and Central World – enough to give the most inveterate shopaholic his/her frenzied fix.     

Bangkok is shopping mecca, indeed.

There’s a la Tutuban JJ Mall amid Chatachuk, the world’s largest weekend market, unarguably, a favourite Pinoy destination with its bargain basement prices and endless haggling.

Then there’s newly opened upscale Terminal 21 where sunny, rhummy Caribbean, imperial Rome, gay Paris, exotic Istanbul, terrific Tokyo, snooty London, wind-swept San Francisco – streets, port, cable cars, and Golden Gate Bridge, and glittering Hollywood all gathered under one roof.

The escalators made up airport departure gates to each destination. Defining landmarks evoked city scenes: – coconuts and Bob Marley music, ancient statuary and the bocca della verita, the collone morris cylindrical outdoor advertising columns, multi-colored lamps and paper lanterns, double-decker bus and red telephone booths. The city themes extending to the rest rooms. And that begs for a separate story.

Another novelty for shopping, food and entertainment is Asiatique – no connection whatsoever to Delfin Lee’s Globe – living up to its billing as “the most romantic and longest Chao Phraya riverfront promenade in Thailand.”

Divided into four districts of fashion boutiques, crafts and souvenir shops, international restaurants, coffeeshops, beer gardens and wine bars, Asiatique is most opulent night market in Bangkok, if not in the whole of Thailand. Maybe in all of Asia even.    

Tripping the night fantastic is best done at Asiatique. More touché than cliché there.

A culinary delight is Bangkok too.

Tom yum goong, the spicy lemongrass and shrimp soup that makes the quintessential Thai dish has become a favourite since the first visit in 2009, be it served in the flashiest restaurants, at the street curb eateries, or in the night market stalls.

A great find this time around is fried curry crab, best served at Somboon Seafood where hangs a picture of then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi celebrating his partaking of “the original” dish that built the restaurant.           

And then there’s Thai massage.

Nowhere near, even remotely, its corruption in its Philippine variant, Thai massage is all clean, no wet-flesh-to-wet-flesh rubbing, no leg scissoring, no “bushy” scrubbing.

Neither is Thai massage plain rub-a-dub-dub, knead and pat. It stimulates the chakra points in the body where energy resides, hence its therapeutic and invigorating effect.

Thus on the last night emerged from RariJinda wellness spa at Grande Centre Point Hotel the refreshed, re-energized, renewed self. Ready to take the rigors of the worsened weather and the rising floodwaters back home.

Sleep. Drink. Shop. Eat. Novotel Bangkok Platinum’s tote bag left nothing unsaid of this take of the Thai capital.

So what did that loot bag hold?

Two Buddha prints worth THB260, a Buddha oil on canvas for THB300, a Buddha cast iron bust for THB2,100 with Buddhist prayer beads thrown in as freebie. All of P3,458 at the exchange of PHP1 to THB1.30. Miserly? 

Shoestring budget traveller, in expenses only.  Lived it up in five-star amenities and coach-like transport services. Luxuriated in the warmth of companionship with JG Summit Holding’s Viveca Singson, CebPac’s Michelle Eve de Guzman and Selrahco’s Charles Lim. Renewed ties of friendship with Kosol Boonma, managing director of KBS Travel and Intertrade Co., and tour guide Tun. Found a new friend in Inthira Vuttisomboon, assistant director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, who stayed with the group throughout, looking after all our needs and wishes.

There is this travel maxim so celebrated in that cartoon movie Happy Worldland: “Don’t overdo it the first time, there’s nothing to look forward to the second time around.”

With these guys, with Bangkok, there’s always something to look forward to every time. Sawasdee! --  Traveloggers:features&fotos