Disaster Trip

Victory Monument

We went to Bangkok on Sunday so we could go to the Immigration office on Monday and sort my non-residency visa.  The Pullman Hotel was fully booked and so we booked the Victory Hotel, which is nearby, as we like the location.  When we arrived we went straight to the Siam Paragon so we could catch an English film.  Fast and Furious 6 was playing in 4DX.  We'd never experienced this before and it was brilliant.  The seating is in sections of four and the chairs move as the action on the screen moves.  In addition there are "vents" set into your headrest and vents facing you which are on the back of the chair in front.  This lets out smells, in keeping with the movie, and also shoots water at you if appropriate.  It was hilarious, brilliant but hilarious!  I really enjoyed the film too, there's much more humour in this one.

Victory Hotel Bangkok

So after a great film we headed to check in at the hotel.  Reception looked fine and the staff were friendly.  The room was clean, though to be fair I didn't look too closely just in case, but all the décor was very tired.  It's likely its heyday was somewhere in the 1980s.  We went up to the pool (situated on the top floor) where the water was clean but the wall above the water could have done with a good scrub.  Again, there was potential to make it really nice but it was sadly lacking in any comfortable chairs and decent shade (which wasn't an issue for us as it was nearly 6pm by the time we got there). To add insult to injury, we looked down on the Pullman pool with all its lovely sunbeds and umbrellas!

Mr John at the Saxophone bar

 Having not spent too long in the pool, we headed out for dinner and decided on pizza - big mistake.  The dough was not properly cooked and before Mr John had even paid the bill, I'd had to go to the toilet where I got to see my pizza all over again.....  Refusing to let that spoil my evening, Mr John took me to the Saxophone Jazz Pub which is near Victory Monument.  It's a wicked place with really good live music.  We'd highly recommend it if you're in Bangkok.


The next day we headed to the Immigration office and to cut a very long, upsetting story short - I came away with nothing.  There's about 15 different things needed to get my visa changed and so it's back to Chanthaburi to get documents from the school.  Not only that but the British Embassy needs to certify the copy of our marriage certificate, so next time it'll be a few days in Bangkok.  I'll be extending my current visa and we'll be making sure we can get into the Pullman hotel before heading back up.