4 nights in Bangkok

Oh my, what a fantastic extra long weekend we've had in Bangkok. I really hope you were checking out our pictures on Instagram. Although we went separately to Bangkok we both had reasonable trips. There is so much to tell you but one of the highlights was meeting up with Lisa and Gordon. We made the executive decision to watch Mission Impossible 5, followed by lunch and a bit of shopping.

I'm not really sure who was more excited about having an oven but I produced some fantastic dinners even though I say so myself. Is it OK to be a fan of your own cooking? Or is that considered narcissistic? 

Anyway, roast chicken dinner was accompanied, amongst other things, by cauliflower cheese and Yorkshire puddings. The roast duck breast also got dauphinoise potatoes plus I did Mr John a few small roast potatoes using the fat from the duck breast. 

Now, I'm inclined to think you're all wondering what the fuss is. Some of you may even have made these types of meals mid-week. Unless you have grown up in a Western country and then lived in a non-Western country, I'm not sure you can appreciate what it's like to live without a kitchen / oven / certain produce. Of course, if you live in a big city like Bangkok, you can get access to all these things - at a price obviously - but at least they are available. Here in Chanthaburi well, you can't even get beef mince or potatoes with any certainty.

So yes, we pretty much hung around the apartment most of the time. Given that two of the four days were "no selling alcohol" days, this really wasn't an issue.

We used the pool a couple of times. They insisted on me wearing a swimming hat, which they supplied because oddly, I don't have one. But there was hardly anyone there. In fact, it was crowded on Saturday with three other people in it. 

We had taken some DVDs and watched a couple of films. At this time of year, you have to be prepared for rain and sure enough on our first night it bucketed down. The lightening and thunder made quite a display from our 15th floor vantage point, so really no complaints but it wasn't the last of the rain.

The apartment was 600 metres from the local train station, this may not sound far but in tropical heat it can seem an awfully long way. No worries though, the apartments had a "shuttle bus" that went around the rather large block with the total trip probably taking 15 minutes. You could buy tickets in the office at 10 baht each. This was an absolute bargain as it was in fact an air-conditioned mini-van. At the weekends it goes as far as Chatuchak market yes still only 10 baht so that's a winner and when you need to get your luggage back to the train station it's a no-brainer.

Tuk Tuk's and motorbike taxis were abundant and relatively cheap at 50 & 20 baht respectively and there was a lovely, reasonably priced coffee shop just across the road. Of course being in the big smoke, we couldn't resist the odd Starbucks.

We would really recommend this fabulous apartment and Bert (the owner). If you'd like to enquire about staying there, get in touch using my Contact Form and I'll be happy to pass on your details to Bert. 
Please note that I will note receive any gratuity, cash or otherwise.