A good night's sleep and a tasty
breakfast on the hotel's outdoor garden terrace provided just the
oomph we needed to get us out to enjoy a very satisfying day here in
Bangkok.
The hotel shuttle drove us over to
nearby the Sala Daeng BTS elevated Skytrain station. But prior to
boarding, we walked down Convent Street over to nearby Christ Church
where we were married forty-seven years ago!
FOR A CLOSER LOOK, CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
A guard unlocked the main sanctuary for
us, and a volunteer working with the congregation's preschool program
later came in to talk and insisted on taking photos of us as mementos
of our (quite nostalgic) return visit.
Then it was off on BTS to the Saphan
Taksin station where we hoped to catch an express river bus boat up
the Chao Praya to see the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha housed
at Wat Phra Keaw. However, river traffic was to be cut off for the
day after noon on much of the river so that preparations could be
completed for the grand royal barge procession scheduled to mark a
major national Thai holiday next Tuesday.
We opted instead for a quick boat ride
as far upstream as we could go before the shut down began …
… and alighted close enough to Wat
Phra Keaw that we could walk the rest of the way. We realized then
that we were even closer to Wat Pho (which we knew houses a great
golden reclining Buddha), so we decided to drop in there first –
and ended up wandering around that temple complex completely
mesmerized by our surroundings for nearly two hours!
We never made it to Wat Phra Keaw.
Instead we escaped the growing heat of midday around two by taking a
taxi (blessedly air-conditioned) across town to Siam Central. The
ride through Bangkok's notorious clogged traffic took almost an hour
but proved an eye-opening close up reintroduction to Bangkok street
life and deposited us right on the doorstep of the brand new Siam
Paragon mall with it absolutely enormous food court!
We had our first local Thai food there,
then caught a BTS back to Sala Daeng and a taxi to our hotel where we
looked out from our seventeenth floor suite over the surrounding
cityscape …
… or napped 'til dinner. We then
celebrated Heidi's birthday with the absolutely best meal either of
us has ever had (!) at Le Table De Tee!
This tiny side street restaurant seats
only fifteen or so, and so Lee earlier had made email reservations
for us even before leaving Cleveland. The owner/chef (who, it turned
out, had just returned from London where he participated in a high
profile cooking demonstration) does all his own preparation and
serves up a different five course French–Thai tasting menu daily.
Although close to the Pantip Suites, the restaurant is devilishly difficult to find – our taxi driver was at a complete loss even with the extensive written directions provided by the hotel – but well deserves whatever effort it takes as well as the top ratings earned on Trip Advisor. Our impeccably prepared and served dinner provided the perfect ending to a relaxing and enjoyable “stop over” day in this bustling and endlessly fascinating Thai City of Angels.
Tomorrow we're up a five for breakfast
followed by an early morning flight to Rangoon and a busy day spent
touring Burma's capital city. We're both energized and ready to go!
Tune in tomorrow to find out how things went our very first day in
Marvelous Myanmar ...
No comments:
Post a Comment