At the beginning of the month when most of Hong Kong was preparing to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Handover, we decided, rather unpatriotically, to make the most of the extra day’s holiday and headed off to Bangkok for the weekend. Darling very kindly cashed in some of her UA air miles, for two return Business Class tickets on Thai, whilst I booked our favourite hotel for the weekend – The Oriental.
The flight down was very pleasant, nice and comfortable and the first I have been on with a massage function set into the seats (trust Thai Airways to think of that idea). Apart from the ridiculous queues at immigration, and a little more hassle than normal to find a taxi driver prepared to use his meter, our transfer to the hotel was uneventful. On arrival at The Oriental, we learnt that the main swimming pool was closed for renovation works, which, to be honest, I was not happy about. (Darling, on the other hand, I’m sure was rather pleased with this news at it would mean more time for shopping, however, bless - she hid it well, and did her best to look disappointed).
To compensate, the hotel upgraded us to a Deluxe room on the top floor of the River Wing. Alas, not a suite but still rather nice all the same with a great view of the Chao Praya river.
So after checking in we headed back down to The Bamboo Bar for a night cap. We ordered a couple of cold beer Chang and settled down to listen to the jazz band who were playing - we could not see them due to the thick cigar smoke.
Next morning we ate breakfast, sat on the terrace, looking out on to the river and across to The Peninsula Hotel. After breakfast came the serious issue of choosing the spa that we would visit for our massage that afternoon. A couple of calls later we were booked in for an afternoon slot, so we then headed off in the direction of the shuttle boat to the sky train, from where we could reach Siam Paragon.
After shopping for shoes and cosmetics (it would appear that women cannot have too much of either) it was time for lunch. The food court did not seem to have much offerings in the way of free samples this time (nothing to do with my last visit I’m sure), however I still managed to find a few things of which I had no idea what they were. All was well until I sampled some reconstituted fish sausage (at least that’s what I think it was after I had tasted it), which put paid to my free food quest. For lunch we settled on Chiang Mai Sausage, with the extra hot chili sauce, and an accompanying Papaya Salad (absolutely bloody gorgeous), all good and spicy.
Lunch over, it was time for our massage, so we ventured off to the Spa, a new establishment we had not tried before. The massage was OK, (I’ve had much better) and is probably best enjoyed not straight after eating very spicy Chiang Mai Sausage with extra Chili.
For dinner we decided to dine at the hotel as it was raining, selecting our choice of food by the number chilis shown next to each dish (only picking the hottest of course). This, in retrospect, was probably not overly wise considering that we were sitting outside (under cover) on a very hot and wet evening, with no aircon for assistance.
Thanks to beer Chang, we made it through dinner, before heading back to the Bamboo Bar.
The next day was pretty much a repeat of the day before, opting to visit a different spa and a change of location for dinner. Having learnt my lesson from the day before we skipped lunch, which made for a more comfortable massage experience. We ate dinner at a rather good restaurant not too far from the hotel, somewhere we will head back to the next time we are in town. After eating far too much, I only had room for a couple of beers back at the hotel, before retiring hurt for the night.
The next morning we ate a rather leisurely breakfast before it was time to return to Hong Kong, alas all too soon.
Next morning we ate breakfast, sat on the terrace, looking out on to the river and across to The Peninsula Hotel. After breakfast came the serious issue of choosing the spa that we would visit for our massage that afternoon. A couple of calls later we were booked in for an afternoon slot, so we then headed off in the direction of the shuttle boat to the sky train, from where we could reach Siam Paragon. 
Lunch over, it was time for our massage, so we ventured off to the Spa, a new establishment we had not tried before. The massage was OK, (I’ve had much better) and is probably best enjoyed not straight after eating very spicy Chiang Mai Sausage with extra Chili. 
For dinner we decided to dine at the hotel as it was raining, selecting our choice of food by the number chilis shown next to each dish (only picking the hottest of course). This, in retrospect, was probably not overly wise considering that we were sitting outside (under cover) on a very hot and wet evening, with no aircon for assistance.
