We stayed at the Zenith hotel in Bangkok, a favorite of mine from when we discovered it travelling with my friends 8 years ago. The rooftop pool is amazing. Heck of a deal for about $90/night. It was $60 8 years ago, but only because the dollar was so much stronger, I don't think the prices have changed. I'd say about 40% of the guests were some kind of Muslim, since that is the Muslim tourist area. I was really glad to see that hotel still hasn't made it into Lonely Planet. Otherwise it would probably be swamped.
It was pretty interesting being back in Bangkok 8 years later, after two trips there in 2000. Very little of the places I remembered had changed, just the people. And new Starbucks everywhere of course (same deal with San Francisco). We went to our old favorite Indian food restuarant by the hotel. The owner had moved back to India, but the place was still there, the new owner was just as nice, and the food was still incredible. Our new discovery this time was the $2 shawarmas even closer to the hotel. So tasty, not too big or messy. A perfect snack. Amber, Shelby and I probably ate 20 of them between us. Some people are overhwhelmed by the hecticness, sounds, smells of streets of Bangok. But Amber & Shelby took to it right away. I did see one girl at the Bamboo Bar near the hotel who was working there from 8 years ago, I possibly vaguely remembered her.
Derek Keith and I went to see a big Muay Thai fight between the best fighters from the two major stadiums - Lumphini and Ratchadaman. Apparently each stadium has their own home fighters. Luckily the fight was at the stadium that's air conditioned. There were something like 12 fights, with the 8th being the headliners. The fight after the headliners ended up actually being the best one. The crowd was natually thinning a little and not as pumped once the headliners had fought. But the two guys after them just started wailing on each other til you couldn't believe either of them was still standing. By the end of that fight the crowd was in a complete frenzy.
Watching the crowd bet between rounds was almost as entertaining for us as watching the fights. They made a bewildering array of indeciperhable hand signals that looked a lot like what goes on on the floor of the stock market. The first round would usually start out slow, with the fighters mostly feeling each other out, and not much betting. But by the later rounds, if it was a good fight, the betting would start going crazy. There was some ex-champ there who appeared to have a new career as a major bookie.
Repetitive, drum-beat type music played during each round, which the fighters sort of rocked in rhythm to. It seemed to increase in tempo as the fight went on. We were very surprised to see there was a 4-piece band playing the music, since it was basically the exact same for every fight. Also between rounds all kinds of random people would come up and start giving the fighters advice, many times 2 or 3 of them yelling at them at once. How on earth that was supposed to help we had no idea. Muay Thai is pretty brutal. One guy got an elbow to the head, then slumped to his knees where he was promptly knocked out cold with a knee to the face. He laid there for a while.
On our last night, Amber, Shelby and I ate crepes at a delicious French place Derek had discovered, then met up with Derek, Mom & Keith at the top of the State Tower. The pictures don't really do it justice, but what an incredible view and scene - 70 stories above Bangkok. The bar looked like an island just floating over the city.
Click a picture to see a larger view.
