The adventures of Phoenix and Cliff: We Heart Thailand

Ok, we liked Vietnam, but we are in love with Thailand. We ended flying into Bangkok for the weekend because we really didn't spent much time in the capital...plus, we have a classmate, Thom, who lives in Bangkok, so it was an opportune moment. Cliff booked us a couple nights in the Hilton Millenium with his HHonors points...but, because of his 'status', we were allowed access to the executive lounge (which served a rockin bfast with the best waffles ever) and had a room on the top floor. It was probably one of the nicest hotels I've stayed in...the shirtless help wasn't bad either:

Here is the view from the wall to wall window:

Cliff wanted to practice some moves before our kiteboarding time, so we went to the local cable park. Its basically a large lake with a cable oval that pulls you around in a circle. Honestly, I had a horrible time and gave up after an hour. Cliff, on the other hand, had a blast. He even tried to go off some jumps for the first time.

As always, Cliffs detemination and unnaturally hard head prevailed and he landed a great Indy...

After a shamefully large breakfast (bacon, sausage, waffles, eggs, smoked salmon, sushi, salad, french bread and Thai sausage and rice porridge), we decided to see something truly touristy--the Grand Palace. First, when in Thailand, you should be well-read on the latest tourist scams, which we were able to ignore. Usually if you walk toa site, scammer will lead you to the side gate and say that the attraction is closed for a holiday. Then, a taxi driver will arrive, also say it is closed for a holiday and then suggest that he take you to go to a very famous shopping district (which is inevidably a tourist trap that he gets a cut from). We narrowly avoided this type of exploitation and toured one of the more beautiful places I've seen in Thailand. Here is the front wall guarding the entrance to the citadel:

Inside were many intricately designed building, including one of the more famous Wats in Thailand (temple, that is) and the actually Grand Palace itself.

The Wat was surrounded by incredible sculpture and ornately decorated buildings...lots of guilded gold and colored glass...

The Wat was beautiful, but the Grand Palace was, well, grand.

No Entry...like I follow rules.

Afterwards we cruised through one of the most famous thoroughfares in all of Thailand: Khaosan road. This was late afternoon, when most people are still well behaved. The road is filled with lots of bars, cheap (and bad) Thai restaurants, massage/spas and lots and lots of shopping.

That night, we met up with Danny and Patrick (our friend we went snowboarding in Japan with). Patrick suggested the Sirocco Bar, which had been featured on the Travel channel. We headed to an aptly named person called The Dome and had drinks on the rooftop bar (on the 54th floor).

The view from the top was stunning and worth the price of drinks.

We headed to less reputable (and therefore less bloggable) bars later in the night. tee hee. the next night we bought ring-side tickets at Lumpini Boxing Stadium for the Sunday night fights. The fighters weighted anywhere from 90-145 pounds, so TKOs or KOs were not likely to be seen. All the fights started with a ritualized warm up...alittle leg stretching, alittle bowing to the crowd, the cardinal directions and then to the corners of the ring--all to a live band.

The fights lasted 5 rounds and the band would play progressively faster and louder per round. It was great!

The match started with the traditional fighter bow and then it was on!!!!

Alittle advice from your corner never hurt.

The fights were pretty damn entertaining. we actually got to see a TKO, but they stopped the the fights very fast...its a brutal sport where you can hit your opponent anywhere except the groin and back. The next day we met up with our friend Thom, who took us to the Bangkok floating market, an incredible seafood shack and a street market. We started out on a boats in the back waterways just SW of Bangkok.

The sides of the market were lined with covered shopping areas, mostly selling tourist crap... the best buys at the market is the local food and fruit.

We enjoyed one of Cliff's favorite dishes: Mango sticky rice--salty sticky rice, fresh mango and warm coconut milk over the top. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm....We also enjoyed fresh spring rolls, mangosteens (the queen of fruit, or so they say) and guava.