Bangkok on a Week’s Notice? Sure, Why Not! Part One . . .

So here’s a first: your highly anticipated spring break vacation to Sri Lanka is about ten days away and you happen to read in The Hindu newspaper that the country has just declared a “state of emergency” and called out the army due to sectarian violence in the first two locations you’re planning to visit! Wait what?

After a quick confab with AISC’s leadership, Sarah and I decided to cancel our week’s worth of hotel reservations—just in the nick of time so we didn’t lose the deposits—and reschedule an exploration of our neighboring island country when things were a bit less iffy. It’s just over an hour flight from Chennai to Colombo so an easy and quick journey.

Okay, So now what?

Scanning down our list of the potential Places We’ll Go, we discovered, of course, Bangkok, only a few hours away. Perfect! And Thailand doesn’t even require visas for US citizens, so easy peasy! Let’s do it!

As usual for Sarah and I, dining is at the top or our list as an important part of exploring a new location, so the day before we left, I decided to see if we could get in to Gaggan, the progressive Indian restaurant that’s been ranked number 1 in all Asia for 3 years running—actually now 4 years as he’s number 1 again in 2018! Well, good luck with that. The online reservation system was booking for tables more than two months out, but then I noticed a tiny sentence at the bottom of the page where it said to email them directly to inquire about any last minute openings . . . Would we get really, really lucky and score a table for our first visit to the city? And maybe even meet Gaggan Anand himself?

At any rate, given our short time frame, we turned to a travel agent—we actually still have them here in Chennai—and he pointed us to a pair of wonderful hotels as we always like to try a couple different new digs on a trip like this. First up, he booked us into the lebua at State Tower, a contemporary hotel most famous for its rooftop al fresco dining—the highest in the world—perched on the roof at the 64th floor. You can get a fun glimpse of it on the Netflix series “Travels with My Father” where they dine at Sirocco, not far from where we sat. By the way, lebua is indeed spelled with lower case “l” and it combines the French “le,” for “the,” and “bua,” which is Thai for “lotus.”

Sarah and I were both taken with the gracious pampering we received from everyone, starting with being upgraded—when we stumbled in at 5am—to a palatial suite with two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, full kitchen, and two balconies with stunning views over the city. Great start! The staff was the best trained and most accommodating we have seen in any establishment, anywhere, ever, and it felt genuine rather than obsequious. And our tasting menu dinner that first night at Sirocco was equally impressive–the Line Caught Brittany Sea Bass, miso marinated, hazelnut crusted, with salsify & morels and fennel foam took top honors, followed closely by the Purple Artichoke Risotto with Duck Confit–and we especially enjoyed the delightful breeze that allowed the 30c (about 87f) to feel almost chilly.

Of course, we had to follow the advice in the guidebooks and check out the tourist sights so unique to Thailand and Bangkok. We started our first day with a commuter boat ride up the Chao Phraya River past Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn, to Wat Pho, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, and Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, within the grounds of the Grand Palace.

Unfortunately, we waited till almost noon to head out so it became a nearly overwhelming experience with the sun broiling and about a hundred thousand (the daily average) of our fellow tourists snapping selfies from every possible angle. Proposal: let’s outlaw selfies, okay? So, we decided to get up earlier our second day (following our al fresco dinner at Sirocco) and grabbed the boat up the river only to find just as many selfie-snappers grouped for their tours of the top sights. Ah, well, we had more than enough of jostling and shouting but at least caught a few glimpses of the splendors on display. We learned after we came back to Chennai that the best way to see these attractions is to book a private guide who can navigate the crowds and whose knowledge can make your visit far more enjoyable. Next time!

So, our first couple of days were a combination of pampered delight—the poolside brunch at the lebua was also a thing of beauty—and stifling crowds, but the best was yet to come: street food, a move to the Shangri-La Hotel overlooking the river, a tour of the Jim Thompson House, Afternoon Tea at the iconic Author’s Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and maybe even dinner at Gaggan . . . . Not to mention a highlight of the trip: thanks to Sarah’s insistence, complete annual physicals at the Samitivej Sumkhumvit Hospital that felt like a spa treatment at a five star hotel . . . Of course you know these are all another story . . . .