I did mostly standard Day-1 touristy Bangkok stuff today, going to the Wat Pho (the site of the Happy Buddha and the massive Reclining Buddha), and the Royal Palace complex. These are things I for sure did when I first came to Thailand in 2003 with my family. I sadly have no real recollection of that trip. I wanted to do it in my trip here in 2019, but didn't realize that those sites had a 'no shorts' rule - and while now they sell you sarong type things to cover your legs, they didn't at the time. Overall, it was nice to be an actual tourist, even in a city that I'm somehow here for a 4th time.
Wat Pho is a fairly large complex, with tons of similar looking incredible ornate, decorative, beautiful buildings. It is all a bit overwhelming, especially for camera trigger happy people like myself. There are two main buildings, where you can go inside (shoe-less of course) and see first a large seated buddha, and I mean a seriously large one. After that you can see the reclining buddha, what this site is famous for. The reclining buddha is massive - despite having pretty useful inlets to take photos it is hard to get all of it in one photo.
Strewn all around the lot are smaller cone shoped pagodas, all ornate in their own way, beautiful trees, statues of buddhas, animals, and so much more. If it wasn't starting to get hot by the end of it, I would've spent a lot more time here. Thankfully the people at this site are smart enough to not require masks while in the grounds (just in the two buddha buildings). The next site - not as lucky.
The Grand Palace complex, which houses the Grand Palace, another famous Wat complex, and a couple small museums (which for the time being are closed due to covid still) is next door, but of course I went the exact wrong way so ended up going around three sides of the square. At least while generally walking aroud you can go maskless, but in the Grand Palace area they were pretty vigilant on needing to wear a mask everywhere. This was annoying. If anyting it made me race through a complex that was equally beautiful and a lot larger, than Wat Pho.
On the periphery of each of these complexes is a whole lot of other fairly regal and ornate government buildings, such as the Supreme Court, the Department of Defense, and a few others. Its not too surprising that these area is the most vigilant on masking, but it is truly stunning grounds. The clear, blue-sky laden day didn't hurt of course. I walked around this area to take it in for as long as I could handle, even sneaking a trip to the Chao Prahya River that runs through the middle of Bangkok (granted, almost all the places one would normally go are on the west side of the river). Bangkok is a massive concrete jungle in many areas, but this bleeding heart is well maintained, airy and beautiful.
Those three adjectives (well, maybe not airy) could be equally used for my lunch spot Sri Tat - which focuses on Eastern Thai cuisine. The restuarant, built into a house, is back in the Sukhumvit area, where I'll be largely spending the rest of my time here, from the lunch, to a park after lunch, some shopping up through to Gaggan (needing to make a stop at my hotel in there somewhere). Sri Tat had a really nice menu that featured a bunch of interesting, non-standard, Thai fare. I chose a barracuda salad with peanut brittle (incredibly refreshing), and a special sweet & sour pork curry dish that was just divine, if a bit too close to home as a dish my mom makes. They also had a super refreshing honey, ginger and gin based cocktail that I enjoyed with the lunch. Sri Tat has amazing reviews, and lived up to all of them.
From there I walked around a bit, passing some really nice coffee shops, boutiques, restaurants (many of the Western food, sadly), and one that drew my eye, which had local thai pottery and ceramic kitchenware, which is something truly up my street. I perused for a bit before buying a set of three bowls. This is truly an uneccessary purchase, but when you have my issue with kitchenware, and a lot of extra KGs in baggage to play with, it can't be avoided.
From there I went to the other Hair of the Dog location, which is bigger (with an upstairs) a bit more chill, and where I got to meet the co-owner, a Canadian guy who moved to Thailand in 2012, opened the bar up in 2017 after he and his Canadian ex-pat friend came to the mutual conclusion that the craft beer bars are just not up to snuff. I have to say the only downside is their main selling point is they have a lot of foreign (read: US) beers. The place is still very well set-up, the owners seem to truly care, and the few Thai beers they had were generally IPAs that were also quite good. Thailand isn';t quite Korea (or Vietnam) when it comes to craft beer, but not every country needs to please everyone.
I tried Grab's reserve service to book a cab to take me to Gaggan, leaving the hotel at 6:30, for a rough;y 6:45 - 6:50 arrival. It was nervy, as they didn't confirm someone would come until 6pm, and the car arrived at 6:36, and dropped me off at 6:58. Dinner in the end wouldn;t start until 7:30 as two people were running very late. We learned the reason we delayed everyone was that one of the people running late was Chef Goh, who is Gaggan's business partner in Japan. I guess he gets special accommodations. I'll have a write-up later but overall it was a thrilling experience. The meal probably was a bit worse than the first time I had it - but still firmly in My Top-5 meals - look for that top meals post getting an update and an extension soon as well.
After dinner I took a grab down the streets to FindTheLockerRoom, which was far more full this being a Thursday night, and the crowd was having a great time. It was a mix of foreigners, including Canadians, Australians and Germans (and like normal, no Americans), and it was interesting set of discussions to pair with five cocktails over the course of three hours. Quite a way to end my nighttime activities in Bangkok.
