This was going to be a two-parter either way, as the first day would always be in Bangkok, but the second was supposed to be effectively a full travel day, from an 8am flight out of Bangkok, to then multiple trains from Seoul Incheon to Seoul Station to Gyeongju. It all seemed a bit pointless of a day - best case making it to Gyeongju at 8pm or sio - but more likely closer to 9pm, which is late for a sleepy town on a Monday.
The big issue was having to fly into Seoul, in which Incheon is just forever and a day away from Seoul. The other problem was I really haven't slept well, combining jet lag getting me up each day around 8-9am (though still forcing myself to get 1-2 hours further of shitty sleep), with going to bed at 3-4am post Observatory. On the first day of this two parter, the early rise was forced, with an 11:35 flight out of Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok. I really was struggling.
It then hit me halfway through the day that I could probably shift flights, try to get something straight into Busan, which down dramatically the travel on the Korea side, and sleep in Sunday Night / Monday Morning in Bangkok. Granted, the new routing requires me to take a really bad red-eye, but I should get into Gyeongju early enough to get some sleep. I wes going to have one day of 4-5 hours of sleep, and one day of normal sleep across these two days. The earlier version was a short night / early rise in Bangkok and a normal night in Gyeongju. Now, it is the reverse, and as I swilled down a cocktail at #FindTheLockerRoom, I started quickly thinking I picked right.
Bangkok was nomonally a trip to go to Gaggan again - but with this witch I ended up getting about 30 hours in teh city, and was able to try quote a few things. It remains a traffic-intense, metal jiungle - mostly in teh Sukhumvit area where I often stay (to be fair, most of the stereotypical Bangkok stuff is there, with the exception of the main tourist sites). It is what Bangalore somehow espouses to be. I quickly learned the one hack of trying to get around in Bangkok though - which is to book grab bikes (motorcycles), which are able to weave through the traffic with ease. The problem with Bangkok traffic still remains that their key intersections have four way lights that each side gets a green for about 90 seconds - I geuss in theory they get a good flow when you do get green, but it is an interminable wait.
My first stop after reaching the Hyatt Regency - right off of Sukhumvit Soi 11 - was to head to Soi 33 and to Sri Tat for lunch. I'd been here in 2022, but in the period since it got a Michelin Bib Gourmand, so now it is quite popular. Granted, not so much when you show up at 3pm. The place serves Eastern Thai cuisine, and was excellent as usual. I got a grilled pork neck starter, and a stir fried cardamom root (an exceedingly interestign vegetable) chicken thighs, which was maybe a pinch too spicy, in a good way.
From there I headed to the shopping hall heaven that is further West on Sukhumvit main road - starting with Central Embassy/World (where Eatthai is), through to the picturesque Siam Paragon, to a new place at the very end - the Bangkok Art and Culture Center. This building shaped a bit like the Guggenheim is basically on the other side of the road from the Siam complex, but I guess I always just turned aroudn at Siam Paragon in the past.
This time I went in - the place is beautiful (though looks a bit glim from the outside), with an open center and winding steps aroudn the side. The top three floors are reserved for roving exhibits as a nice little art museum. Nothing too fancy or crazy, but this little bit of culture in the depths of Sukhumvit was just cool in a way.
From there, I took another traipsing bike ride down back to Sukhumvit Soi 33 (where lunch was) to go to Hair of the Dog - a great beer bar. The spot is run by a Canadian guy who was there both days regaling customers of just interesting shit. The only real downside is that they serve beer from all over rather than local to Thailand - it is generally really carefully curated, but still a bit sad to not have local craft.
That led to Gaggan, which of course I'll cover in a separate post. Let's just say though the food remains great, if maybe slightly worse than 2022/23, but Gaggan was there this time (like he was in 2022, but not in 2023) and there was more energy adn life this time around. It's expensive, certainly, but is still super dependable.
Also super dependable is #FindTheLockerRoom, still behind its two sets of lockers down an alley (a more dingy alley than I remember, in truth) and still super creative with its drinks. They ahve a strict 1:45 last call policy, but not so strict that at 1:40 when they call it they let every person order up to three cocktails - as long as the order gets in before 1:45. Most of us there took advantage of this gambit (I limited it to two drinks), which helped us stay in this indoor, dark, mysterious bit of culture till about 2:30. If I hadn't changed plans, I would have had to get up in basically three hours (of course, had I not, I probably don't even go to #FindTheLockerRoom). But knowing I had a night of good sleep in a Hyatt bed made it all the more reassuring that the decision I made was the right one.
************************************************************
Today was basically a few hours of sightseeing and then travel - but still less annoying than had I kept my original plan. In the end, I traded away a night in Gyeongju (a rushed dinner, and maybe a drink) and a full night's rest Monday Night, and got in return a night in Bangkok, a full sleep in a Hyatt Regency King Bed, and a few hours of signtseeing in Bangkok. In the end, this was a positive trade. I may not feel that way tomorrow at 2pm trying to stave off a red-eye night, but for now, this is my stance. I will be taking no questions.
The tourism on this day was limited to the Grand Palace. Limited is a wrong word because the palce is stunning, expecially when there is ample sunlight to make the gold and jewels and mirrors glow and shine. Of course, that ample sunlight also baked down on evreryone there, which when coupled with the humidity kept it again as an open-air sweatbox.
The place is gorgeous though, and such a noted difference to the rest of Bangkok, which is just cavernous. Instead, this area is open air, with manicured gardens, and throngs of tourists. To be fair, all of Bangkok is full of tourists in every area. From there, I went to Eatthai for lunch, getting small bites from a couple different stands, before hitting back to Hair of the Dog for a quick minute and then heading to the airport. If this sounds like a pretty minimal day... well, it is. I don't feel bad about that, however. Again, my alternative was getting up around 5:30am to reach the airport, and then reach my distentation at earliest 8:30pm. Not ideal. Here, I got a good nights sleep, a bit more of Bangkok, and an overall easier transit (two flights, albeit one red-eye vs. one flight, two trains).
The flights were seamless and uninteresting - Vietnam Airlines is perfectly fine. They have a bunch of flights leaving Hanoi in the 12am - 2am period, so the restaurants were all open well into the night which helped me get a Pho for a last Southeast Asian meal, before this whole thing turns cold and Korean. I slept really well on teh red-eye, getting a clutch window seat. Before I knew it, I was landing in rainy Busan, taking a 1-hr uber to rainy Gyeongju. Not to fear however, as just like my Korea trip in 2022, I arrived to the last vestiges of rain, right as it would clear up for seemingly the full extent of the trip.
