Our arrival in Bangkok marked the halfway point of our trip. After a grueling 13 hour journey from Cambodia by bus, songthaew, train, and metro line, we spent two nights in town before my sister and her boyfriend arrived from the US, mostly spent taking care of business that one can take care of only in a large city like Bangkok. We applied for our visas to Myanmar, visited a highly recommended jewelry shop to see if it would be a good place to have rings made(!), and spent some time resting up before my sister arrived. 

For the first two days, we stayed in Sukhumvit, but fairly far from the action at soi 99. We tried to get food recommendations in from our hostel owner, but the street stalls she suggested had mushy rice and bland stir fried ground pork and basil. We searched out a street in Sukhumvit known for its street food vendors that our friend recommended, but a large portion of the vendor area was recently sold to a condo developer, so the street was basically shut down and the only vendors left sold pre-cooked fried food, that did not exactly look appetizing. We found a somewhat decent restaurant for dinner one night, named “Soul Food”, that served Thai food, but it was not that great and had a disappointing $37 price tag for two entrees and two drinks..

Once Reeny and Kevin arrived, we moved to an Airbnb at more of a prime location in Bangkok, right next to the American embassy and a few minutes walk to the light rail line. The apartment was amazing – spacious, with two bedrooms, powerful air con, and a washer! We really enjoyed our stay there and felt lucky to find such a gem. 

Kevin wanted to have a tailored suit made while in Bangkok (totally acceptable as he is a lawyer and wears suits frequently) so Thom and I used that time to revisit the jeweler with the family rings that my sister brought from the US. We were hoping to have them made into an engagement and wedding ring, and the jewelry designer Elisbeth was probably the most amazing person that we could have discussed this with. She is clearly very experienced in designing jewelry and has an eye for what will actually look nice once completed. She convinced us to use rose gold, something I never had considered beforehand, and helped us decide what we wanted, which was amazing since we did not really have a clue before walking into her office. She is sending us drawings of the ideas in a few days, so we will have to wait and see how this all works out! 

The next day, we went to the Grand Palace and explored some more of Bangkok. Since I had previously traveled to Bangkok in 2009, I did a terrible job of documenting this part of our trip with photographs, but if I get any new ones from Kevin I will try to update my blog with them. This is what I have of the Grand Palace – mostly a bunch of patterns for reference for when I get back to painting pottery in my free time: 

   
    
    
 
On the last day in Bangkok before leaving for Hua Hin, we picked up our Myanmar visas while Kevin went for a suit fitting, then we took the Chao Phraya express boat to see the river flowing through Bangkok. We took it to a random stop that ended up being near the busy backpacker area, Khao San Road. We spent some time exploring before finding a place to eat, but the food took entirely too long to arrive so we left and ended up finding Thai/American BBQ sandwiches on Khao San Road that were absolutely amazing.

The next day, we had a relaxing morning before heading to the train station to catch a train to Hua Hin, a few hours south of Bangkok. We had to wait a bit for the train we needed to catch, and the train took a bit longer than scheduled, so it was after dinner time when we finally arrived in Hua Hin. Luckily the night market was right around the corner from our mostly empty hostel, so we headed there for fried noodles and fried mussels before turning in for the night. 

In the morning we ate the free noodles and mangoes offered by the hotel, then headed to the beach.  It was a great beach – not many people around, clean water, and soft sand – we couldn’t really ask for more. The water was great for swimming, so we had a dip before searching for a place to eat lunch. Luckily Thom had researched lunch spots ahead of time, so when we got hungry, we headed to a great Thai restaurant right near the beach and had curry and noodles. We had a little downtime before it was time for dinner, so we rested up before heading to a different Thai restaurant for dinner, this time for my favorite, panang curry. The evening was spent exploring the night market and trying to find a bar to drink at that did not have a ton of “bar girls” working in front. 

The next day was elephant day. One of the things Reeny really wanted to do while in Thailand was see some elephants, so we went to an animal foundation that does rescue work with animals, including elephants. In the morning we toured the foundation, where they keep various animals that have been rescued from terrible situations across Thailand, such as gibbons and monkeys and sun bears that have been kept as pets, and elephants that were trained to do tricks and carry heavy tourists (something elephants are actually not strong enough to do – they can only carry up to 100kg on their backs as their backs are not very strong!). We had an awesome buffet lunch of Thai food, then in the afternoon we walked, fed, and washed an elephant before touring the more expansive areas of the foundation where animals are kept before they are released to the wild. It really was a nice experience and we were glad to enjoy it with Reeny who was so excited to visit the elephants!!

 
 


         
After our exciting day with the elephants, we found some delicious hamburgers in town (perhaps our best in Asia so far) before one last evening at the night market and calling it a night. 

Reeny and Kevin’s last day in Bangkok we spent doing some last minute souvenir shopping, spending way too long trying to find dinner and eventually eating at KFC, then getting some sleep in the Airbnb Reeny generously rented for us with a great view of the Bangkok skyline. They left early the next morning, ending a lovely week spent with good company 🙂