Bangkok Part III

 Wasn’t I just there?  Yes.  October was my last international work-holiday for 2015 – yay!  This event gave me many headaches so I was going to do whatever I needed to make it enjoyable, and I think I accomplished that.  By the last 2 days, the number I brought to the cheap foot massage spa was growing… but more on that later.

Day 1:  Arrival

I was travelling by myself this time so no Qantas First Class Lounge, only the Qantas Lounge.  As I was still recovering from my salmonella, I had nothing too rich; just champagne and crumpets for breakfast, as you do.

On arrival, off to the Shangri-La Krunthep Wing this time!  I was excited to try a different hotel and what life was like staying city-side.

Some goodies welcoming me to the hotel

View from the balcony

I had several hours before my colleague arrived so I did a bit of work then wandered around the hotel, exploring my options. This hotel is huge – a bit too big for my liking.  Unfortunately I missed the boat to the nearby entertainment area so I decided to check out the street life.  I found a market, department store and then a local outdoor food hall.  I know what you are thinking, “you just got over salmonella and now you are eating street food”?!  My travel food policy is as long as it’s deep-fried, it’s okay.  It helped me through India (kinda).  I picked a 30 THB pad thai from a stall that seemed very popular.  There was a month-long vegetarian festival so it was meat and egg-free; even better to save my stomach.  For record, my Pad Thai was .80 cents USD or $1.10 AUD.

Since I was in the splurging mood and still had 1-2 hours I re-visited the foot massage place from my August trip.  It is conveniently 500m from the hotel lobby.  Oh my wallet was hurting!  Just kidding, the foot massage was 250 THB which is equivalent to $6.97 USD or $9.88 AUD.

Feeling relaxed, it was time for drinks!

Day 2: Set-up

This morning was leisurely.  We didn’t have access to the lab until 3:30pm to set-up so I started the day with a swim, an epic breakfast at Next2 Café (one of the largest breakfast buffets that I have ever seen and it was delicious) and then a couple of hours exploring Bangkok which included lunch at Hello Kitty House. 

This was only 1/3 of the breakfast buffet

Hello Kitty House Bangkok

This was the Signature DIY Strawberry Tiramisu
(FYI: strawberries and tiramisu are not a good combination.  Yuck)

Rainbow cake

Had to get our Hello Kitty selfie on!
(my selfie game needs improvement)

After set-up, it was dinner time.  I finally made it to Cabbages & Condoms!  It’s been on the Bangkok Travel List for a while but the restaurant is a bit out of the way (read: set back from the street located near some questionable establishments).

They are already getting into the Holiday spirit with this Santa Condom

After dinner, we took public transportation to The New Rot Fai Market Ratchada.  What a fun find!  I always miss out on the Weekend Market so this was a good replacement and even better, it wasn’t overrun with tourist.  This market had such a fun, hip vibe – there were food stalls (next time I won’t eat beforehand), intermixed with vintage cars converted into bars, funky clothing stores and market stalls, lined by antiques.

Too cute to eat!

Some antiques

One of the many very cool barber shops

Day 3: Event #1

This evening we had a faculty dinner at Salathip followed by foot massages.  I got massacred under the table by the mosquitos so I splurged with an extra 50 THB for one with Deep Heat.

Day 4: Event #2

This morning, I bon voyaged our attendees for the morning and checked out a few of the other hotels on the Riverside.  I re-joined the event after lunchtime.

My lunch at Starbucks - you can't see it too well but my sandwich was blue???

In the evening, I went exploring again since it was my last night in Bangkok.    We ventured to Patpong night markets and had dinner at the well-known Mango Tree.

The famous Patpong (I had another photo here but censored!)

Pre-dinner snack of Tom Yum Wings at KFC
(they were delicious after my lips stopped burning)

We got back to join the rest of the group for foot massages (yes, again).

Day 5: Event #3 and Last Day!

After a full day, it was time to head back to Sydney.  I was able to go into the Emirates lounge before the flight – yay!  Unfortunately I was in a middle seat and the young girl next me kicked me the entire flight so I was a wreck when I stepped off the plane.  It took me a few days to recover; I’m getting too old for these overnight flights!

Bangkok, see you in 2016!

   

All About Me

It's not often I get to write a post all about me (and a little bit of Mr H too)!  I feel kind of special.  So this post is about what I've done over the last 2 months, mostly.

Let's start with the most recent and most exciting news, I got LASIK!  Remember that kinda big award I received back in June, well this was my self-selected gift to myself.  Nearly a month later, I am so happy I finally did it… I still catch myself reaching for my glasses in the morning but hey, I’ve been doing that for 23 years!  One more check-up to go and I can finally wear eye make-up again!  Whoop, whoop!  Sephora just opened at my local shopping centre too. 

To celebrate, we went on a day-venture to The Scarborough Hotel for lunch

Run For Your Lives!

I love all things zombies, so when this event came up in my "Hot" events email, I signed us up!  I was a bit concerned since they asked for blood type at registration and after watching a few of the YouTube clips from the ones around the world was a bit worried… especially after eating Massassam curry all week before!

Nothing but clear skies, open fields and zombies

It’s a 5K obstacle course/ zombie run so over the course you have obstacles to complete sprinkled with zombie swarms that try to grab your “lives” (think flag football). 

The zombies were awesome.  They come dressed in costume and professional make-up artist gore them out.  Some of them were too fast!  Check out the video for my photos with a group of them!

Some of the obstacles: Jump the Fence, Blood Pit (sliding into a pit of blood… or strawberry/ raspberry cordial), Holy Trap (tires), The Slide (giant slip n slide), Laser Grid (agility through zombie crossing tape), Limb By Limb (commando crawling while blood is dripping on you!), The Smokehouse (commando crawl through thick smoke – make sure you drop down… there are live wires!) and Finish Fence (one more crawl).  The Blood Pit and The Smokehouse were the most fun.  This was all mixed in with 15 zombie swarms!

I wore a GoPro so here’s the video:

CLICK HERE!

{I realised the slip n slide is missing from it!  Oh well!}

Verdict: Let’s do it again next year… and be zombies too!  Anyone in???

Photography 101

For my birthday this year, I didn’t want anything material so I asked to do a course for a day: photography or cake/ cookie decorating (those beautifully decorated iced cookies are impossible!)  I got a half-day photography class in the city to finally work out how to use my adult camera I got in December.  Yay!  And since then I’ve been taking every opportunity to shoot in manual mode as much as I can.  I hope you can tell the difference from my posts!

Sydney Harbour Bridge (one of my first shots in manual!)

Looking back into the City

Funnily enough, I was the only one who got "Tracking"
{I would make good paparazzi or a Fed (wink, wink)}

Time to work on composition of photos

My final shot
{My amazingly talented photographer friend loved this one!}

Bangkok Part II

The gorgeous hotel grounds

In the midst of Winter, August saw me back in Bangkok.  It was a long road with many challenges (of the explosive nature) to this event so I was more than happy to see it done and dusted!  The event itself went without a hitch - whew!  I was also happy for several reasons:

• I returned to The Peninsula Hotel (my home away from home in Bangkok)
• I spent time with one of my favourite peeps that I only get to see once a year (for this event) 
• I saw a bit more of Bangkok

Day 1: Bangkok, here we come!
I passed the wait time for the flight in the Qantas First Class Lounge with many glasses of Veuve (yes, the lead up was that bad!) with the Marketing Manager so the flight to Bangkok was fabulous, even from economy.  On arrival, the skies opened so the 45 minute transfer was 2 hours!  Luckily it was in The Peninsula van complete with wifi.  During this time, the APAC teams realised I had landed and were calling me non-stop; life as an events planner (but I wouldn't have it any other way).

This was check-in!

Finally at The Peninsula, check-in was to us at the Lobby Bar (how did they know?) and I was shown to my room.  I had gorgeous cut fruit waiting for me in my room, but I only a couple of minutes to freshen up and head down for dinner, while re-aranging all my arrival meetings for the next morning.

We had a team dinner at a near-by restaurant, The Never-ending Summer.  Yes!  It's the infamous spicy tom yum restaurant.  We did not order it this time, but check out these oysters!

Day 2: Work with some Play

Good morning Bangkok!  I had a leisurely breakfast with colleagues then onto meeting #1 and meeting #2.  After I sent the lab set-up crew off, it was catch up time with Miss P.  Poor Miss P spent over 24 hours travelling to Bangkok and at some point lost her luggage!  So we were both in need of some serious R&R.  We were about to plop ourselves down in a pool cabana when we saw The Spa out of the corner of our eyes.  Thai massage, here we come!

An hour later, we weren't sure if we were relaxed but definitely our "working women" (quote from our masseuses) shoulders and necks were feeling… umm, numb from all the walking on, forearm-use and pulling we endured.  Now, it was poolside lunch time.

We had access to our function rooms by 4pm so we dragged ourselves there to set-up for the next day.  Soon enough, we only had 20 minutes to change for meeting #3 and then dinner with our presenters.  Unfortunately the skies opened again, so dinner was not as we had hoped but hey, that was our only issue for the meeting so I can't complain.

Every day there was a little treat in my room (Friday)

Day 3: It's here!

Jetlag = watching the sunrise over Bangkok

It was a busy, busy day with 2 concurrent meetings then converging together at 4:30pm.  When the Welcome Reception started, it was time to relax!
That evening, we took 28 to dinner at Asiatique then after my Wolfpack headed to Sky Bar.  This time, I knew to ignore the tourist trap section and head for section that you see in all the photos. Again, the drinks were ridiculously expensive - $90 glass of champagne! but it's the company that matters.

My Wolfpack

Beyond the Black Ropes : live jazz band, The Sky Bar

Saturday's treat

Day 4: Last day!
Today was the last day of the meeting… and I am calling it a success.  Ha!  Well, it was given the circumstances.  Our final afternoon tea, The Peninsula pulled out all the stops which made for some fun photos (I will spare you).

This is Pee Mee (Bear in Thai)

Then the final session came to a close.  We farewelled most of the customers and some colleagues and packed up, then I could officially, "Ahhh!"  The Peninsula knows me so well and booked Miss P and I in for early foot massages and recommended a nearby restaurant for dinner.  That, is service!

After dinner, it was time to say goodbye to my Summer Camp BFF as she had a very early flight the next morning.  It was so good to see Miss P and spend time together catching up; I hope it's sooner than a year until we see each other again.

I also made sure I had time to watch
Blended from my bath tub (as you do)

Sunday's treat

Day 5: My last day

I always get a bit sad when it's time to check-out of The Peninsula

I had a free morning before I had my last meeting to pour over the 30 page invoice and head to the airport from my flight back to Sydney.  Me, being me, used my jet lag to my advantage and booked a cheap self-guided tour to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market.  The "tour" was really just a group transfer that cost me $20 AUD round-trip.  Yes, I spent more time in the van than I did at the floating market but to be honest, at that price I didn't care.  Next time, I will just bring a book with me!  On arrival, we had the option to view the markets from the ground or hire a paddle boat for $150 THB.

Oh great!  7/11... convenient!

I jumped on a paddle boat to get that on-water prespective.  I was a bit uncomfortable being a solo traveller but my boat "captain" caught on quickly that I wasn't very interested in buying tourist junk.  I was there to take photos (trying to use what I learned in my Photography Class) and eat (risky given I had a 8 hour flight ahead of me) so she kept me in the middle unless I asked to have a look at something and also took me down a quieter alley.  After, I had the time to walk around the markets on foot and I picked up a painting that I didn't see on the boat.  I know I was supposed to bargain, but he was a very talented artist and I was more than happy to pay him the $25 AUD that he deserved.

Coconut ice cream

Grilled squid

Part of the package was a high-speed boat through the village and the coconut farms.  It also cut down on some of the drive time back to Bangkok.  Then it was back in the van again.

Farm life

I had time to fill my belly with good food before my flight (and yes, look over the invoice).

My office for a couple of hours

Finally, home sweet home for my bed and cuddles when both E's got home from school/ pre-school.

See you again soon, Bangkok!