My return voyage to Thailand took place after a long one year absence—way wayy too long! Between work and some health problems (inner ear), I kept delaying my trips until work slowed down slightly and I had that feeling that the LoS ticker is up. Simply put, I’ve grown accustomed to going to SEA in October and when my body clock strikes, nothing is going to get in my way.
Travel/Rooms
I booked an award ticket on UAL going LAX->MNL on Asiana, MNL – BKK on Thai Air, and BKK -> LAX on Singapore Air. All tickets were business class and fit into my schedule nicely and all for 90k points--not bad t’all. Between CC promos and the miles I earn with IDINE, I racked up the 90k points will little fuss.
As I boarded the plane in MNL for BKK, my plan was to finish my new book (a Clancy novel), but I found the excitement of being back in LoS a little too distracting to do much reading. We landed on time a couple hours after takeoff and it was a great feeling.
After landing, I made the usual rounds—breezing thru customs, hitting the ATM just before leaving the airport, and getting a taxi. The exchange rate was slightly over 40B/USD after all was said and done. This trip I booked my BKK room at the Westin using points (4k weekday, 3k weekend) and was looking forward to staying somewhere else besides the JW near Nana. The cab ride was uneventful and had me at the Westin in no time. If I was paying cash (4-6k baht), I would not stay here as there are much cheaper and decent rooms about, but the room was good (slightly below the JW) and the views were also quite nice.
Westin Views
The downside to the hotel was there was some noisy construction going on during mid mornings (when I’m in a dreamy state), and everything is way overpriced (no surprise). For example, get a shirt washed: 200 baht, internet in the business center 20b/minute, shuttle to Pattaya 4500b, and so on. It’s not a big deal for a seasoned traveler, but for a first timer… They would probably get soaked.
In Pattaya, I booked @ the Flipper House as part of a concerted effort to spend less time on/around walking street and more time exploring Soi 2-8.
In both Pattaya and BKK, there were several fellow Hombres that I hooked up with over the course of a couple weeks (primarily WalkingDude, Khun_Mor, MongerX). All were great guys to hang with and real characters. One interesting thing about bar hopping with fellow hombres is that a group can all stroll into the same bar and have completely different takes on the bar- some think it’s not worth a beer, some think it’s just perfect. It really makes one wonder about the validity of bar/go go reviews as they are highly opinionated… As in the past, I’ll preface by stating the criteria I like in a gogo: Decent sized w/ at least 6 or so quality spinners. Not too pushy with the drinks, not too smoky, decent seating, and music at a level that one may talk/hear without screaming.