This morning as Andrew slept in, I spent some time watching the different boat traffic on the Chao Phraya River. There sure is a lot of different traffic that goes up and down with different types of cargo!
After that, it was time to get some silk – I cannot leave Thailand without more silk! A store had been recommended to me and was also recommended quite a bit on the internet called Queen Silk – so we decided to go check it out! Well, me more than Andrew but he came along for the ride of course! It was about 3pm when we set out and the taxi driver knew exactly where we were going! I am still surprised how cheap the taxis are in Bangkok. The taxi cost is 300 baht which is about $12 Cdn for a 40 minute ride in medium (Bangkok standards – heavy Vancouver standards) to the small mall where the store was. I noticed that it was next to a Hyatt Hotel – note for future if we return – that Hyatt Hotel is a dangerous location for me! So into the mall we went and there was the store – a nice medium sized silk store and wow – the prices WERE reasonable! I could get high end 100% Thai Silk for 1500 baht per metre (which is about $37.50 Cdn). Silk like this either cannot be found in Vancouver or I have seen it in Seattle for about $75 Usd a yard. So I was getting a pretty good deal! I did buy some but it all fit into my shopping bag so I was pleased – that was my measurement of how much room was left in the suitcase! Andrew of course sat there and let me shop without much interference. He probably had fun listening to the shop lady and I chat in broken English and me so excited with all the colours (read purple)!
Then we went to the Hyatt to get a taxi back to the Sheraton. Oh boy what an unpleasant taxi ride. As Bangkok does have one way streets and some long busy roads where you can only U turn in certain areas I do understand that driving might be challenging at times but how a 40 minute ride on surface streets to get to the silk store could end up being almost 90 minutes getting home and involve a highway was beyond me. It was noisy and at times frustrating and with no working seatbelts in the cab, made me a bit anxious. When we arrived at the Royal Orchid Sheraton, they had removed the cut elephant and table from the lobby and were putting up a HUGE Christmas tree!
We decided to go up to the lounge to unwind for drinks – with me going up there immediately for some juice as my sugar was low, and Andrew following for his beer at 5pm (when they start service alcohol). So to cheer Andrew up an unusually stressed Andrew from the shopping/taxi adventure, I cancelled my GF dinner for the buffet and decided to spend our last dinner in Bangkok at the very well recommended Thai Restaurant in the hotel. I asked the lounge concierge to arrange for us to have dinner at 7pm. So we had our drinks in the lounge and I told Andrew (before he hit the buffet at 6pm) that we were going out for dinner! He was surprised and as we both needed to change, we went downstairs to our room to do that and then down to the restaurant on the 1st floor for our 7pm reservation – which really was not needed for a Monday night but you never know!
At first, they sat us in the regular restaurant – however it was not that comfortable as there was not a back on the seat (they were tables sunk into the ground) for me and there was a loud party in there. So we moved outside instead to eat in the “fresh” Bangkok river air! It really was a nice place to eat as a nice breeze blew by. We had Chicken Messman Curry, Shrimp Fried Rice and of course Pad Thai! The food was SO delicious! We were just finishing dinner and I was about to take a picture of the river when BANG! AGAIN fireworks started! This was the closest we had been to the now 4 fireworks displays we had seen in the last 9 days! These ones were simply beautiful! A great end to our night at the restaurant and our time in Bangkok!
