Bangkok: TOPS- Silom Complex- Furiosa

There were two great things to be had during this stay at Eastin Grand Hotel Sathorn. 

First thing was the breakfast.

Next was the swimming pool. 

I've always thought that breakfast buffets at hotels were standardised, and in a sense, yes, most of them are, and were. 

But rare is it, I tell you, that a hotel's offering can have me taking more of foods that I usually will take, and go for foods that I usually will not. 

It's no surprise, for instance, that I will go for something like stir-fried flat rice noodles and although I have no idea why I took such a tiny portion (maybe because of the full-sized omelet that I'd already ordered from the egg station) it turned out to be more than enough for me, and by the time I finished the entire plate, I was feeling rather full. 

That didn't stop me from taking a bowl of hot soy milk with fried dough fritters. 

That didn't stop me from taking a bowl of Greek yogurt with raisins, pumpkin seeds and honey either. 

Up it was to the pool I went after breakfast where I spent (gladly) almost an hour doing absolutely nothing but enjoying the calm blue (chlorinated) waters and the gorgeous high-level view. 

In the late morning I headed out to EmSquare. 

It wasn't planned- I was actually just walking along South Sathorn Road with no real goal in mind except maybe to find the building where Google Maps said the TOPS supermarket was. 

As it so happened the supermarket was in the basement of Empire Tower and what with it being the lunch hour (on a Friday) in I plunged with the hordes of young adult office workers milling about the shopping mall with their colleagues in groups here and there. 

I found it interesting that lunchtime behaviors amongst office workers tend to be the same almost everywhere. 

It didn't matter what the office dress code was.

It didn't matter what language they were speaking. 

Here were groups of them holding iced drinks of all varieties in their hands. There were those sipping on iced coffee, there were those with colorful fruit drinks, there were those holding cups of what looked like matcha, and there were those with boba. 

At a dessert place people milled around the counter waiting for a seat where they could savor a soft serve ice cream dessert before returning to the office. 

Then at the center atrium a sort of pop up event was going on with booths offering office-ready clothes, office-ready shoes, good-priced snacks, and even little bags. 

I mean, all this could have been happening anywhere- in any business district, in any financial district- in any major city, and here it was, at a shopping mall close to the Bangkok Christian College, close to a church, close to a hospital (St. Louis) and all these other skyscrapers up and down the road. 

Maybe that's why there was a TOPS there, and maybe that's why it was one of the better stocked ones. 

Because people do buy groceries during their lunch hour. 

And some of them will want to stock up on fruits and protein shakes and nuts and cookies and coffee. 

After wandering a bit I headed off to Silom Complex where I did a spot of lunch and some shopping and then decided that since I was in the area and since I had time, better I drop by the Sathorn Nakhon Tower at Chong Nonsi BTS Station. 

It was my plan that this be a more restful day. 

And indeed a restful day it was. 

After a bit of a breather at the Starbucks in Sathorn Nakhorn Tower, back I went to the room for a rest and some writing, and only was it in the late evening that I went out again- this time to Central World's SF Cinema on the 7th floor where I had the most exquisite movie experience ever. 

It wasn't the movie itself that made it special.

(Furiosa: Mad Max would have been the same anywhere)

But it was the company. 

Because blessed is one who has a Hedgehog that remembers you wanting to try the Bed Cinema where you watch your movie on a king-sized bed with pillows and blankets and bedroom slippers, all the while lying back comfortably sprawled out next to each other with unlimited bags of popcorn and soda nestled in between. 

I had a lot of paprika. 

And now I'm wondering why in the glorious high heavens I didn't take more of the sweet. 

Bangkok: Shirodhara, Then Crab

Morning began with a heavily tinted view out the room window. 

It's a little surprising, but Eastin Grand Sathorn does grant one a very lovely view- at least, from this side of the building, where even though there are skyscrapers sticking out here and there in the cityscape, they don't seem so close as if they were right in front of you. 

If the view was good, the breakfast wasn't bad either. 

One of the things I like about Thailand's cuisine is her pad thai or her dish of fried flat noodles (they're not the same) and can I say just how delighted I was to find flat rice noodles in the buffet spread that even though by then I'd already had a tongful of fried glass noodles vermicelli (which I also cannot resist), a fried egg, an omelet with everything in it, watermelon, and siew mais, I took half a plate of those fried flat noodles and I wish I could have more.

But one must control the carbs as best as they can, never mind if they've also taken a spoonful of pasta salad onto their plate whilst not knowing why.

Afterwards we headed over to this spa called Healthland right near the St. Louis BTS- we walked there- and if I'm not wrong it was in fact located right next to the Embassy of The Republic of the Union of Myanmar so enroute there were people waiting outside the building whilst at the side road there was a van offering photocopy services and printing services and all the necessities one must have when at an Embassy. 

Intrigued as I was at the services working out from a van, I didn't stay to peek. 

Instead into Healthland I went and did a Mind Body Spirit treatment that included an oil massage and the Ayurvedic head massage known as the Shirodhara. 

One thing about oil massages is that they really do relax you.

If they don't relax you then they at least loosen as many of your muscles as possible and to the very least you come out feeling like your skin has been stretched. 

Healthland had a shower room. 

It had also shampoo and conditioner.

Which, I tell you, was a blessing, because one thing I'm not very good with is oil (never mind how fragrant) in my hair, and right away we were heading out for lunch to this place in Ekkamai where I heard was one of the best places in the city for very delish- and very affordable- crab dishes.

Know what? 

The reviews weren't wrong.

Nhong Rim Klong- on 51 Ekkamai 23 Alley in Khlong Tan Nuea- might look nondescript in terms of decor both outside and inside, but their Michelin Bib Gourmand (standard) of dishes are worth the car ride there, and (in our case) because they close at 3pm, even the bit of rush you might have to take if you were, like us, almost late to reach there. 

Good thing therefore that we had plenty of time for the meal we wanted to have. 

The first dish we ordered was a Crab Omelet, and may I just say that the ratio of soft, chunky crab to fluffy, well-fried egg had us completely blown. I had thought there'd be like a 50:50 ratio of crab and egg, but this was like 70:30 or even 80:20. That's just how much crab inside this egg there was.  

We weren't used to it. 

Where we come from, places that serve such a humongous portion of crabmeat in their dishes are near impossible, if not impossible, to find. 

And as if that big roll of a crab omelette wasn't enough, we'd also ordered the Soft Cooked Crab in Omelet which came served in what looked like a sea of sauce and bits of scrambled egg floating about inside. 

I'd like to say that we finished up both dishes easily but when we realized we couldn't finish the Crab Omelet we ate up all the crabmeat, leaving (sadly) the egg behind.

Perhaps next time when we come we'll try the Fried Rice with Crab, or the Stir-fried Rice Noodles with Crab. 

They sounded really delish and I think it would be a rare treat to have this much of a crabmeat inside a carb dish of rice or noodles. 

Lunch finished we headed to Central World to get the BTS Card but along the way, the Grab car that we were in had an overheated engine and so we'd no choice but to stop and walked the remaining distance, going past what I believe might have been called the Middle Eastern stretch, then another shorter stretch, then the entire length of Central Embassy, then a final stretch before going through the maze of stores and shops at Central World before finding the Klook corner right at one end of this gargantuan shopping mall.  

After that we decided to head back to the room, so up it was on the BTS, taking the train from Chit Lom Station to Siam Station, then to Surasak Station on the Silom Line. 

You might have thought we skipped dinner but no, we didn't. 

We decided to Grab it in, and so for our late evening meal there was a bit of steak (the picture didn't come out nice), there was a box of bacon-wrapped asparagus, a sweet potato kind of dish (I don't have a picture), and for dessert, a lovely chocolate hazelnut sort of cake courtesy from the hotel. 

Bangkok: Eastin and the Blue Elephant

An uneventful Scoot flight it was that I had this morning, and can I say that it was genuinely something I was thankful for.

I've had my fair share of roll-eye moments and near-nervous breakdowns when it comes to taking flights, and having an hour's delay or a try-too-hard passenger sitting next to me isn't something I want to tahan very much anymore. 

Call me old, unadventurous, whatever.

I'm glad to have landed at Don Mueang International Airport, and I'm gladder still to have landed on time. 

From the airport we took a Grab to Eastin Grand Sathorn Hotel over on Sathorn Road. 

It's a business-traveler accommodation type, this place.

With her small intimate driveway, her high ceilinged lobby, her efficiency at check-in and concierge, and her spacious comfortable seats over at the lounge, she's very welcoming for all kinds of business travelers, whether you be the sole representative here for meetings at offices along Nakhon Sathorn Road, whether you've got your meetings at offices anywhere along the BTS line, or whether you're a MICE attendee at a convention center close by. 

One thing I soon began to appreciate about this hotel was its proximity to the BTS Surasak Station. 

Considering how this be a city where a 100m walk VS a 300m walk to the nearest BTS can make a lot of difference, Surasak BTS was literally right outside- on the doorstep of the hotel- and I didn't even need to go to the ground floor out onto the road to get to the station. A specially constructed bridge from the 3rd floor led me straight to the station's gantry floor. 

After checking in, we settled down, looked out the view of the window, then headed out to try find a Western Union and get an errand done. 

At first we went to the Thai-Chinese Chamber of Commerce Tower which was right next door. 

But somehow after going in circles at front and back of the building without succeeding to find the counter- the staff at the concierge weren't able to help us either- we decided we'd go to CENTRAL department store at Silom Complex to get the errand done instead.

Fortunately for us it wasn't too far away from where we were- the Grab came quite quickly whilst we waited opposite the road (we were originally intending to walk)- and we got to Silom Complex on time before the counter closed. 

Dinner this evening was at the mall in this place called Baan Ying where one of us had a plate of omelet rice and grilled beef- let's just say that the omelet was huge and fluffy and the grilled beef was tender and soft- and I had one of the best white kuay teows I've ever eaten. 

It might seem a simple plate of what is fried flat rice noodles with lettuce and lettuce and bits of egg, but the dryness of it, the way it is fried, and the way the noodles somehow manage to stick together- they make this plate such a joy and I must remind myself to have it again when I'm back there again next time.