Our flight this time was by Thai Lion Air, on the 1210 flight.
As usual it was a smooth flight- they're one of those airlines that will go through a wee bit of turbulence but you'll land soft, smooth, on time- and so today I landed at Don Mueang reaching at 1340.
What I particularly like about this flight is the timing.
Especially since I'm not the early bird type who is alert and awake at 5am.
Nor am I the night owl (anymore) who can take an 11pm kind of time.
Leaving at 1210 means that I have plenty of morning time to get to the airport- I can even take the train or the bus if I wish to. Reaching Bangkok 1340 local time means I'm close to hotels' usual check in time of 3pm by the time I get there.
No need to store the bags and go about hunting for food or other stuff.
Smooth, seamless, and comfortable.
Then again there're those times when you're in the heart of the city right in the middle of the afternoon, and of course, there you'll be, stuck in traffic with the cars and the buses and the motorbikes and the tuk-tuks all waiting for the seemingly never-ending countdown of the traffic light.
That's what happened to us this time.
Traffic was smooth over the expressway until we got to somewhere in the center of the city.
No harm done though, we got to our hotel- the Holiday Inn Bangkok Pathumwan.
Which, as I soon discovered, was literally right in front of the Chidlom BTS, next to Gaysorn, and a couple minutes' walk away from Big C and the other Gaysorn on the opposite side of the road.
Coming here at this hour, however, also meant that we found ourselves in between meal times, too late for lunch, too early for dinner.
So we did what we could do, and headed to the Club Lounge when the hour hit.
Of course that was probably around 5pm or so, and by that time we'd settled into the room with luggage and all.
The room here was considerably spacious, and I liked in particular the armchair that looked like it had curled itself up snugly against the wall. On the surface it looked like it was the hard-cushioned kind, and no doubt, it was, but it was designed in such a way that let you settle quite comfortably in with book, snack, drink, phone and all.
I'm not sure if the place was newly renovated- no surprise it might have been.
Holiday Inn Bangkok Pathumwan is, in a way, one of those properties that looks like it's been around for a bit of time.
You know- because the lobby's wide, enough for a huge counter, a huge sofa armchair space, a working space on the other side for the guests, and a large shelf with decorative books on it.
Not just that, there's a whole length of corridor that at one time might have housed gift shops which probably today people may not urgently need.
Then of course, there's the view from the room.
Not saying that it demonstrates a vibe, but that upon looking out, getting the scenery of both old and new, developed and newly developed, the vibe will just somehow come to you.
At the lounge we helped ourselves to their hors d' oeuvres.
At first I thought we were the only ones.
As it turned out, it didn't take long before other guests began arriving (some armed with shopping bags), took their tables, and began helping themselves with the food.
One of the more interesting dishes I had this evening was the seafood gratin.
I had thought it would be thick and creamy (as sometimes the way Thais do) but it wasn't creamy to the level where you got jerlat just by eating one gratin or two. They came in such adorable looking little pastry puffs too.
Besides the gratin which I think I took two, or three, there was what the Singaporean me calls satay.
Except that in Thailand you have it with Massaman curry rather than peanut gravy, and can I say that it is really good.
More solid a feel too.
On my plate too there were deep (well) fried shrimp crackers, a couple slices of very-generous guacamole on toast, then I took a spoonful of hummus, some Greek yogurt (always very hard to resist) and fruits.
The only thing about having hors d' oeuvres at such an early hour is that you get kind of hungry in the later part of the evening afterwards so we got ourselves across to Central World to where their food court was and ordered a fish maw soup.
No surprise that the soup was thick and brothy with enough fish maw pieces in it to make one feel satisfied.
And then because TOPS was still open, in we hopped (as the last few remaining customers) and got small packets of unsweetened pistachio milk.
We ended the night with a comfortable two-hour long foot massage at Panda where I, again, like the previous time, fell asleep.