Bangkok, 2025

All good things must come to an end and so, Saturday morning, we packed our bags and headed to Bangkok, where we’ll spend a couple of days before the long ride home.
Here’s my resume of the time we spent in Thailand’s capital city:

Brenda found us a nice little hotel in the Asok area of Bangkok, which turned out to be a great location for the things we wanted to do and see here. Brenda was on a quest to replace her very aged running shoes. On our last visit, we found the distributor for Altra shoes and each bought a pair at great prices. Unfortunately, the main office was closed on the weekend, but there were stores in both Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Sadly, neither of the branches had the exact shoe Brenda wanted, but we both came away with new pairs nonetheless. While pursuing her hunt for the Lone Peaks Altras, she stumbled across a very funky pair of Keen sandals at a 50% discount that called out to her, and found their way into her luggage. A fair trade off, I suppose.

Traffic in Chiang Mai was crazy, but in Bangkok, it is completely insane. Even having learned to drive in Montreal, I’d be terrified if I had to get behind the wheel here.

We dined at a couple of really good vegetarian Thai restaurants, but the standout was hands down Kaek Kao Kua, a small family run business operating out of the owner’s home. Here we had a tasting menu that included half-sized portions of four dishes that we selected, two bowls of coconut milk ice cream, and a couple of sodas for about $22.00 CAD. The food was exquisite, the service impeccable, and the owner utterly charming. Definitely a re-visit the next time we’re in town.

Other than walk around, eat, and shop, we didn’t really do much except to visit the Nai Lert Park Heritage home that was hosting a special art fair this weekend. It was recommended as one of the top ten things to do in Bangkok on Sunday, but in the end, it was a bit of a dud. Upon entering, there was a very impressive exhibit of locally grown tulips that surprised us both, since we don’t usually expect to see them until the late spring. Other than that, there were a lot of artisanal crafts being sold at very lofty prices, so, we didn’t stick around too long.

Speaking of lofty prices, there are a number of multi-storey mega-malls in Bangkok, three within a fifteen-minute walk of our hotel. Each one of them is home to every luxury brand on the planet: Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Bulgari, Rolex, Zegna, Patek-Philippe, Cartier, Gucci, Prada, Dior, Balenciaga, and on, and on. There clearly has to be a lot of money here, but strangely, during our wanderings, we didn’t see any luxury vehicles, other than the odd Porsche. I have to wonder, however, what kind of mark-up these places must take in order to have so many shops operating in one city.

In our travels, we came across several bizarrely decorated Christmas trees, but none of them topped the 30 foot tall monstrosity that was decorated with everything from durian to crab to popsicles and bagels. Just plain weird. The other thing that surprised us, and stoked our Canadian pride, was the Tim Horton’s we saw on one of Bangkok’s main drags.

One of the tech world’s concerns is the rapid advancement of AI, which is rapidly approaching the singularity stage. The fear that machines will replace humans in all facets of life is a huge issue, and we already saw an example in the Bangkok airport. People pushing brooms and mopping the floors have been replaced by three-foot-tall robots that look a little like R2D2 with a human face. They were all over the airport, keeping things clean and tidy.

Happily, the temperature in Bangkok was a reasonable 30 degrees, with not too much humidity, so walking around wasn’t too uncomfortable. But even with the relatively cooler temperatures, both days ended with us feeling quite exhausted by the noise, the chaos, the pollution, and the crowds, pretty much everything you’d expect from a city of this size.

Still, I kinda love that vibe in very small doses, and was glad we had an extra day to take it all in. I was also glad to say goodbye and make my way home this morning.Læs mere