Bangkok Days 4-5: Massages & Malls

Bangkok is the best. Do yourself a favor and visit! Travel + Leisure Magazine named Bangkok the "World's Best City" for three consecutive years (2010-2013) and it seems obvious why. It's metro area is home to about 14 million (roughly twice the population of NYC). There are a MILLION THINGS TO DO. We want to do them all!

On our first full day in Bangkok we obviously decided to get massages. There are a ton places to get massages in Thailand and the prices range from around $6-$40 an hour depending on what kind of massage and what kind of place. We already had a favorite place picked out called Health Land (http://www.healthlandspa.com/home.html)- which is extremely chic! It is only a few blocks away from where we're staying and is considered a "Hi-So" area (Hi-So meaning High Society. So fancy!) We each got an hour long therapeutic massage for 350BHT ($11USD). Ah yes, we could do this every day and not be homeless. 

Couples Massage Room

Before our massages (and then after, too), we treated ourselves to ice cold coconuts. Ian is a creature of habit and made friends with a coconut vendor named Porn (pronounced "pong") by frequenting his stand daily back in 2011. We went to see if Porn was still at his regular spot. While passing a bunch of other coconut vendors on the way, I was kind of like... let's just get a coconut. Not only was Porn in the same spot Ian left him, but he lit up like a firecracker when he saw Ian's face! It was adorable to see how happy these two grown men (who don't share a common language) were to see each other. It's official, Ian is internationally adored.

The rest of Day 4 and most of Day 5 was spent at mega malls. I have lived in San Diego, NYC and Santa Barbara. I've been to the Galleria and I've seen the Mall of America. Bangkok makes US malls look like... (insert poop emoji)

In the course of two days we visited five or six or a hundred thousand malls. This batch of malls were full of high-end brands, like the highest of the endest of brands. AND THE FOOD! MY GOD, THE FOOD! Every mall had at least one floor dedicated to making the world a fatter place. I cried tears of joy.

Terminal 21 is a mall that has an airport-like theme. Every level represents a country in the world. It's so posh, even the toilets are fancy.

 Ian at Terminal 21 on Day 4 ~ Super Swank Toilet

Gourmet Market (Think Westside Market) at Terminal 21

Siam Paragon was built a few years ago for a measly $450 Million USD, complete with movie theaters and the biggest aquarium in SE Asia. This is probably my favorite mall in the world. The food court = life changing. http://www.siamparagon.co.th/index.php

 

Double Chocolate Dipped Strawberries & Traditional Crispy Thai Sweet Crepe

 

 Me outside of Siam Paragon- there are always grand seasonal displays in the courtyard

Me on Day 5 at Gaysorn Mall~ & some other epic mall (most are spread out, this one was tall and reminiscent of the mall downtown in San Francisco)

In a courtyard outside of Central World Mall, there was a happening spot for locals to get a meal. It seemed like everyone there was on their lunch break. Everything was fresh, cheap and delicious. 

 

Coconuts, Chicken and Quail Eggs (10 for less than $1USD)

For about 60 cents you could even shoot BB guns at a target, and this lady might have pointed it at me if I took another picture of her:

We ended Day 5 at a restaurant called Limoncello. It's a fancy Italian restaurant on Soi 11, and the first place I ever had carbonara (so it has a special place in my heart). The restaurant is beautiful. The pizzas are thin-crust and cook in seconds in the wood-fired oven. They slice the aged parma right in front of you (thought of you, Aleye!). It was full of white foreigners excluding staff and the hookers that came with their employers.

Ian thoroughly enjoying the carbonara~ Both me and the call-girl behind Ian enjoy dining with our sugar daddies