Mark with our old friend Augie
And, we’re back in Bangkok. Probably not much to say about Bangkok that we haven’t said on any of our several other passes through the city. It’s hot here. Really hot. I’m typically a morning runner, but here I have to get up even earlier than usual; by 6:00 AM it’s in the mid-80s and the park near our hotel where I run is crowded with people getting their exercise. Because if you’re not done exercising by 8:00 or so, you’re not going to. At noon the temperature is in the mid-90s and it keeps going up from there.
So we don’t do a lot. The highlight of this stay in Bangkok was Sunday brunch with old and new friends. Augie was an underclassman at Harvard when we were there, dating a friend of ours. We’ve (barely) stayed in touch with him, but remembered that he was stationed here with the State Department. So through the miracle of Facebook we connected and made plans for brunch with him and his partner Andy and their friends Jane & Toni. Such a delightful time and such interesting people. And … we love this … Augie and Andy are just finishing up their three-year tour in Bangkok, heading in the late summer to their next duty post in Jerusalem. Now, we were already planning on spending the late summer in the eastern Mediterranean, so I think we may get to visit them again soon.
Andy, Jane, Augie, Mark, and Toni at brunch, an all-you-can-eat-AND-drink extravaganza. In case you’re wondering, Andy is not Anderson Cooper, though the resemblance is striking.
The other good thing about brunch was that they could give us some inside scoop on where to eat here. Bangkok is a little strange, insofar as it’s really hard for outsiders, at least, to find good restaurants. In most cities we know, there are cool, hip areas with lots of good restaurants in a fairly contained area; there can be great restaurants anywhere, of course, but we can nearly always find a restaurant “district” where we can go window shopping until we find something we like.
Not in Bangkok, though, so getting some suggestions from people who’ve lived here a few years was a big deal. We ended up at one of their recommendations last night and had incredible food and great drinks. I don’t remember what my favorite drink was called, but it consisted of rye whiskey, absinthe, and bitters. Wow!
Mark drinking a gin-abisinthe concoction at a fabulous little restaurant our friends recommended. Well done!
And that’s it. Some pool time, a little shopping to make sure we have the stuff we need for Bhutan, and doing whatever we can to stay out of the midday heat. Oh, and celebrating Visakha Bucha day, a national holiday. I’m not sure exactly what we’re celebrating but it’s a major Buddhist holiday and by national law no alcohol can be sold in bars or restaurants.
What is with these people??
Our escape from the heat, a beautiful little infinity pool on the 19th floor of the Muse