You may be tired of me describing how delicious the breakfasts and the elegance of the dining area at the Krungkasem Srikrung Hotel which we have stayed at several times in the past year. We never get tired of it and this time loved returning to relative luxury after our month of riding along the eastern coast of Thailand. There is something about this hotel that is just right. The rooms are nothing special. In fact they have not changed much since the 1970's but if we get a room on the east side of the seven story building we have a great view. From our balcony we can look down on a klong with the new solar-powered klong taxis and directly on the opposite side of the klong is Hua Lamphong Station. Beyond is the skyline of Bangkok and the best part about that is the sun that rises between the tall buildings to shine directly into our room. We can also assess traffic on many different streets. It's a pretty dazzling view from our balcony, day or night, sunrise or sunset, I never get tired of going out there to see what Bangkok is up to.
We've stayed in this particular hotel in Bangkok so many times, (5), in the last year that it's feeling like home. When on a long bicycle trip where we've been more or less roughing it, I can't adequately describe how comforting it is to have a place like this. When we're riding on trains heading in this direction we know where we will be that night, we know how well we will be received at the front desk, we know our bikes will be watched in the lobby and we know how fun it will be to go down for breakfast in the morning. We also know there will be no English stations on the TV, that the bed will be a little bit hard, the shower will probably have some sort of irritating issue and the lighting in the room will most likely suck. But we also know we will be centrally located in this massive city and we now know the surrounding area. We know where the nearest good food is. We don't need great lighting or a shower without issues. We don't have time to watch TV and when we fall into bed we are so tired that the bed feels great. Comfort and familiarity are nice feelings to have on a long trip and when we head to Bangkok we don't ever think about staying anywhere else but here; Krungkasem Srikrung Hotel.
This is the guard who watched our bikes all night. He actually saluted us every time we left the hotel!
The spot in the lobby of our hotel where are bikes always wait. The photo is a historic one of Hua Lamphong Train Station just across the klong and road from the hotel.
The guava juice was outstanding but we also found that if you put a bit of the ginger tea "OR" the lemongrass tea in a glass of orange juice it made for a tasty treat.
I like that the patriarch of our hotel arrives every morning to basically eat with all of us, in his office. He reminded me of my father too eating toast and reading the newspaper.
Andrea let me enjoy the buffet breakfast at my normal slow-savoring pace but I knew she was antsy to go in search of bike boxes. It was the first thing on our agenda in Bangkok,after breakfast, so as soon as teeth were brushed up on the sixth floor we hit the streets. We walked in the direction of Chinatown but on a different street than was normal for us. It turned out to be the new tire section of town. Every business we passed sold tires and since each business was wide open to the street we were repeatedly struck by the both sickening and a little bit intoxicating smell of new rubber tires. It's an odd smell for sure. Most of the businesses used the street as their garage for mounting new tires on vehicles but a few had lifts squeezed into their establishments. Everything like that is incredibly tight in such a huge city and essentially right downtown.
We passed a street with a film crew all wearing fluorescent vests and a large truck full of cameras and booms. We walked on and soon found CycleSport, the bike shop that Andrea had contacted inquiring about bike boxes. The guy there welcomed us and then went down the street to wherever his warehouse was to find boxes. He was gone a long time and as we waited in his showroom of bicycles his family members came creeping out to more or less watch us to make sure we didn't steal any bike parts or bike tools that were for sale but also to watch for the eldest son to return. Khun mae (his mother) seemed concerned that he was gone so long.
John SolemI don't have time for TV either. Especially HBO. Not that I know anything. But. Maybe you spied a Season 3 "White Lotus" film crew (despite rumors placing them in very upscale Phuket resorts)? Reply to this comment 8 months ago
Andrea BrownTo John SolemHmmmm. That sort of makes sense, because all of the crew members we saw were Westerners. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/asia/thailand/the-white-lotus-season-three-filming-locations-thailand-b2496619.html Reply to this comment 8 months ago
He did finally return wheeling a hand truck with a variety of boxes for us to choose from. He was so nice. We chose the standard bike boxes and I also bought a disc brake rotor truing tool because it was cheap and we were going home with weight not in the equation anymore. Then the same person hailed a tuk-tuk and helped the reluctant tuk-tuk driver attach the big boxes on the back of his rig. He also wrangled a good fare from the tuk-tuk driver to transport us back to our hotel. We, therefore, can't say enough good things about CycleSport. It was also a beautiful showroom but I have no idea what the service operations are like.
Andrea BrownTo Rachael AndersonThe first time I rode a tuk-tuk through Bangkok evening traffic I struggled to recall the Hail Mary, over and over, like doing the rosary, all the way to the train station. Reply to this comment 8 months ago
Back in the hotel with our big boxes taking up most of our room we discussed the possibility of leaving the bike boxes in bike box configuration they were in and packing the bikes in them as is, like most people do. We had never done this before but, after checking, we discovered that China Air as well as Alaska Airlines do not charge anything extra for bikes (or big bike boxes). Normally Andrea would reconfigure the cardboard into rectangular boxes under the checked baggage limit size, but apparently she has never enjoyed doing that project because once we had decided to do this new thing, she was the happiest I had seen her on the entire trip!! She was giddy.
Happy Andrea knowing that her box making skills were not needed this time.
We set to it and packed the bikes in their new (to us) box configurations in about three hours. We were thrilled to find some essential packing materials that was included in each bike box and some large zip ties. Another plus for Cycle Sport. We wanted to get the bike packing project done as quickly as possible so that we could have more time to explore Bangkok with our remaining two days. We didn't seal up the boxes yet though. There are always unforeseen things that emerge and taping up boxes can be done last minute. But we felt we had gotten organized and ready for our flights in record time - a good, more relaxed feeling in order to explore a tiny bit of Bangkok in the next two days.
Andrea BrownTo Mark LellmanThat would have made our journey home even more exciting. Speaking of durian, we were at the Grand Opening (okay, the second day but it was still feverish there) of the Hong Phat Supercenter, a giant Asian grocery, and the durian were flying out of their aromatic cardboard boxes. Reply to this comment 3 months ago
We walked the two blocks to the area where the night before had been jam-packed with food carts on the wide sidewalk and customers making it even more jam-packed. As we were about to turn the corner Andrea made the prescient statement, "What if we turn the corner and there is nothing going on there?" And that's exactly what happened. It was as if we had both had the same dream of eating there the night before. The area was completely wiped clean of carts or people. We couldn't quite believe it, however, we have learned that odd things happen so often in SE Asia that we are pretty enured to them now. Fairly unfazed we went looking for dinner but in Bangkok you don't have to go far to find it. Since we have eaten a lot of noodle soup on this trip it sounds funny to say we celebrated our boxing day by eating at yet another noodle soup restaurant. But it was again different than all the others and unusually delicious. It was all the celebrating we needed and we went back to our hotel rather exhausted but happy.
One of my favorite buildings in Bangkok and it's only a half a block from our hotel. The bottom floor is a beautiful coffee house and the third floor is a very hip bar which we have never been hip enough to enter.
