Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 1 - Arize Hotel

Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 1 | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 2 - Hua Hin | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 3 - MBK Plaza | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 3 - Chocolate Ville | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 3 - Asiatique | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 4 - Jatujak Weekend Market | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 5 - Platinum Fashion Mall | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 5 - Somboon Restaurant

Bangkok trip again after 2 years. Lots of things change but can still feel the familiar Bangkok for me.
I start to notice the difference once I reach Suvarnabhumi Airport. The airport seems to have added new building/terminal. This time I am not alone on my flight. Thus I share the taxi with my friend to reach the Bangkok city.

For this trip, it is a very weird one. Total we have 8 person that know each other at Bangkok but we stay in 4 different hotel/area. Most of the time we check with each other and meet up near the BTS station nearest to our destination. Because of different budget for hotel and different interest of activity there. Like one of the friend choose to stay near Chong Nonsi so that he can go to clubbing at night. While I prefer stay to somewhere near nice massage. So that I can go for a massage everyday.  Another girl is working at Bangkok but she take leave a few days to join us. This is only possible for us as we all are familiar with Bangkok.

(Note : Air Asia passenger will arrive at another different airport call Don Muang. For that airport, you only have the choice of using Taxi to reach Bangkok city.)

For the past 2 years, Bangkok has many new hotel built. And many offer interesting boutique hotel experience.

Like the Hotel I choose, Arize Hotel Sukhumvit is a brand new hotel that start operate in 2013. The hotel is inside a smaller road Sukhumvit Soi 26 but is still near the BTS Phrom Phong station. This road is the same road that lead to Double Tree Hilton.

This area have a lot of nice Japanese Restaurant and it is quite cheap. A bowl of ramen with green tea will cost less than 200 baht. 

  
The room feel warm and cozy thanks to the extra wood panel use for the furniture and decoration. There is a nice couch that looks out to the outside scenery. Although the hotel is not that tall to offer great view, it is a nice touch. And most important is the room is very cheap. I book this room thru Agoda at RM155 per night. Great deal as normally it will cost RM250 a night.

For the first night, me and my friend plan to have dinner at a restaurant call Alpaca View. It is a Alpaca theme restaurant. But the traffic is very bad. We stuck in the taxi for almost 30 minutes without seeing the car move more than 50 metres. Thus we decide to give up and go for a meal at other place.

In the end, we go find another friend which stay near Chong Nonsi and have our meal near that area. It is a small stall that feel like 大排挡. So I won't cover it in this blog. I doubt  anyone can find it without some local thai help.

This is the BTS reload card. You need to pay 100 Baht as the deposit and another 100 baht for some value in the card. After that, you can skip the queue to buy the BTS train ticket. Plan your trip and if you feel need a lot of train ride, than go get this. Save you a lot of hassle. Currently there is a bit of discount enjoy by the card owner. For some station that need 33 baht, or 28 baht. The figure will be rounded to lower price. Like 33 baht, it will be 30 baht only. The 28 baht will be 25 baht only.  

The card can be purchase at any BTS station. For more info on the card, you can visit their card centre at BTS Siam station. Also look out for some of the stall, they might offer special promo if you show this card or use this card to make purchase. I get free upgrade for my drink when I show this card to the Chatime shop.

Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 1 | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 2 - Hua Hin | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 3 - MBK Plaza | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 3 - Chocolate Ville | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 3 - Asiatique | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 4 - Jatujak Weekend Market | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 5 - Platinum Fashion Mall | Bangkok 2nd Trip - Day 5 - Somboon Restaurant