In 2025 me and my high school friends were in our 40 years of existence on earth, and we planned for a trip together to Bangkok. I was very keen to join, but not without challenges. First, most of us booked for 3 night stay in Bangkok. I wished I could join the full experience, but I had to teach onsite class in Bandung on the first day. Then, wife of one of our friend was detected pregnant, so he had to stay home. Lastly, another friend had plumbing issues at home and a mother to be taken care of. That left only 6 of us who joined the trip.
Luckily the material for the class on that day was not so much, so I could end the class early and ran to the train station. I took a Whoosh high speed train trip to Halim, while monitoring the traffic in Jakarta. And, my work. I was still disappointed that I could not take a leave that day and had to work while traveling, replying to WhatsApp messages and e-mails.
About the traffic, taking a shuttle bus from Halim to airport was easier, but with the risk of stuck in traffic. I ended up taking the city trains with 2 transits, just like fellow Jakartans. I stayed overnight at a budget hotel near the airport, to take a short rest before taking the flight to Bangkok next morning. This hotel had an interesting room, where the wash basin was installed outside the bathroom, probably due to space limitation.
I intended to wake up at 3 AM and take the free shuttle to airport at 4 AM, but the reception suggested me to be ready at the airport 3 hours before take off, so I moved the plan earlier by an hour. The hotel provided bread and coffee for breakfast, enough to prevent masuk angin (common cold), before the actual breakfast that I have pre-ordered for inflight meal. At the airport, check-in was much smoother than I (and the reception) thought. So there I waited 2,5 hours before boarding, alternating between laying on the couch, watching downloaded movie and charging my phone.
The plane took off on time. On board the flight, I had this chicken lasagna with spinach. It looked significantly uglier than the one shown in the menu book, but hey, it’s a healthy meal. It has to be ugly. In this meal, they also gave not 1, not 2, but 3 paper napkins! I did not really need it but keep them in my pocket in case I needed it later.
To my surprise, they also sold beers on board. I know premium airlines serve beers or wine, but before this flight, I’ve never seen a budget airline sells alcoholic beverages before (probably to prevent misbehavior from the passengers). The flight attendant told me that the beer they have is not chilled, and she asked me if I want a cup of ice instead. I said yes, and she served me both. Here I also learned that if you pour the beer into the cup inflight, it foams easily (in my case, it overflowed and spilled onto the table), probably because of the air pressure. Fortunately, I have the, you guessed it, 3 paper napkins that I kept!
The plane landed on time as well. The Thailand immigration had this interesting LCD screen, where after the officer scan your password, it greets you and give some instructions (like putting your fingers on the scanner) in localized language (Bahasa Indonesia in my case). After immigration was cleared, I ran to the train station. I ran because most of the walkway to the station was air-conditioned and I wanted to make the most of my time in Bangkok, in the city. What I noticed is that in many places, they have this kind of altar, showing and respecting the Thailand queen.
I took the Red Line train to city, continued with car ride with a ride-hailing service to ICONSIAM, a large shopping mall inside the city, next to a river. There I met my friends, who have been in Bangkok from the day before. We had lunch at SOOKSIAM (large) food court and took a group photo, with pictures of our friends who could not come. I ordered Pad Thai for lunch. It was supposed to be a just regular meal, but it tasted wonderful, probably because I finally had the meal in its home country. J bought roasted pork for sharing.
We also went to a supermarket inside ICONSIAM, where I bought some snacks to bring home to Indonesia. Local supermarkets have always been my choice when buying stuffs overseas to bring home. Items sold at souvenir shops are usually purchasable online or even within my hometown, while local biscuits, instant coffee, etc, can only be found in local shops abroad. We then split up. Some of us were looking for running shoes, while others were looking for suitcases. I just walked around the mall, then joined E for a foot massage, across the street. While crossing the street, I noticed a large rainbow LGBTQ+ symbol printed along the crossing bridge. What is considered controversial in many countries, here in Bangkok they seem to live in peace. I also noticed some café selling cannabis, as it is (at the time of this post writing) legal here.
We then gathered around in the shopping mall, and took a ride back to hotel. I finally could drop my suitcase, that I have been carrying from the airport. We then took a group photo, as a memory that we have lived up to 40. We also talked about life, and I was happy to hear that my friends, who have been in Bangkok from the previous day, brought their laptops and worked as well on the first day. So I guess, it’s a common problem for us, breadwinners in our 40’s. The hotel also somehow decorated our room with birthday decoration and gave us cakes.
As E is a Marriott hotel chain member, we were entitled to have a few beers and snacks for free at the rooftop bar. We enjoyed the sunset together and took another group photo. The weather was terrific, less hot and humid compared to Singapore, and the air was less polluted than Jakarta and Bandung.
At night, we had dinner at Somboon Seafood. It was a Chinese food restaurant with local touch. One of their specialties was the Fried Curry Crab Meat, which was fabolous. In most of the crab menu here in Bangkok have the shells already removed, making it very easy to consume.
After dinner, we walked through the Patpong Night Market, as well as the red light district. Along the way, many adult bars were offering us their services, from normal ladies to gay bars. I noticed that in the gay bars, the gigolos were dressed to look like Korean guys.
We also had a drink in bar with sexy ladies inside.
Around 9.00 PM, We stepped into one of the bar. This bar exhibits Muay Thai fights starting from 10.30 PM regularly, but before that, it showed girls in bikini dancing around poles. A sign was posted on the wall to remind that guests are not allowed to touch the girls. An auntie (older lady) with normal clothes accompanied us to our seat and sat with us. A few moments later, one of the bikini girl approached us and tried to start small talk with me. Not until 5 minutes later she ran out of questions and asked me straight: “Would you like to buy me a drink?”. I said sorry no, and she just left us. I felt a bit awkward there, so I avoided eye contact with any specific girl there, jumping from one girl to another. I also felt that when I started looking into their eyes, they tried to look at me as well and start a nonverbal conversation. I only knew later that it’s common for them to try to lure the guests into buying them drinks, which in turn giving them commission. That also explains why the ladies who danced in front of us was not very excited, because we didn’t really care about making conversations with them. Around 9.45, we left the bar and went back to the hotel.
Back in the hotel, I was too tired that night and I slept not long after shower.
In the morning, we had light breakfast in the hotel, then took another ride to Big C Supercenter. Inside there was a large department store, comparable to Giant or Carrefour chain in other parts of Southeast Asia. I brought some another snacks to bring home. What’s interesting was that there’s a pedestrian bridge that connect that building, Central World and Platinum Fashion Mall. We walked up to Platinum.
I took a short tour in Platinum, then walked back with Jerry to Big C, to sit in ChaTraMue Brand cafe. In Indonesia, you may have seen ChaTraMue from their Thai Tea leaves product. In this café, they sell various derivatives of their tea. I tried the Thai tea ice cream, which tasted really nice.
After everyone was happy shopping, we had our lunch at Thong Smith, inside Central World. They served delicious Thai boat noodles. The food was delicious, but it was served in a normal bowl, instead of boat-shaped bowl like what we saw the day before at SOOKSIAM. However, after a bit of googling, it turned out that historically the word “boat” refers to the watercraft that traversed Bangkok’s canals and sold the noodle, not the bowl.
The pedestrian bridge turned out to be connecting more than just those three buildings. It also spans to other destinations as well. We walked to Siam Paragon, and had Omelette Crab from Here-Hai, a Michelin star certified food chain, as well as Pad Thai from Thipsamai, another award winning food chain. Some of my friend said that the Pad Thai was the best so far, but I favored the Pad Thai I had in SOOKSIAM more, probably because it was my first local food in Bangkok.
After that, some of us took another ride at the hotel while the rest walked around. In hotel, we took a break, and did our own businesses. J went for a Saturday mass, some others played billiard and some went for another Thai massage. I used the hotel fitness center for a treadmill run. The fitness center was small but the equipments were relatively well maintained.
In the evening, we walked to Northeast restaurant for dinner, as suggested by the billiard lady. It didn’t disappoint us. The food was nice, and it was roughly half price of the Somboon. My friends noticed that half of the customers were South Koreans. Even as if you look below in the photo, the TV were showing Korean pop music videos.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, took another break, then walked again to Vertigo rooftop bar. This was my first time dining on a high-rise building rooftop bar and the view was stunning. We were afraid at first because the reservation e-mail said that they reserve the right to put a minimum charge of ~2.000 THB (1 million IDR) per person. Fortunately that didn’t happen, probably because it was not so crowded above.
After the expensive view, we walked back to the hotel, but stopped by 7-Eleven to buy some snacks. Forget the red-light district, sexy ladies and expensive alcoholic beverages. We jokingly considered this action as the biggest sin of our trip: to consume junk food late at night.
The next morning was our last day for most of us in Bangkok. We took the last group photo, before I, J and E traveled to Don Mueang Airport. I and J flew home, E took another bus to Pattaya, while the rest were either taking later flights or go home the next day. We planned for another trip in our 45’s, probably to Hongkong or Kuala Lumpur.
By the way, Krung Thep (Maha Nakhon) is the official name for Bangkok inside Thailand.