Bangkok as I saw it: A pictorial

I'm finishing my cities (Hong Kong and Bangkok) portion of this trip blog today. So I'm going on a  rant with this post.  These two cities are like oil and water.  Hong Kong clean, Bangkok dirty.  Hong Kong wealthy, Bangkok dirt poor.  Hong Kong rife with fascination for the Western lifestyle but not our traditions, while Bangkok is just trying to survive a Western influx of tourism.

Hotel Review:Park Plaza

There are currently three Club Carlson properties in Bangkok, the 4th a Radisson Blu is being readied for a February 2014 delivery.  The new property was within walking distance from the Park Plaza, I did cruise by the construction but, I did not see any of the other Club Carlson Bangkok properties.
Contemporary, quiet and centrally located can best describe our small hotel.

Bangkok's Royal Palace

After 12 straight hours of sleep I was ready for Bangkok or so I thought.  We did the first thing we could think to do in a third world country, find Starbucks.  Today, we were riding the metro, taking a water taxi, visiting the Royal palace, Wat Pho (largest reclining Buddha) and Chinatown with a little bit of this and that thrown in.

Trip Report : Introduction to Bangkok

Arrival in Bangkok was without issue.  Again, I had no transportation from airport to hotel set up but we decided to take a cab rather than navigate yet another metro system where we knew English would not be spoken.  We paid for a cab (about a $14 fare) to the hotel which was located in Sukhumvit, a  very well respected part of the city.  I made sure I had the driver use the meter rather than a flat rate which is how the drivers like to charge.  Being that it was early we had only a few traffic issues, Bangkok is known for horrendous traffic conditions.

Typical Bangkok intersection