Bangkok Week 581 August 15, 2019 Getting “away” for the weekend while we still can!? View fullsize Celebrating Friday night with our Korean friends down the street. View fullsize On Saturday afternoon, we begin our staycation at the Royal Orchid Sheraton lounge on the 27th floor. View fullsize What a great view! View fullsize It's a beautiful view of a busy afternoon on the river. View fullsize Equally stunning up-river views. View fullsize Finally our room -- ahem, I mean, suite -- is ready for us. View fullsize Can't beat the view! View fullsize The chairs are positioned for some quality river-watching. View fullsize Enjoying happy hour back at the lounge. View fullsize Heading down to the river, to catch the hotel's shuttle over to Icon Siam. View fullsize Hey, how come their birds of paradise have so many flowers? View fullsize Evening sky over the river. View fullsize Excited to be going to Icon Siam! View fullsize Our hotel (and little River City), from the other side. View fullsize Finally! Here we are! Icon Siam! View fullsize We arrived just in time to see the crowds who'd come to see the light & fountain show. View fullsize Lots of people indeed! View fullsize The "floating market" area of Icon Siam. View fullsize Looks just like Ampawa? View fullsize But darker. And harder for the boats to navigate! View fullsize Posing with the giant ghosts from the North East! View fullsize And a very cool, multi-level fountain (that makes shapes and spells words out of water). View fullsize Excited by the mall's piece-de-resistance: the first and only Apple Store in the Kingdom of Thailand! View fullsize Trying out the new benches, subsequently launched in the new Chicago store. View fullsize Yep! Looks and feels like a new-gen Apple Store! View fullsize From the outside, featuring the famed panes of glass (up to 30m long) imported from Germany. View fullsize Our hotel is well-lit at night. View fullsize Looking south, toward the Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental, and Saphan Taksin Bridge. View fullsize A slow Sunday morning on the river. View fullsize View of the area east of the hotel. View fullsize Breakfast with a view! View fullsize One of the hotel's 2 pools: with a depth of 3 meters! You don't find that anymore! View fullsize And the second, salt-water pool... View fullsize ...which is actually located within the property of the Portuguese Embassy! View fullsize Going in for a quick salty dip. Lucky I still have something I can wear! View fullsize And visiting the nearby Holy Rosary Church (a.k.a. Kalawar Church). View fullsize It was established by the Portuguese communities in the late 1700s (and rebuilt a few times since). View fullsize Sunday lunch at Tum Load -- one of our Ari faves. View fullsize Comfort food! View fullsize And look at all the people out for the 6:30pm light & fountain show again! View fullsize Treating ourselves to a nice pizza dinner at the Shang down the street. View fullsize Disco boats aplenty cruise the river at night. View fullsize Last morning on the Chao Praya. View fullsize We splurged on an elephant sold by Elephant Parade - a social enterprise supporting Asian elephant conservation. View fullsize And time for a dip in the deep lap pool. View fullsize Haven't swum proper laps in years! (Didn't even have my goggles.) View fullsize One final shot before heading home. View fullsize Sara (short for Sarawak) in her new home. View fullsize Thursday night traffic along Rama 4, from my office. View fullsize Lumpini and its lizards tuck in for the night.
