It was a rough week with Elena, since she had a fever and then a really runny nose, so a child-free night on the town was definitely the light at the end of the tunnel for me. Elena was fever free by Friday, but still super fussy. She was good on Saturday for Jeff though when Vivian and I went downtown. Thank goodness we were riding in a car with a driver. I have a better mental map of downtown Bangkok than I did when I was at the Funarium a year ago, but after we got off the main road, there were several turns, and then the Funarium was down this little street. I don't think I could have gotten there and then gotten out again without getting seriously lost. Vivian had a great time with her friends, so I'm glad she got to go again, since I don't think it's a trip we'll be making on our own any time soon.
Sunday was a much easier drive. Jeff and I had reservations at the Royal Orchid Sheraton, which is right on the river. It wasn't too far off the highway, and, after our valet parking faux pas last staycation, I double checked that this hotel actually had valet. They did :-) We splurged for a club room, which was worth it, since it put us up high with great views. Jeff always has fun getting pictures of the city. This is a panorama looking back at the city from the river.
We watched the sunset from the club room where they were serving complimentary drinks and food. Jeff took a good picture out across the river,
but he couldn't resist tinkering with it to make it "even cooler."
Before our sunset happy hour, we had walked to the River City shopping center, which is right next to the Sheraton.
It was a complete deja vu weekend, because this is where I came when my mom was here last year, and we were waiting for our dinner cruise. Jeff and I had decided not to book a river cruise this time, since it's still the rainy season, and, as you can see from the clouds in the pictures, rain is always a possibility. Instead, we decided to walk around and see what dinner options were available on land, both inside and outside.
River City is mostly an antiques and fine arts shopping mall, but we did make one purchase. The hotel had told us that Jeff had to wear long pants at the club happy hour, and, of course, all he had was shorts. The lady at the reception desk tried to be helpful and said that they had a pair of pants they could lend him. She then proceeded to pull out some grungy old gym pants. Obviously our definition of smart casual and the hotel's definition of smart casual didn't quite mesh. We tried our best to decline politely without making our shock obvious. Luckily, River City had a store that sold eco-friendly cotton clothes, and Jeff found what were essentially off-white pajama pants, but, if you didn't look too closely, they could also be casual khakis. Problem solved! We had a good laugh about how comfy yet proper he was all night.
We checked out restaurants in the River City complex, and then wandered around the hotel, which had some really nice decorative touches.
and some fun signage.
The weather looked like it was going to hold, so we decided on the hotel's Italian restaurant. It had seating outside, and we got 20% off there. It ended up being a great choice, because we were sitting outside as all the dinner cruises were pulling in to pick up their passengers. Several also sailed by as we were eating, so we got to compare them all and listen to the crazy assortment of songs that were being broadcast.
We finished with a yummy dessert sampler.
The next morning we tried to sleep in, even though Vivian sent me a text message with Young's phone saying she didn't feel well and didn't want to go to school. I had to call in a neighbor for reinforcement, but we got her to school in the end.
During our wanderings the day before, we had found a bakery.
They actually had some good stuff, so we got a pain au chocolat to console Vivian with.
Even though our morning was a bit disrupted by her dramatics, we still got to have a fun night on the town and sleep in until a decadent 8:30am. We can't wait for our next night downtown.
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