We got to the hotel first, and the service was fabulous right from the start. They even upgraded us to suites, which was awesome. We had already gotten a room with a balcony,
and an additional bed for Vivian at no extra charge, but now we also got a kitchen and living room!
There was even a half bath off the kitchen. It was basically an apartment. We got lots of complimentary fruit, plus complimentary chocolate, because they have a chocolate store at the hotel. It was a great first impression.
After checking out the room, we decided to put on our bathing suits and go find the pool. The Shangri La actually has two pools. There was one over in our wing of the hotel, the Krungthep wing, but it was smaller, and looked like it was set up more for people who wanted to swim laps. Jeff got a nice picture of it in the evening.
We kept going to the main Shangri La wing and the bigger pool. The hotel's property is quite large, especially considering that it is right on the river. Between the two pools is a garden area with a Thai restaurant spread over a few teak buildings.
There are also a couple other restaurants near the big pool, but they weren't open at that point. There was all day pool side dining available though, so Jeff and I sat down at one of the restaurant tables where we could still see Vivian in the pool. There were two lifeguards too, so we felt fine relaxing with some lunch, while Vivian went to play.
She didn't want to get out of the pool to eat the pasta we had ordered for her. We asked if we could have a take away container for it, and the waiter offered to have it sent up to our room. The service was great! Eventually our friends showed up, and the adults lounged by the pool with drinks while the kids played. We stayed for the sunset, which, in typical something's-always-being-built Bangkok style, included a crane.
We went back upstairs and cleaned up, and then we enjoyed some wine on the balcony. Bangkok at night has the best views.
We were really excited about our dinner cruise, because all the major buildings along the river are lit up at night, so you can enjoy the city and the architecture. We had seen the cruise being prepared earlier that evening.
I had specifically asked for seats outside, so that we could see everything. It had been cloudy all afternoon, but we had the best of both worlds, because we were under a retractable roof, which could be pulled closed to cover us if it started sprinkling, which it did towards the end of the cruise.
The fabulous service continued. Even though it was a buffet, the wait staff brought sample platters of food to our table. In some parts of the world, children on a fancy dinner cruise would be viewed as an imposition, but in Thailand they were the guests of honor. For example, Vivian was sad that there was no vanilla ice cream at the buffet station near us at the top of the boat. One of the waitresses went to check if there was any downstairs and quickly returned with a bowl of vanilla ice cream for Vivian. They also took some great pictures of us. One of the most beautiful buildings along the river at night is Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn, and the server managed to get a great picture of all of us in front of it.
The cruise finished around 9:30, and the kids crashed pretty soon after that. They had both been really good, which helped make the whole evening more pleasant.
The next day we had a big breakfast at the hotel and then took advantage of our river location to catch a boat back up to see Wat Arun in the daylight. It's on the opposite side of the river from Wat Po and the Grand Palace, which Jeff and I visited with Vivian last year around this time. The regular boat drops you off on the Bangkok side of the river, and for 3 baht (less than a penny) per person you can take the boat across. It was quite exciting to go across the river, because there are a LOT of boats going back and forth with no apparent order. It's kind of like the road travel, and, like the road travel, everyone's very careful not to bump into each other.
We survived the crossing, which was actually pretty choppy because of all the wakes we had to cross. The temple grounds were lovely, but hot to explore in the sun.
We went into one of the smaller temples looking for shade. We found some cool Buddhas.
We also found some kind of special meal with monks and regular people sitting at tables. They were chanting something in unison, which was interesting, but we felt a bit like we were intruding, so we moved on to the main temple. In the daylight, you can see all of the ceramic that has been inlaid into the complex.
Vivian was completely melted by that point, so we got her a cool drink and headed back to the hotel. Our friends hadn't been to Wat Po yet, so they kept exploring a bit longer. Eventually we all met back up for our afternoon high tea. This was in the lobby area of the main hotel. We weren't sure what to expect, but there was quite a spread. Everyone's favorite was the pasta station, but we were also impressed by the full orchestra.
We were even more impressed when the majority of the people in the room got up and started ballroom dancing.
Apparently, this is a regular Sunday occurrence. It looked like most of the women were students and the men were instructors, but they were all very good. We had a lot of fun watching and picking our favorites. We stayed for almost two hours and then headed back to Nichada and Elena. She seemed happy to see us, but unperturbed by the fact that we'd been gone for over 24 hours. She'd been at home with Young and her toys, so all was well in her world. Vivian had a great weekend too, so we might try to plan another big girl outing for her soon.
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