Bangkok Again (Part 2), Tuesday & Wednesday, August 20th & 21st, 2019

Here is part 2 of our time in Bangkok, enjoy!

Tuesday, August 20th:

Today we went to the Iconsiam mall located near the river in Bangkok. I had heard pretty amazing things about it, and it had cost 1.65 billion dollars (crazy!) to build, so I was excited to see it. We had yummy breakfast at the Pattern and then set off to the mall via shuttle bus. We were greeted by a big elephant statue when we walked in, and a very nicely decorated interior. It was very modern, but didn’t look at all like a conventional shopping mall. All the decorations were very Thai looking – it was a refreshing take on a shopping centre.

After we had thoroughly explored Sooksiam, we decided to check out the other floors of the mall. As soon as we got to the second floor, it was clear that we were in the more “shopping” part of the mall, as it looked a lot more like a standard mall you would see in Canada. It was neat to see a lot of familiar brands and stores like “Louis Vuitton” and “H&M”. We also got to visit the first Apple store to ever be built in Thailand.

Just outside of the Apple store there was a terrace that provided a nice view of the city. We sat and enjoyed this view until it started to rain and we had to quickly run inside.

After seeing all Iconsiam had to offer, it was time to leave, as Ning and her Mom didn’t have too long before they had to catch their train back to Vientiane. (They were leaving by train that night, but Khonxay, Mom, and I were going by plane the next morning).

For dinner, we ordered… pizza! I hadn’t eaten pizza in a long time, so it was a yummy treat! Khongxay had only had pizza once before in his life, as it is very expensive in Lao, so it was nice for him as well.

After dinner we decided to go see a movie! Khongxay had never been to a movie theatre before, so we knew it was a must to go to one before we left.

The movie we saw was called “The Art of Racing in the Rain”. I don’t want to say too much in case any of you watch it, but it follows the life of a dog named Enzo, and his owner who is a race car driver. It was definitely a tear-jerker, but Mom and I really enjoyed it, and I think Khongxay did too!

Wednesday, August 21st:

We woke up the next morning a little bit sad to leave, but happy as well. Mom and I both agree that we really like Bangkok, even though we’re not exactly ‘city people’, it seems to be a city that has a lot of personality and character. We also both knew that the next time we would be seeing Bangkok would be after we had left Laos for good, something that seems to be coming up way too soon.

We savoured our delicious Thai breakfast, and got in our taxi to the airport. Even though we left early we only made it just in time for when our flight was supposed to leave. But… because ‘slow and steady’ is the Lao way of life, we still had to wait 20 minutes for our Lao Airlines flight to arrive.

We made it safely back to Pakse, and then finally back to our home in Laongam.

Bangkok was really fun, but I’m glad to be back in Laos. I hope you enjoyed hearing about our travels… Phob kan mai till next time!

*Word of the Day: Chok dee (pronounced how it looks), it means “good luck” in Thai.