Thailand

1/10/12 : The trip to Bangkok was pleasant and went quicker than expected with the wind behind us (well, after being bumped off the flight, rebooked and then delayed 2 hrs).
2/10/12 : We arrived in Bangkok. It's 5pm and 25 degrees but It feels very humid. We jumped into a cab to our guest House the New Merry V on Thanon Phra Athit in Banglamphu district. Went out for a quick walk and enjoyed our first thai meal (street food) and a Chang Beer before going to bed.

3/10/12 : We had to sort out our visa for Vietnam and went to the embassy near Chit Lom station (area where all the embassies are). The Vietnamese embassy is very small and we missed it when we passed in front it. However, we couldn't miss the massive USA embassy across the road with its greens everywhere, ponds and fountains.
The staff at the embasssy were rude, and the price of our visa was almost twice as much as what's written on their website. We went for the next day delivery and they told us to come back and pick it up the next day between 10am and 4pm.

We decided to go to Jim Thomson's Thai House, which wasn't too far from the embassy. Jim Thomson was an american entrepreneur/architect who lived there after WWII for almost a decade and showcased Thai Silk to the world.

As he loved Thailand so much, he decided to build a traditional Thai house with an amazing garden too. Even though the house is beautiful, there is a strange feeling that this is possibly the only traditional thai house in all Bangkok but this was made by a rich american. We finished the day off with an evening stroll around Chinatown and its Flower market, followed by a relaxing drink by the Mae Nam Chao Phraya (river), where the waiter kindly gave us a squirt of mosquito spray (though we’re not sure we needed it as we haven’t seen a single mosquito yet, just big cockroaches). Then we took our first tuk-tuk back 'home'.