Edge of Tomorrow in 4D

My favorite genre (book or movie) is dystopian sci-fi, so this weekend, my love of sci-fi outweighed my distaste for Tom Cruise. (Tom Cruise has done some INCREDIBLE sci-fi, from "Minority Report" to "Oblivion", and for that I love him, but outside of his movies I think he's a nutjob.)

Unfortunately the only movie times available on Sunday before our flight were either (a) totally full, or (b) 4D.

We didn't realize what the "4D" was, but we bought tickets anyway (at $13 each, it's a lot for an Asian movie theater... but then I bought popcorn and 2 sodas for less than $6 so it evens out)

My God. 4D. It's awful. 

There are rides at Disneyland that do 4D, like a Bug's Life, but they last 20 minutes, tops. And that's because "4D" means you are strapped to a roller coaster seat and get jostled around all the time, with wind/ water effects going the whole time. 

Which means every time Tom Cruise was in a machine, or a plane, or a car, our seats swerved and vibrated and moved from left to right. Every time Tom Cruise lands in water (which happens like 12 times in a certain part), there is a contraption in the seat in front of us that sprayed us with water. And whenever the aliens attacked, tiny little strings whipped at our ankles.

WHY WOULD ANYONE KNOWINGLY GO TO A MOVIE LIKE THAT?

Terminal 21 Shopping Mall

Typically when we've gone shopping in Bangkok, we go to the Siam malls. 

There are three main buildings

1. Siam Paragon- the "luxury" mall with an awesome food court and huge movie theater

2. Siam Center- Forever 21, clothing stores and the 3rd floor is mostly Thai designers. My new fave Thai store is "workshop" because they have cute clothes that fit and are reasonably priced ($50 / cute cocktail dress)

3. Siam Discovery- I don't go here often but Nick likes the athletic stores. They have an Outback Steakhouse, which is awesome, but the one time we tried to go was during the protests and they were closed

This weekend, however, we went to Terminal 21, mostly because it was adjacent to the Asok BTS station (which was the rail stop we took from the hotel). And I really liked it! It has different city themes for each level (like Tokyo, London, Paris). And the ladies' clothing level was made up of small storefronts for small-name designers, with lots of sales going on. 

By far my favorite part was the obvious attachment to California, in particular. The floors included Istanbul, Tokyo, Paris and London, but they also included San Francisco (Pier), San Francisco (City Street) and Hollywood. 

The "Golden Gate Bridge"

Hollywood floor made sense, though, because at the top floor, all it had was a movie theater, a spa and a gym

Also there was a store called "Pink Pussy"

Terrific lady day

International Women's Day took place on Saturday March 8th this year.  In the States, never really meant much (I didn't even know there was an International Women's Day), but Asia it's kind of a big deal. Which is great, because women here are still way worse off then men, in terms of rights and how society views them. It also meant that we got a holiday on Monday (it was supposed to be Friday but there's a lot of mis-communication here), which is why Nick and I got to go to Bangkok. 

Due to the holiday, Nick dubbed Saturday "Terrific Lady Day" (a reference to The League, which is one of the funniest TV shows airing right now), which meant that I got to choose the schedule and he had to grin and bear it. 

So we got a couple's massage at "Urban Retreat" (at Asok). I use the term "massage" loosely, because I got a "Fit and Firm" package (aimed at firming up skin) which was really more of a physical assault than it was a massage. 

For 2000 Baht (about $65) I had a 50-minute body scrub (using Matcha Green Tea, which the spa claims is skin-firming) and an hour long "Fit and Firm" massage. Nick signed up for an hour long Swedish massage. 

The body scrub was nice- it was the first one I've ever gotten, and while I liked it and my skin was noticeably softer afterwards, it didn't strike me as anything special (good or bad).

The massage was another story. 

When I initially signed up for a "Fit and Firm" massage, I thought it would be like an intensive sports/ deep tissue massage. It was not like that AT ALL. 

Nick and I started our massages at the same time, and the first five minutes were pretty much the same, with our ladies climbing up on top of the massage table and massaging our backs. 

The next 55 minutes were nothing like this. Apparently, the "Fit and Firm" massage involves vigorous slapping of the victim's back, stomach, thighs, calves and chest. So every few minutes or so, my masseuse would just go to TOWN on my poor, unexpected body, slapping in quick successions then massaging out my now incredibly tense body. Every time she did it, I had to fight the urge to laugh at how un-relaxing the massage was. 

Nick couldn't relax much, either, since the slapping drowned out the nice spa music they had pumping into the room. 

After the massage, we changed back into our clothes and I asked him how he liked his Swedish massage.

"It was good," he replied. "I mean, a couple parts she was really digging in, and it hurt."

"YOURS hurt?! You just heard my lady beat the sh*t out of me for the last hour!" 

"Yeah, I have no idea why you would sign up for that."

He had a point; I should have researched what a "Fit and Firm" massage was before agreeing to it. 

Before the massages (it's an awkward pic because (a) Nick didn't want to take it, and (b) I had to hurry before the lady got back in the room)

Follow up to "Fit and Firm" massage: It's supposed to tighten skin, but I didn't really notice a difference. I did notice that my legs were killing me for the next two days. Maybe the firm-ness really would have worked, but whenever I travel I usually replace my Insanity videos and workouts with delicious food. Bangkok is no exception.

But anyone who really knows me knows that my favorite thing is food. Specifically, chocolate. So Nick and I went to CHU's Chocolate Cafe and Restaurant, which was next to the Urban Retreat at Asok. The menu had some salads and sandwiches, but mostly consisted of sugar-y breakfasts and desserts, which is exactly how I want every menu to be. 

This is the Chocolate Lava cake, which I ordered with the Parisian hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was disappointing (I expected it to be thicker) but the lava cake was incredible.

(Side note: does anyone else remember the Chantico that Starbucks had? The "drinking chocolate"? They only had it for one season, in 2005, but it was still the most amazing thing in the world)

Chocolate desserts for daysssssssssss.

Goddess Tub Tim shrine

Nick and I went back to Bangkok for the umpteenth time this weekend. Vientiane is a cool city and all, but I love love love Bangkok. It's got so much going on ! Nick says that he struggles with it because it's "clustered and chaotic", but that's the exact reason I love it. 

When looking for cool new things to do this weekend I found the Bangkok list of "Top 10 Most Unusual Sights": http://www.bangkok.com/most-unusual-sights.htm 

#1 on this list is the "Phallic Shrine", or more delicately named "Goddess Tub Tim shrine". To get there we walked from our hotel to the Chidlom area, walked past a bunch of embassies the "Swissotel Nai Lert Park", and asked the guard for directions to the shrine. He pointed around the corner of the building, and we got a bit lost and ended up in the staff cafeteria area. I had expected the shrine to be in the middle of a courtyard, but instead, it was this sketchy 50 foot area between the parking lot and the river, beside the hotel's trash disposal area.

The shrine has developed into a fertility shrine, so supposedly it is visited by couples that are trying to conceive (please note that this is NOT the case for Nick and me)

There are all these creepy ceramic children at the entrance of the shrine

There are phalluses of every color and wrapped in ribbons. Lots of penises, everywhere. 

Some of the penises even had their own penises.

A lot of the penis/ phallic-shaped things are leaning up against trees. 

The actual shrine (which is pretty similar to the spirit houses that are everywhere in SE Asia)

Anyway, it wasn't the most amazing temple/ shrine ever, but it was close to Central World, and the river, so it was pretty easy to make this a quick side trip. I felt kind of immature, giggling at something that obviously had religious significance for some, but there was only one other person who walked by the shrine while we were there and he was a Swissotel employee on his way to work.

Chatuchak Market

Saturday afternoon Nick and I took the BTS to the terminal BTS station, Mo Chit, to explore the weekend market Chatuchak. It was ENORMOUS! There were hundreds upon hundreds of stands throughout the building, selling everything from food to antiques to art to clothing. 

This map is a loose model of how everything is supposed to be laid out: 

For a more thorough blog about Chatuchak: http://www.bangkok.com/shopping-market/popular-markets.htm

Some awesome things we did/ saw/ bought:

1. A chocolate dipped, almond covered banana. It was amazing. 

2. Sliced green mangos covered in this granulate chili/ sugar powder stuff. For $.66. 

3. Beautiful artwork and lighting fixtures. If I had any room in my carry-on I would have bought so much stuff (and I did end up buying a wall clock that was made from wood taken from old Thai school buildings)

4. Pet shops that have bunnies (which you can pet!) and puppies (which you can't)

5. (At the moment) "Shutdown Bangkok" T-shirts for sale. I bought one, not necessarily for political reasons (though ousting corruption from the government seems as good a reason as any to have major protests), but because the protests were such a big part of our weekend.

6. Fake Fruit stands. There were multiple of these, which I do not for the life of me understand. ONE Fake fruit stand makes sense, but THREE? Why?! How much fake fruit variety do you need?

7. This lady. Take a close look at the picture (which I had to grab super subtle-y).

On the lady's right shoulder there is a squirrel. It's attached to her necklace by a thin metal chain and it was scurrying from her right shoulder to her left shoulder, curiously looking up at the people walking by from time to time. I almost didn't see it (Nick missed it completely) but when I realized that this lady had a PET SQUIRREL it blew my mind.

There were a lot of other really cool things at the market, but we were only there for a couple of hours (it was hot and I hate crowds :)) 

Above Eleven

Nick and I went to dinner at "Snapper", a New Zealand restaurant in Nana (that's what the BTS station is called, anyway). The restaurant had good food (a nice break from Asian cuisine, anyway) and the area we were in was awesome.

When we went exploring after dinner, on the lookout for a place for dessert and drinks, we turned down a darker street and almost turned back, but then I saw the sign for "Above Eleven", a rooftop bar recommended by one of our more adventurous friends. And we were dressed well enough so we took the elevator up (it's on the 37th floor, no idea why it's called Above Eleven).

The bar was awesome. The view was great, the drinks were pretty good, and the Peruvian Asian cuisine is supposedly really delicious (we split a Tres Leches cake and I have to admit that was the best Tres Leches I've ever had). It was a bit expensive, and we were really lucky to get a table- we were expecting to sit at the bar. Service was pretty disappointing but I think that's standard in most Asian restaurants. 

View of Bangkok from Above Eleven

How Nick looks at a fancy bar

How I look at a fancy bar

(But don't I look like the squid Doctor guy from Futurama?!)

Girls weekend in Bangkok #2

Side note : McDonald's gets way awesomer when your country of residence has no fast food.

Our three am munchies

Taking the train to dinner in Thong Lor

Dinner at Soul Food was about $30 a person - so good and the drinks were incredible.

We then headed to Iron Fairies- a blacksmiths shop turned stylish bar. Absolutely beautiful! Also they had absinthe drinks but we just stuck to wine 

The band did covers of old American music- Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding never sounded so good in Thailand...  

Artsy shot of Taryn heading downstairs. 

Girls weekend in Bangkok #1

We had an incredible room at the Vie Hotel, next to the Siam Paragon mall... (Well done booking miss Kate)

Our living room 

What we did in our living room 

New theory: The heavier the bathroom door, the ritzier the place. This place was obviously really nice ...

Taxied down to the club area

And went to Levels, the club in the ALoft hotel. Mostly packed with white guys looking to meet Thai girls. Good music tho!

Rooftop infinity pool

40 hours in Bangkok

We spent approx 40 hrs in Bangkok last weekend. Using Central Lao airlines it was $120 round trip. And they give you dinner (shrimp fried rice, which I thought was an interesting choice for a flight... Seafood smell circulating? Not great)

But here are some pics from that weekend :

Tuk tuks in Thailand are a lot cuter, and the drivers speak MUCH better English.

Yeah we went to a movie- The Wolverine.  The Siam Paragon was really nice, plus there are no modern movie theaters in Laos.

Griffin eating a scorpion along Susie street.

Soi cowboy.