Thailand Trip Day 1 – flight cancellations
Thailand Trip Day 2
Thailand Trip Day 3
Thailand Trip Day 4
Thailand Day 5 Island Hopper Excursion
Thailand Day 6 – Rain
Thailand Trip Day 7 – the local market
Thailand Trip Day 8
Thailand Trip Day 9 – Jim Thompson shop, Temples, and Gulati
Thailand Trip Day 10 – A Chill Day and going to the movies
Thailand Trip Day 11 – home in first class

Day 9 started off with heading to the Executive Lounge to check out the breakfast selection. This was no continental breakfast – it was instead a full spread including fresh baked bread, pastries, cookies, made to order omelets, waffles, pancakes, fresh juices, dumplings, broths, and Thai and Chinese food. The staff gave top notch service.

We headed out to see the palace and the temples. We took a water taxi to the Grand Palace. There is just so much history with these temples and palaces. They were all very ornate with lots of tourists viewing them.

We then fell for the oldest trick in the book. Even though we had read up on Lonely Planet about it – we still fell for it.

As we were searching for one of the temples, we were approached by someone asking if we needed some help finding the temple. We told him of the temple we were trying to find and he informed us that unfortunately that temple was closed until 3 pm. We were devastated. He informed us that we could take a tuk-tuk to another temple in the meantime as it is very cheap and that person would bring us back at 3 pm.

That sounded like a great idea at the time and so we hoped into a tuk-tuk and sped off to see some other temples. We arrived at the first temple and viewed it for a while. We got back in the tuk-tuk and the gentleman said that he was going to take us over to jewelry store to see some of the great gems that they had for sale. We finally realized that we had been taken. We arrived at the jewelry store and looked around quickly and then asked the driver to take us back to the temple which was supposed to be closed. He said that he couldn’t yet and that he wanted to take us to another shop to look around. We started to get really angry and told him that we didn’t want to see any other shops and wanted to go back. He kept insisting that we go to one more shop. I am so mad that we just walked away from him down the street to catch another cab.

This incident was the only downer of the whole trip. When we got back to the temple, several other people tried to inform us that it was closed. We just ignored them and when into the temple.

After an afternoon visiting temples and palaces, we headed back to the JW Marriott and went to a clothing shop recommended to us by a good friend. The shop is called Gulati. If you’ve ever been to Bangkok, clothing shops are at every corner of every street. I was always skeptical of how the quality would be. We therefore relied on a personal recommendation for Gulati. Gulati’s is run by Jesse and Victor Gulati who have made suits and shirts for former US President’s Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. I walked in to the shop and was met with rows and rows of different fabrics. Jesse Gulati came over and asked what I was looking for. I told him I was looking for some nice dress shirts. He beckoned for someone to come over and measure me and after 30 minutes I had picked out material for 6 hand made shirts at $25 a piece. Jesse informed me that they would be done in 24 hours and delivered to the JW Marriott.

If you are traveling in Bangkok and are looking for a quality tailor, I can highly recommend Gulati. I have been very pleased with the quality and price of these tailored shirts. They also keep all of their clients measurements on file so return trips go very quickly for additional clothing.

We then decided to head to the Siam Paragon by way of the skytrain which was very clean and fast moving. We had dinner there and went to the Jim Thompson silk store for some amazing clothes and designs.