Sara’s Hotel 9 Soi Sukhumvit 3, Nana Nua, Wattana, Bangkok
Michael and I’ve moved out of our lovely house and have embarked on a 43-day journey on the way to starting a new chapter in our lives.
We left Bahrain in the early hours of the morning of the 5th of January and arrived in Bangkok via Dubai in the late afternoon yesterday. We haven’t stayed at Sara’s Hotel before but we had some idea of what to expect from this boutique hotel from what we had read when booking our first 3 nights in Bangkok here.
We were not disappointed. The eclectic style of this small hotel is everywhere apparent even before you step inside the doors to the lobby. Some might describe it as a bit excessive but it works and it’s fun. Almost every nook and cranny has been loving filled with delightfully quirky art deco and Victorian objet dárt.
“Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.” – Rumi
7th January 2023
This is the fourth time since we got married that we’ve moved countries. We’ve also moved within each of the countries we’ve lived in and I moved once back to Hong Kong and once to China. So you’d think we’d be old hands at this game.
But change is usually hard and this move has been our hardest move yet and not just because we have accumulated even more stuff and because moving is more physically challenging as you get older.
We’ve lived in Bahrain for 20 and a half years and in Villa No.3 Lamia Gardens for almost 12 years. It’s the place we’ve lived the longest and it’s been particularly hard to uproot ourselves this time because that lovely house really became our home.
It has been so painful to watch our home being taken apart and packed up but here we are at the other end of that process, grateful to be alive and reasonably well and in Bangkok.
Back in Bangkok
It’s been good to find Bangkok pretty much the way it was pre-pandemic, at least at first impression. There are some people still wearing masks here and there but the traffic is just as bad as it ever was and that charming controlled Asian chaos is everywhere in evidence.
Power lines proliferate to light up this energy hungry city.
This city has faced many tough challenges but life goes on undaunted; children are born and grow up.
“You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food.” – Paul Prudhomme
7th January 2023
There is an amazing array of food available at all hours in this most cosmopolitan city. Just about everything is on offer here from street food and pop ups to the highest of haute cuisine in the city’s many gourmet restaurants and luxury hotels, representing the cuisines of many countries of the world.
Bangkok has 30 Michelin Star restaurants, 24 with 1 star, and 6 with 2 stars, for a total of 36 Michelin stars. It also has a wonderful variety of fresh fruit and produce that is very inexpensive.
Afternoon snack
There are a surprising number of restaurants serving various world cuisines in the immediate vicinity of this hotel. Right across the road there are two Ethiopian restaurants and an Egyptian restaurant that sells very nice baklawa and other Arabic pastries.
For dinner tonight we went to a Punjabi restaurant called Amritsr that is a short walk away from the hotel. Mr. Google gives it high ratings and, happily, it met our expectations, both in terms of ambience, food and service.
We were served by a softly spoken, helpful and polite young man called Sunil who it turns out comes from Myanmar. We ordered Punjabi samosas to start, followed by a veggie thali for me and a chicken curry thali for Michael. The little dishes were full of flavour and the potions were just right. The price was also very reasonable indeed. A very good dinner. 🥘
In Thailand and other countries in this part of the world, old animistic beliefs are completely entwined with Buddhism and you see colourful spirit houses everywhere.
The purpose of these rean preah phum or ‘shrines for the guardian-spirit’ is to appease the spirits by providing congenial earthly shelters for them. Spirit houses vary greatly in size, scale and elaboration, depending on the means of a household.
The spirits consulted with and prayed to most often are called the Guardians of the House, who watch over and protect the home and help in business matters, and the Guardians of the Gardens who watch over and protect the natural surroundings, yards, gardens and orchards. Thai houses have spirit shrines both inside the house and in the yard outside.
These spirits are not considered to be either good nor evil but capricious, finicky and mischievous. They are thought to demand respect from humans and to be capable of interfering in human affairs and causing negative and even disastrous consequences if they are not treated with sufficient reverence or don’t get their way.
Spirit houses usually contain small figures, especially of elephants, and other symbols placed inside and around the house. Outside, around the balcony that usually surrounds a spirit house, there are incense holders, candle sticks, and vases for flowers. Flower garlands are usually draped around the spirit house and candles and incense are lit daily.
Votive offerings of food and drink are also left at the shrine daily to propitiate the spirits. Rice, betel leaves, pieces of cooked chicken, bananas, coconuts and Thai sweets and desserts are common offerings. One of the most ubiquitous of offerings are bottles of sugary red, strawberry-flavoured Fanta. It is likely that the red colour of the Fanta also symbolizes the blood of sacrificial animals
One can only shudder at the thought of the occurrence that necessitated the display of this sign!
The idea of the offerings is that friendly spirits will congregate to enjoy the free food and drink and their presence will serve to keep more malign spirits at bay. The sweetness of many of the offerings is because sweet spirits are thought to a have sweet tooth.
“The entire meaning and purpose of Shangri-La came to me in a vision long, long ago. I foresaw a time when man exalting in the technique of murder, would rage so hotly over the world, that every book, every treasure would be doomed to destruction.
This vision was so vivid and so moving that I determined to gather together all things of beauty and culture that I could and preserve them here against the doom toward which the world is rushing.
Look at the world today. Is there anything more pitiful? What madness there is! What blindness! A scurrying mass of bewildered humanity crashing headlong against each other.
The time must come, my friend, when brutality and the lust for power must perish by its own sword. For when that day comes, the world must begin to look for a new life. And it is our hope that they may find it here. ⁃ James Hilton from Lost Horizon 1933
8th January 2023
We checked into the little earthly paradise that is the Shangri-la yesterday afternoon for the rest of our stay in Bangkok. If there ever was a happy place to regain your equilibrium when you’ve lost your horizon, this is it.
My many international teacher and administrator friends who also know this glorious hotel well, will know what I mean when I say that the moment you step into the hotel you are engulfed by an instantly recognisable smell that induces a sense of calmness and tranquility and has an immediately soothing effect.
The Krungthep wing where we normally stay is currently under renovation but the main part of the hotel is lively and bustling with people from all over the world. There are still a few lingering signs of the impact of Covid but, on the whole, things seem to be almost back to normal. Regardless, the Chao Phraya River runs on as ever, busy with river traffic.
The ever-busy Chao Phraya River
The Shangri-la is indeed a gathering together of many things of beauty and culture and epitomizes Thai style at its finest. The hotel is full of beautiful patterns, fabrics and natural beauty. Some examples follow:
“Thence for nine days’ space I was borne by direful winds over the teeming deep; but on the tenth we set foot on the land of the Lotus-eaters, who eat a flowery food….and the Lotus-eaters did not plan death for my comrades, but gave them of the lotus to taste. And whosoever of them ate of the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus, had no longer any wish to bring back word or to return, but there they were fain to abide among the Lotus-eaters, feeding on the lotus, and forgetful of their homeward way…” – Odyssey 9.82
I think we ate some of that honey-sweet fruit of the lotus for breakfast this morning …
“Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” – Michael Pollen
8th January 2023
It’s Veganuary so the topic of vegan food offerings in Bangkok is especially appropriate. On the 19th of January it will also be five years since I last ate any meat, fish, seafood or poultry.
A number of weeks before that I watched the film, Forks over Knives, which has one central key message: many chronic diseases can be controlled or even reversed by not not eating animal-based and highly processed foods.
I was intrigued and started looking up some of the doctors featured in the film, like Caldwell Esselstyn and Colin Campbell. Through them I found other doctors advocating a mainly plant-based diet, such as Michael Greger, Neal Barnard and John McDougall, and started reading everything I could find about their work and others like them. After reading numerous books and listening to their talks I came to the conclusion that they are right, that a plant-based diet is the optimal diet for good health.
I decided to stop eating all animal products and highly processed foods and see what impact it had on my health. I was strictly vegan for the first three years after that and it has been quite a journey of discovery.
It takes quite a bit of learning and adjustment to make the transition to a wholly plant-based diet because it is a different way of eating. Overall, though, I didn’t find it difficult to give up eating animals because there is such a huge bounty of delicious flavors and variety in plants. Some people have said to me that they couldn’t possibly give up eating meat but it’s a fallacy that you need to eat meat. We grow up eating meat and fish and it becomes an ingrained and unexamined habit. It’s just what we’re used to and it is surprisingly easy not to eat any meat if you give it a try. There are also so many resources and options available now if you want to follow a plant-based way of eating.
For the past couple of years I have been drifting more into vegetarianism and have been eating some animal products, like cheese, eggs and honey. I still eat a mainly vegan diet for between 70 and 90% of the time and I definitely feel much better for it.
Bangkok has a very good choice of vegan restaurants and eateries and we have visited three of them on this trip. There are also many more vegetarian restaurants offering vegan options as well.
We just happened serendipitously upon the first one on our first night in Bangkok because it is near to Sara’s Hotel. The Vegan Table was a great find and we had a very good meal there. The ambience was appealing, the service was very attentive and the food was very good. We had black bean quesadillas and felafel with salad, pesto and pita bread.
30 Soi Sukhumvit 11, Khlong Toei Nuea, Watthana
The next day, Day 1, we had a light lunch at Veganerie Soul in Siam Paragon Centre. We have eaten there – and at their other Bangkok outlets – on several previous trips and the food was still up to its previous high standards. It was a delicious light lunch.
Today we went to a fairly new place, Broccoli Revolution, that opened shortly before the Covid lockdowns. We found it through the Vegan Guide to Bangkok but until we walked past it last night, we didn’t realise that they have 3 outlets, one of which is in Charoen Krung Street which is very close to our hotel.
Broccoli Revolution, soi Charoenkrung 42/1, opposite Wat Suan Plu.
The entrance is tucked away and doesn’t exactly stand out. The restaurant opens up into a surprisingly open and light space once you come out into it at the end of the starkly minimalist corridor you walk through to get to it from the street.
The food was very good: we had spring rolls, quesadillas and mushroom gyozas and some lovey fresh juice.
There are 3 main reasons for adopting a vegan diet: for its health benefits; out of compassion for animals and out of concern for the future well-being of the planet. I started eating a mainly plant-based diet for my health but the more you read about it, the more compelling the other two reasons become as well.
I have always loved animals and been against anything that causes suffering to any animals; I was very involved in protesting against the use of fur for clothing when I was a teenager. It has always bothered me that an animal has to die to provide me with a meal when there are so many other options available. All in all, I feel much more at ease with myself and my conscience for eschewing the eating of other living creatures. That is my choice for now.
I was surprised by the negativity and vehemence of some people’s response to my decision to forgo eating meat. It was as if, by doing so, I was judging them. I suppose it also has something to do with people not liking to hear bad news about the things they like. Anyway, I don’t force my views on anyone else – it is up to each person to make their own decision about what they eat.
In case you’re wondering, Michael eats a mainly plant-based diet too. When we are out he will sometimes order a dish with meat or seafood in, depending on what he feels like. As Michael says, “Eating mainly plants is the only viable and sustainable way forward, economically and environmentally. It’s a no-brainer.”
Tonight, the 10th of January 2023, is the last night we’ll be in Bangkok on this trip as we fly to Auckland, via Sydney, tomorrow afternoon. We decided to have dinner at The Verandah, which is the Mandarin Oriental’s coffee shop. The Mandarin Oriental Bangkok is a very beautiful and elegant hotel, one of SE Asia’s great hotels, and it has an interesting history. The lobby of the hotel is very elaborate and lavish in its decor.
We did have a very nice dinner at The Verandah but the main purpose for going to the Mandarin Oriental was to revisit the stunning set of rooms that make up the Authors’ Lounge which is particularly renowned for its scrumptious traditional afternoon tea of delicate finger sandwiches, freshly-baked scones, home-made jams, cakes and pastries.
The Authors’ Lounge is located on the ground floor of the original Oriental Hotel, which was built in the 1870’s and still retains a look of the early 1900s, with its elegant white wicker furniture and hand-painted fabrics. It is named for the many famous writers who have stayed at the hotel since the late nineteenth century, most notably Somerset Maugham, Joseph Conrad, Noel Coward and Graham Greene. There are precious old black-and-white framed photographs of many of those authors on the walls of the lounge, many of them signed by the authors. There are also old photographs of Thailand and the Thai royal family from the 19th century.
“I have an idea that the only thing which makes it possible to regard this world we live in without disgust is the beauty which now and then men create out of the chaos. The pictures they paint, the music they compose, the books they write, and the lives they lead. Of all these the richest in beauty is the beautiful life. That is the perfect work of art.” – Somerset Maugham The Painted Veil 1925
Somerset Maugham was a prolific and popular writer of non-fiction, novels, short stories and plays.
“Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.” -W. Somerset Maugham
After having a wander around these gorgeous (by then closed) rooms, we got the hotel’s shuttle boat back to the Shangri-la. It was a very short but delightful little ride on the River of Kings. A very nice ending to a lovely evening on our last night in Bangkok.
The Mandarin Oriental’s river shuttle boat
Back to Shangri-la for one more night The great photo Michael took of the river late last night
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labor’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast. – William Shakespeare Macbeth
11th January 2023
We have rested and slept well in Shangri-La-la but it is already time to get ready for the next stage of the journey. Time has just flown by since we got here
From what heavenly, enchanted bed linen and mattress factory castle do good hotels source their bed linen and mattresses that makes their beds so much more comfortable and sleep-inducing than other beds?
On the subject of rest and relaxation, you just can’t visit Bangkok without partaking of the divine pleasures of a foot and neck massage at least once. It is not just foreigners who indulge, Thai people need no convincing about the health and healing benefits of massage. Massage is an integral part of the health and well being routines of most Thais.
As we have come to stay at the Shangri-la numerous times over quite a number of years, we have got to know some people in the neighbourhood quite well. We always go to the same foot massage place quite near to the hotel that has been managed by cat-loving May for at least the past 25 years.
The succession of girls who do the massages come and go and always seem to stay the same age but May and her cats have aged gracefully over the years. The oldest cat died of leukemia during the time we were here last, about 3 years ago, much to May’s sorrow and grief, but that cat’s children and grandchildren carry on her legacy of being pampered and sleeping most of the day, while being the real bosses in charge of the shop.
After making a cursory start on packing, we went downstairs to the restaurant Next2 on the ground floor where a breakfast feast of grand proportions is served every day.
Then it was back to the room for more packing and in no time at all it was time to leave for the airport.
Au revoir, lovely Shangri-la. Hope to be with you again before too much more water has flowed past you.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. – Heraclitus
A yaksha, one of guardian warriors who keep away evil spirits. The various yaksha in Suvarnabhumi Airport are replicas of the famous yaksha at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Wat Phra Kaeo.
We leave Bangkok at 6.00pm on the Emirates/Qantas code share flight EK5024 (QF0024) headed for Sydney and then Auckland. The Bangkok to Sydney sector takes 9 hours and 5 mins and, after a 2-hour stopover, the Sydney to Auckland flight takes 3 hours and 5 mins and we are due to arrive in Auckland at 14.55, Thursday, the 12th of January. That is our son-in-law, Greg’s birthday. Happy birthday Greg!
Most of the day was spent in transit from Bangkok to Auckland, via Sydney. It involved quite a few hours waiting around airports as well as actually flying but, thankfully it all went smoothly and we arrived safe and in one piece just before 3.00pm in the afternoon at Auckland.
First time back in Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu for me in many, many moons. Michael has been here more recently than me but even that was some time ago.
We had a wonderful surprise when we walked through into the arrivals hall of the airport. My cousin, Lynette, whom I last saw a very long time ago early in the 1960’s, was waiting to meet us. What a lovely start to our stay in New Zealand! We connected immediately. Thank you, Lynette ❤️
We are staying overnight in the Novotel which is right across the road from the airport to recover from the journey before starting our NZ part of the journey.
Unhitched 