A guide to living the life in Bangkok

I'm staying at the Rose Garden Riverside Hotel in Bangkok. In a room that looks like this:










In fact, this could be my room (it's the photo taken from the website). I'm sharing my room with another AYAD and even though we don't know each other it's still like catching up with a friend. And I'm pretty sure I remember her from the streets of Melbourne and uni days.

Anyway, as you might be able to tell from the photo, this place is fancy. I could never, ever have imagined how incredible this buffet is. I am eating tasty meal after tasty meal. I can't remember a time in my whole life where every mouthful of food has been so truly satisfying in a continuous three day period.

My brain is pretty tired from the workshop so I will allow photos to tell the story with minimal explanation on my part.

1. This is how we felt after 16 hours of travel to get from Banda Aceh to Bangkok (and what's more, this photo was taken the night after our arrival, after a solid 8 hour sleep).

1. This is the view of the pool from my window. I've been swimming twice in the morning and each time I've had the pool to myself. I could swim diagonally across it if I wanted and often did because I had no goggles so was essentially blind.

2. Ani, Inda and me in the Orchid Garden.
















3. Waterfall and balcony thing. At first this area seemed a little out of place and European in the Asian-Zen environment, but the lobby had a French theme about it too, so I think the European blend was actually planned. Not having seen anything remotely European in a long time, even faux-European was delightful.




















4. Toni playing the piano in the lobby. This is one of those silly pianos that plays itself. A good example of something that is fun and completely stupid at the same time.
















The music coming out of the piano was piped around the whole complex so you'll be wandering past a temple on the riverbank with water lilies surrounding it and cheesy classical music soundtrack follows your every step. I'm not sure what I would ordinarily make of it, but being in a place where things exist purely for their aesthetic beauty is so calming and restorative that I don't even mind a little bit of piped music.