DAY 2: Happy Valentine's from Bangkok

The "free" breakfasts that come with my grand Orient hotels are too good to pass up.  The Marriott Marquis is particularly exceptional, and Sunday Brunch is said to be spectacular.

When we checked into the hotel, we were given a nice room with a junk view.  However, you can just about see the roof portion of Larry's, my Bangkok tailor.

So I went to the M Club and asked for a better view, with a bathtub.

That's the Queen's Park below us, and the Emporium Mall on the other side.

Walked to Larry's and ordered two enhanced vests.  Each now costs $80.  However, if we brought in my own material, the tailoring drops to $50.  So he sent us to a store where I bought six pieces of material.  Went back and asked him to make seven vests, the seventh a mash of the leftover material.  He said they'd what they can.

Stopped by the Emporium.  That photo is a shot back to the Marriott.  The tree produces the Thai national flower, the Ratchaphruek, which is common in Hawaii.

A particularly impressive place to shop in the Emporium is their Gourmet Market.

Of course there is durian.  They sell this horribly smelly fruit in various ways.  Maybe I'll bring some durian chips home.

Here is an assortment of Japanese Wagyu Beef.  The most expensive is from Omi at $60/pound, half the cost of what this gets in Honolulu.  The Matsunaga Wagyu is only around $40/pound.

The caviar assortment is enticing:

You can do your own calculation for the Beluga and Osietra:

Should you wish, you can order these items and work out a preparation scheme with a kitchen here who will serve it to you for a small fee.

The deco was in celebration of Valentine's Day:

Happy Valentine's Day from Bangkok.  Here is some background info of Thailand:

Did you know that the Thai capital Bangkok, also known as the City of Angels, or locally as Krungthep, is registered in the Guinness Book of World Records with 169 characters for the longest name of a place?  I won't write it down, but it starts with Krungthep....

Thailand has 1,430 island, 35,000 temples and 67 million people.  Their previous King, Bhumibol Adulyade, reigned for more that 70 years.  The current King, Maha Vajiralongkorn, just before his coronation, last year married one of his security staff.  She is now Queen Suthida.  This is his fourth wife.  Thus, succession has become a royal mess.

Red Bull was created in this city.  Chaleo Yoovidhya first introduced the drink in 1976, and when he passed away in 2012, was the third richest man in the country, with a net worth of $5 billion.

Bangkok has the largest Chinatown in the world, with over a million with a Chinese origin.  Hmm...  No wonder it is the country with the second-most coronavirus cases.

However, Japan has surpassed Thailand as the country with the most ailing.  The Diamond Princess how has 219 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The passengers celebrated, in their room, a Valentine's meal of Cupid's avocado and shrimp, California wine and a surprise dessert.  However, they now need to clean their own room, including toilet.

Those in their 80's and 90's work pre-existing health conditions staying in windowless cabins are now being allowed to leave the ship.  I presume to be quarantined on land.

Back to Thailand, Bangkok is where temple Wat Traimit is located, with the largest Gold Buddha in the world:

Here they have some strange laws.  You commit a crime if you:

• leave home without wearing underwear
• use durian fruit as a weapon--not the smell, but the thorns
• step on any currency, for the King is on one side, and you've insulted him
• in most countries there are rest room facilities for men and women--here there is a third one for transgender men known as ladyboys (above photo, and actually, there are only a very few of them--the rooms, anyway, for there is said to be more than a million ladyboys, and they have a high incidence of HIV)

Bangkok is the world's hottest city, by mean average temperature, which is 82.4 F (28 C).  November and February of the coolest months.  The temperature goes up to around 95 F, but tomorrow's high could be a cool 89 F.

Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been colonized by a European power.  Not because they were so powerful or persuasive.  It served as a buffer between France's Vietnam/Burma and the Britain colony of India.

The country was once known as Siam.  The first known Siamese twins were born here.

Then again, King Chulalongkorn was especially clever, for he also ceded small parcels of land to various European countries, abolished slavery soon after President Abraham Lincoln, and the top higher education institution is Chulalongkorn University.  He was the son of King Mongkut, played by Yul Brynner in The King and I, and reigned for 40 years.

Heard of bird nest soup?  Thailand has a more expensive version made from the saliva of the swiftlet, and nests collected from Thai caves go for more than $900/pound.  There are supposedly health benefits.

The Thai Cryptotora thamicola, which is a blind, waterfall-climbing cavefish, can crawl on land:

The national flower is called ratchaphruek, or Cassis Fustula Linn.  It is known as the Golden Shower or Rain Tree, and I once thought this was the Gold Tree.

There are 1500 different species of orchids growing wild here, and they are the biggest exporter in the world.  The largest flower grows here, the giant Rafflesia, with an average diameter beyond a yard:

It has the smell of rotting meat.

The elephant is the national animal, but you know what that looks like.  Thailand is home to 10% of all animal species, and is home to the smallest mammal (bumble bat), largest lizard (monitor) and biggest fish (whale shark).  Note that the blue whale is larger, but that is not a fish, it is a mammal.

Tomorrow, a tour of the Grand Palace and other temples.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S FROM BANGKOK!

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