In December 2019, we became aware that events we had planned for just after the upcoming New Year had fallen through. At about the same time, we also realized it had been over a year since we had visited a weaving village so planning a quick trip to Thailand and Lao was put on the front burner.

On our last visit to Bangkok we noticed that Phranakorn-Nornlen Hotel, our old favorite Bangkok hotel, had implemented some changes in service (like no longer serving meals on the roof top) that we had enjoyed on previous trips. Additionally, it’s such a great hotel for families with young kids that the number of kids dominating the open air lobby area seemed to increase with each visit.

While not outrageously priced, with the great popularity of the hotel and increased demand; over the years the price of a room at Phranakorn-Nornlen has steadily risen to the point where there are now a lot of other very good hotel/guesthouse options for travelers without children in the same or even lower price range.

So, on this trip we decided to try another hotel.  We really like (and know well) the Phra Nakhon neighborhood so we decided to stay at The Raweekanlaya Bangkok Hotel, located 2 short blocks from Phranakorn-Nornlen.

As usual, we arrived in Bangkok quite late at night but the check-in was friendly and very easy; a theme that would continue through our entire stay.

We were led to our Executive room and found it slightly small but manageable. It was clean with 2 very comfortable beds, a strong Wi-Fi signal but no table, desk or luggage stand. The room overlooks the main street but night time street noise was minimal and didn’t start up all that early in the morning so it really wasn’t a problem.

The room rate included a very nice breakfast with a buffet of Asian and Western options as well as eggs cooked to order. After breakfast each morning we enjoyed sitting near the pool in the well maintained central courtyard garden. We enjoyed friendly service from everyone at the hotel including front desk, restaurant, spa, garden and security personnel.

Other than trying to adjust to the time zone difference, our main objective for our first day was to eat at our 2 favorite Bangkok restaurants. That would start with lunch at Khru Apsorn.

We had a wonderful crab omelet, special of the day fried shrimp cakes and a delicious (big chunks) crab curry. Our waitress failed to deliver our order of Miang Kham but we didn’t really need it. We enjoyed a great-great meal without it.

When we left the restaurant we were having difficulty hailing a cab so we ended up taking a tuk tuk to our next destination. The driver seemed normal enough when we got into the back but by the time we had gone a couple blocks we realized we had hired a crazy man.

He wove in and out of heavy mid-day traffic with a running commentary that alternated between describing (in broken English and pantomime) what we were passing and yelling at other drivers (both with dramatic hand gestures).

Forty-five minutes and 350 baht (or about $12 USD; roughly what it would have cost for a taxi to the airport) got us to within a few blocks of our destination. We hopped out and wandered around for a few minutes trying to figure out what direction to head but eventually made it to our destination with the help of a couple kind strangers.

After we finished our business, we took the BTS Skytrain Silom Line to the Saphan Taskin stop where we could connect with the Chao Phraya Express river boat back to Thewet Pier and a short walk back to our hotel.

IMHO, this boat service is the best sightseeing bargain in Bangkok. For less than $1 USD, we not only got great views from the water of many historical sites like the Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arum and a close up view as we approached and then passed under the Rama VIII bridge, we also got to catch up on new construction of some very garish new hotels that are springing up on the other side of the river.

The second part of our mission for the day was (Pad Thai) dinner at Thip Samai. Our night started with a cab ride straight to the restaurant. We’ve been to this place taking a cab or tuk tuk from the same neighborhood many, many times but this cab driver took us on the quickest most direct route we could ever recall.

When we arrived we found the wait line wasn’t all that long but it was moving slower than normal. We attributed that in part to several small food tour groups that seemed to get ushered to the front of the line but also probably from some changes made to the restaurant itself.

The front room has been closed in and the entire space is now a new modernized kitchen (actually 2 kitchens with 1 devoted to take away). The back room has nice wooden tables and sturdy wooden stools.

The days of making a mad dash for an empty stool when a table cleared are gone as is the sharing of tables. Every guest group is now escorted to their own table. So too gone is much of the sweating that went along with eating here in the past (with a new a/c).

The food is still good and still very affordable but the place has lost a lot of its charm. All-in-all, not quite the same experience but if you are staying in this part of the city, Thip Samai is still a good option for excellent Pad Thai.

Day 2
After hitting the ground running on our first day, this one was bit more low keyed. We had a nice massage at the hotel spa and a 2nd very good lunch at Krua Apsorn.

Our cab driver was impressed when we gave him flawless directions (which we repeated with another cab driver on the way back after lunch).

The chunky crab curry was still excellent but we were dining a little later in the day and the restaurant was a bit busier translating to a meal that was still great but maybe not quite as great as the day before. But we did get our Miang Kham this time.

Still not adjusted to the time difference we took a too long nap that ended up hindering our sleep that night but it felt good at the time. We were dining at a new place (to us) in the neighborhood so we started out on a walk to dinner at Steve Café & Cuisine down the side of the canal thru a wet part of Thewet Market.

But the path got a little complicated working its way around and through Wat Thewarat Kunchorn Worawiharn a beautiful gilded complex and our phone GPS turned out to be a bit confused. After a few missteps we found the right alleyway to follow and were able to get a table on the edge of the deck overlooking the canal and river.

We dined on Massaman curry, coconut milk mushroom chili soup and 3 giant fried prawns, which were closer to the size of a small lobster than any shrimp or prawn we’ve ever seen.

Our corner waterside table gave us great views of the canal on one side and the iconic nighttime view of the well lit Rama VIII bridge against the night sky as shown in the photo at the top of this page.

The food was good, the service was friendly and other than the giant prawns, the price very reasonable. We weren’t unhappy with the dish but probably wouldn’t order it again.

The walk back to the hotel was quite a bit more direct (i.e. quicker) and took us by happy locals having dinner on plastic tables and chairs set up each evening along the canal by venders with mobile carts. We couldn’t eat another bite but saw lots of tempting whole grilled fish and other dishes as well.

The next morning we were off to Chiang Mai.