We stayed in Bangkok at the Marriott Renaissance Ratchaprasong for 3 nights using one free night certificate and 20,000 Marriott Points per night (total of 40,000 points) for the other 2 nights. Normally the hotel was $215/night ($645 for 3 nights), but we were lucky enough to get it for free. In addition to having the free nights, we called Marriott a few days prior to arriving and asked them to give us a Platinum elite level challenge (i.e. give us temporary Platinum status with Marriott for 3 months and if we stay at Marriott hotels 9 times before July, they'll let us keep the Platinum status for ~18 months). Platinum status with Marriott is normally only given to those that stay more than 75 nights per year at Marriott hotels. The benefits to having Platinum status are pretty sweet: free buffet breakfast and access to the club lounge which serves free drinks all day, generous offerings for morning and afternoon tea, and appetizers and deserts around 5pm. We took full advantage of the club lounge when we were not out exploring Bangkok.
We arrived fairly early (~9am) to our hotel after taking the redeye flight from Perth through Singapore and making our way via public transport (BTS train) from the Bangkok airport to the Chit Lom station which was right next to the hotel. We dropped our stuff, had a shower and some breakfast, and were quickly on our way to the river to take the water taxis to see some of the sights. We were able to see the Grand Palace, and the reclining Buddah (I guess they're impressive if you are into that kind of thing...not our cup of tea). We stopped to get 1 hour couples foot massages and another hour long couples traditional Thai massages (basically a mix of yoga and massage where they contort and stretch your body certain ways and give you a deep tissue massage while you are in that position). We took a tuk tuk back to the hotel and stopped for some lunch/dinner before heading down the river on a boat to wander the markets and see the ladyboys cabaret show Calypso (a bit disturbing). It was a late night by the time we got back to the hotel and we were exhausted and slept in pretty late the next morning.
After getting up late the next morning, we headed to Chinatown via the water taxis on the river system and wandered around a bit, sampling some of the street cuisine and different types of fruit and navigating our way through the mazes of trinkets and shops. We stopped back at the hotel for some food and a nap, and headed out to the more crowded areas of Bangkok at night just to wander the streets and take in the sights and smells.
Day 3 we hired a private car and driver to take us about 2 hours outside Bangkok to Sampran to see some elephants and crocodiles. We saw an elephant show where the elephants were trained to kick soccer balls into goals and do all kinds of tricks. We fed the elephants and took some pictures...the elephants were trained to take the Thai money (Baht) from your hand before you could snap a picture with them. We also saw a crocodile show where the guys were wrestling the crocodiles and sticking their heads in the crocodiles' mouths just after the crocs were snapping at them...fairly entertaining. The highlight of our entire Bangkok experience was the Muay Thai fight that we attended at Lumpini stadium. The stadium is not air conditioned; it is hot, sweaty, and packed with locals, who are loud, pushy, and betting on every fight (there are 10 fights total...the whole thing lasts about 4-5 hours). It's a pretty cool atmosphere with a lot going on around you. Luckily, the first couple rows around the ring are reserved for the non-Thai tourists. Tourists pay about 10-20 times as much for the tickets as the locals do, but you get comfortable ringside seats and don't have to deal with the crowds and risk getting robbed or worse. The action moves pretty fast, there is not a lot of downtime between fights. The fighters each go through some sort of spiritual ritual before every fight that looks like a dance, but they are very into it and almost emotional when they are going about it. The fights are pretty intense, blood, bruises, and some pretty good kicks and punches. You're right close to the action and you can see every move. This was definitely the highlight of Bangkok for us.
It was a fairly late night by the time we got home...typical of Bangkok I guess. We were off early the next day to our next destination - Koh Samui.
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