First full day in Bangkok, Sunday, December 28, 2014.

This is a high energy city! I am still tired from getting here, 20 hours of flying and losing 15 hours of time to the international date line. This is destined to be a low-key day with two goals: (1) get a SIM card and phone number for my Thai phone, and (2) visit the Jim Thompson House Museum.

But first, breakfast. The breakfast buffet at the InterContinental Hotel Bangkok was excellent. Here was my first course, fruit, a danish, and granola. Mmmm. (I forgot to photograph my second course of eggs and bacon and toast…also very tasty and very western.)

This is part of the lobby of the InterContinental Bangkok. The mezzanine is where the breakfast and dinner buffet is held.

The next item on the agenda was to get new SIM card and phone number for my Thai phone. I could not use the number from last year, because if you do not use a number for 9 months, it goes away. I went to a shopping center called MBK where there are many phone kiosks, even more than at the airport. A few challenges with language barrier made the process slow, but when I was referred to the right person, she knew exactly what to do, so I now have a Thai phone number and plenty of minutes for the next few weeks.  MBK was recommended because it was at the same sky train stop as the Jim Thompson House and Museum.

Jim Thompson House Museum

I have been to the Jim Thompson House Museum before, and Wow! Better than I remembered!

Jim Thompson was an American architect who served in the U.S. Army Intelligence in World War II in Thailand near the end of the war. He returned to Thailand to live and was instrumental in resurrecting the Thai silk industry. He built a home from 6 traditional Thai houses put together, and inside were his collections of antiques, porcelain, sculpture, and art.

A stunning collection, for which I can share no pictures, as photographing inside the buildings is not allowed. This is outside, underneath one of the houses (traditional Thai houses are built with an open ground floor, and the living space on the second floor).

The grounds and garden are quite beautiful, peaceful and quiet.

Had a light lunch at the Jim Thompson restaurant, vegetable spring rolls and a pineapple/ginger smoothie…very good. (The spring rolls were oily, not so great.)

On arriving back at the hotel at about 3:30, and feeling tired, I asked the concierge if it would be at all possible to get a body scrub and a massage at this late hour on a Sunday. She (name Jam) pulled out two brochures, one for the Oasis Spa and one for the InterContinental Spa. She called the Intercontinental Spa first, and they had an opening at 4:30! Perfect. I had a lavender-sea salt body scrub, and an oil massage with a rejuvenating oil in which lavender was the most obvious scent (or perhaps I still smelled like lavender from the body scrub). The experience was excellent! And I did feel somewhat rejuvenated.

Not feeling like going out for dinner, I checked out the options in the hotel. The restaurant at the mezzanine where breakfast was held is a dinner buffet. Too much food for my needs and price.

There is an Italian restaurant downstairs, and I had a very nice small salad and spaghetti carbonara (too hungry to take a picture…I ate the whole thing). Very nice meal.

Next: A busy day in Bangkok