Heading into Bangkok and The Dream Hotel
Summer Premium Adventures
In this Summer Premium Adventure (Warning: Long!)
- In the Summertime when the weather is hot…
- Off to Heathrow, British Airways Galleries North Lounge
- BA762 London Heathrow to Oslo – A321neo (EuroTraveller)
- Oslo Airport, OSL Lounge
- AY914 Oslo to Helsinki, Business Class
- Helsinki Airport lounging
- QR302 Helsinki to Doha (Business Class)
- Doha Lounge Stop Part 1
- QR946 Doha to Singapore (QSuites)
- Hotel Indigo, Katong, Singapore
- Exploring Hawker Markets
- Intercontinental, Bugis, Singapore
- Orchids Everywhere – The National Orchid Garden
- Off to Changi featuring the Singapore Pokemon Centre
- Scoot TR604 Singapore to Bangkok
- Dream Hotel, Bangkok
- Exploring the Wats
- Food Mistakes in Bangkok (Or Regrets. I have a more than a few)
- Back to Suvarnabhumi, Qatar Airways Lounge, Bangkok Airport
- QR833 Bangkok to Doha (QSuites)
- Another long Doha Layover
- QR175 Doha to Oslo
- Back at Oslo Airport
- BA767 Oslo to London Heathrow (EuroTraveller)
- Homeward bound
- Always Curious
Off to into Bangkok, The Dream Hotel
Landing in Bangkok, it was time to negotiate this vast airport. As I have no awareness of where we docked or the layout of the airport, all I knew was that there was a bunch of walking ahead.
Who needs step counters when you’re holiday? 10,000 steps is easy…
Bye Scooties.
Off we go.
Hike, Hike, Hike…
Although considering how tight I had been crammed in that Scoot flight, this was more than welcome at this point to the game to give my legs a decent stretch.
What kind of sellout do you want to be? Nivea Lip Balm Brown!
There’s an end to this somewhere.
Oh. More Walking. Delightful.
Eventually, I found my way to immigration, where there were queues, incomplete customs forms and all the fun of the fair.
Nearing the Immigration hall
Joy.
A completed form, a few pens lent to an Irish contingent, and some biometrics took, I was allowed into Thailand. Thankfully, by the time I got to the luggage belt, my bag was waiting for me… along with everyone elses.
Last Bag
With that in hand, I exited the secure area.
The first task in Thailand was a simple one: get a SIM Card. Whilst the roaming deal I have with Three UK is pretty good in the countries I can roam into, for countries outside the agreement – it gets pricey fast at £6 per megabyte.
Yes. £6 or $8 per megabyte. Not a sustainable price by any stretch of the imagination.
I went with a 299 Baht (£8) AIS SIM card that had has 3Gb of data, 100 baht credit and so on. Enough for the odd call home, and all the Google Maps/Grab/Pokemon Go I could need.
With that in hand, came the next fun thing to do – get from the airport to downtown. With a choice of Grab or Train – and still a manageable baggage load, I chose the train, that would need me to take the Airport Rail Link from the airport to Phaya Thai, then the Sukhumvit line to Nana for the short walk to the hotel.
Of course, these systems aren’t linked with a single smart card system – there are different systems for each of them
In the end, I got a token to ride the train for a grand total of 45 baht for the journey to Phaya Thai.
RFID Ticket token
As for the trains – those in the UK will recognise them straight away as a derivative of the Seimens Desiro – but with a lot heavier air conditioning packs. However, the insides would scare commuters who are used to moquette covered seats in 2-2 or 2-3 formation. Instead, we have plastic benches.
“Express” train (they’re all local trains – Express trains have been suspended for a while)
Imagine if they ripped up the seats on your Essex Commuter trains and just put benches in their place. Imagine the outcry. Popcorn anyone?
On the plus side, doing this in the south-east of England would dramatically increase the standing room – at the detriment of wanting to sit down
The Airport Rail Link is a reasonable service (even if the express service was phased out), and at 45 baht – it’s very good value.
Closing in on Central Bangkok.
Transferring to the BTS Skytrain was fun, with another ticket needed – I would save getting a Rabbit card for another trip as I had some coins for the short ride to Nana.
And no, my hotel wasn’t in Nana Plaza. Get your mind out of the gutter people.
Exiting the train at Nana, I walked straight into a thunderstorm. Oh well, the weather deities were due to drop something like this on me – and this seemed as good as time as any.
Oh well. It was bound to happen on this trip sooner rather than later.
Walking through the rain… wasn’t cooling – just annoying, with warm rain and steaming up sunglasses. Never a good mix.
Thankfully, Google maps didn’t let me down – and I turned off the Sumuervit and onto one of its side roads.
As well as finding the pavement with my ankle, I eventually hobbled to my hotel – The Dream Hotel Bangkok.
Dream Hotel Bangkok
Booked via Agoda – £120 for two nights.
I was welcomed to the hotel, and my passport was taken. If there was one thing I was starting to learn about Bangkok is that everyone loves to take a passport for government regulations.
I was asked if I wanted to either add breakfast or a late check out to my rate. In retrospect, a late check out would have been great – and not for the reasons I had liked.
Reception Area
With the formalities done, two keycards were issued, and I was off to the 3rd floor.
Exiting the lift was the spa, and not far onward- my room
Blue LED’s everywhere.
So, let’s take a look at this room – which is massive considering. There are a few stand-out features – with the TV system being driven via an Android box, allowing for content streaming. Meanwhile, the bed itself was pretty comfortable and stable.
Turned down.
TV
The hotel offered two bottles of free water too, along with additional water for purchase.
Free water.
Not so free water (220 Baht!)
Good luck swinging from this chandelier.
The bathroom itself was modern, with considerate touches in amenities. Which as the final day in Bangkok wore on… would be welcome.
Excuse the fool in the mirror.
If you want it put a sticker on it.
Shower.
The air conditioning unit in this hotel was powerful – there’s no other way to describe it. Put it like this – one of my rain-soaked shirts remained rather wet the entire time, without it getting a chance to dry out.
With free hotel wi-fi, I was able to plan out things I wanted to do on the fly, as well as work out where to get .
Check out was managed with ease, with the hotel able to store luggage for me between my adventures outside.
Overall: Not a bad property at all. The staff are friendly, with some impressive amenities. If you’re heading to Bangkok and want to skip some of the chains, this could really be a good match for you if you’re prepared to give up hotel points and rather enjoy a hotel for being a hotel with its own identity.
Next: Exploring some of Bangkok’s famous Wats.
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