My first post! It’s about my first trip to Thailand.
Day 1
Arrived around noon, got the eSIM set up, and went to the hotel to dump my bags before going to a tattoo consultation to iron out a design. The traffic was nuts, and it was during peak jam hours and along Sukhumvit Road (I ended up being 30 mins late, ha).
Afterward, we went to Iconsiam for dinner. The water village-type decor was pretty cool, and I bought this wooden painted bunny from one of the souvenir shops.
Day 2
We went back to Iconsiam in the morning. I was stoked to see the Little Prince Universe exhibit (admission was 1,150 ฿), as I first read the storybook during uni, and I still think of the book tenderly (it helped me through those times).
In the first room, you met the little prince standing on the planet he crash-landed on. There’s a fan thing around him so his cape blows in the wind. Then there was a room full of roses from floor to ceiling. It was surreal. Soft cool white lights twinkled among the ceiling roses. There was a special large rose whose petals closed and opened on their own.
In another room, there was the little prince sitting on his old planet, gazing pensively at his rose under the bell jar that she had asked for to protect her from draughts. With just the star-speckled purple night sky walls all around, it feels like we’re intruding on a private moment between the prince and his rose.
In the next room, the little prince was laying on the grass above his fox’s den, watching him bounding up to the mouth of his den, doing a happy little twirl, and then disappearing back into the darkness. Stopping to watch I thought of the passage where the fox asked the prince to tame him, and how touching their departure from each other was.
Next, there was a room where the little prince left the planet. It was sad. It felt sad.
The other room had a screen where the prince was digging up the baobabs that plagued his home planet. It was an interactive screen where tiny baobabs sprouted up endlessly into existence, and the aim was to throw little plastic balls at the baobabs to get rid of them. It was a sisyphean game where every time you got rid of one tree, another one popped up somewhere else.
Finally, there was a wall you could write on with markers. I managed to find a little spot to write something on. It’s a little messy because the ink was running out and I had to keep retracing my letters.
Afterward, we looked at the merch shop. I got some postcards, badge pins, a shirt, and a rose. Hanging on a tag from the rose was the fox’s wisdom: “If, for example, you come at four o’ clock in the afternoon, then at three o’clock I shall begin to be happy.” I’m keeping the tag on.
The admission fee included two little canvases that you could colour in and keep. You got to choose from 4 types of drawings – I chose the rose (the relationship between her and the prince is sentimental to me) and the sheep (because it’s so cute!).
I also went into the Doraemon exhibit just adjacent (tix were 690 ฿). It was also pretty neat!
Day 2
AM – I went to the Butterfly Park & Insectarium. Unfortunately I also got lost trying to find it, and I thought I would be in and out so quick that it wouldn’t matter I was wearing a long-sleeved black thick dress out in 11am Bangkok heat and humidity. It was a beautiful park, but I was tired, sweating, overheated, dehydrated, my back was hurting, and I had no idea where the butterfly exhibit was or how deep in Chatuchak park I already was.
I was starting to regret not spending more time mapping things out before taking a cab to the park, when I finally found it after walking like 2km?
I was running out of time for my next stop, so I just decided to operate on a “take pictures first, Google Lens later” principle.
PM – Rushed back to my hotel to grab some things, then booked a cab to Prince Mahidol University Hall to attend Ray Chen’s concert (Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major) which starts at 3 (he’s one of my violin heroes!) and arrived there at 2.45-ish? Mercifully, everyone was still just milling around outside the hall.
I took my tickets but when I asked to buy the poster, the girl said something to me in Thai and when I just stared at her in confusion, she crossed her hands in a big X and said “no more”. I asked if I could still get Ray to sign my programme after the concert, and they had no idea what I was trying to say, so I typed it out in Google Translate. They talked to each other for a bit, which gave me hope. The next moment they said, no, you can’t, sorry. It was thirty seconds of emotional whiplash. I was hoping to get his signature so I could hang it on my wall as inspiration haha. How often do I get to go to an Asian neighbouring country where Ray just so happens to be playing my beloved Tchaikovsky as part of his tour lineup!? I’ve looked at his tour dates and they’re all in the US, or Europe, or China, or somewhere equally beyond what I can afford to fly to.
I got seats in the sweet spot/middle of the hall. The lights dimmed and the orchestra started tuning. (While they did that, I sat there, unable to believe how serendipitous it was that 1) he happened to be performing in the exact country I was planning to visit before/after Raya and 2) I had procrastinated booking my flight and hotel tickets for so long, that by the time his tour venues were announced, I still hadn’t booked anything and was free to choose flights & hotels that accommodated his concert date.)
The Thai Philharmonic Orchestra started with a piece called ‘Unfolding’. Ray came on after that. I’ll never forget how it felt to sit there and actually hear, in person, those soft, warm, first few orchestral notes of the movement before his part started. It felt like new beginnings. Like regardless of whatever happened in life after leaving the concert, there was still infinite hope and one could always start again. I don’t know, it was like I had been ‘cured’ of something I forgot I had, like some sort of acute work-related depression that hung around long enough that I had forgotten it was there, always just in the background.
And, I’ll admit, I cried during the movement (mercifully, it was dark inside). 4,500kms away from Bangkok now, I can still close my eyes, listen to the recording, and still feel like I’m sitting there again in the middle of the hall. I can still remember the entire range of emotions I felt from beginning to end of the concert.
After he finished, he generously humoured the audience long enough to play three other pieces. Something by Ysaÿe, something by Bach, and lastly Waltzing Matilda. I couldn’t really hear what he was saying in his speech once he reverted to his Aussie accent, and all I remember is him telling us the Matilda one was about a ghost story of some sort.
After his exit, the orchestra continued with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 (?). It was beautiful but that’s also where I started nodding off (I’m sorry, Thai Phil!). The unplanned long morning walks (because I got lost) and logistical stressors (being given wrong directions, getting scammed by a cab, panicking about being late the entire drive to the venue, etc) that morning left me so drained that after staying awake long enough to hear the concerto, my body just gave up trying to fight against sleep.
After the concert, we all waited around for Ray’s signing. Unfortunately, without a poster, I couldn’t meet him, take a photo together, or get his signature. I felt so deeply disappointed about being too late to buy one. But after thinking about it, how many people are lucky enough to hear their musical idols perform live, much less their favourite piece? I think that I still carry the experience with me, and maybe that’s all I really need, even if I couldn’t get an autograph.
Day 3
It was already late in the evening when I got back to the hotel, so I just ordered Grab Food from this place called Kaizen Sushi & Hibachi. Oh my goodness, the sashimi was so thick and juicy, I couldn’t even finish it. I had to put it in the fridge to eat the next day. It made my local Kaizen’s sashimi portions look laughable in comparison. The prices were ok as well, and it only took like 45 mins from order placement to delivery.
Day 4
I went to this place called Rabbito cafe. From my understanding, they take in abandoned/dumped rabbits from the streets and post out adoption notices for the bunnies. Upon entering you’ll see a little fenced-off area with hidey houses, a decorative tree stump, etc. with a bunch of bunnies hopping around. Some of the bunnies are in cages but they get let out in turns and also to interact with the shop visitors.
Mint chocolate drink.
It was my first time petting a mini rex. They’re so unbelievably soft! How are they even real?
Bunnies everywhere!
This lil dude peed on me.
Rabbito Cafe IG: https://www.instagram.com/rabbite_cafo/?hl=en
Day 5
Went to SeaLife @ Siam Paragon (admission: 1,650 ฿).
We went for dinner at this place called Victoria by Cocotte at EmQuartier. It looked super expensive but it was late into the night, and it was the first restaurant just by the entrance, and we were hungry and really tired so we didn’t care. Any port in a storm. But the food was lovely!
Day 6
Went to Miffy Cafe!
I also got a tattoo of Salika birds. I’d wanted this tattoo since exactly a year ago, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
Highlights from the trip:
✅ Attended an amazing performance by my fave violinist playing my fave classical piece
✅ Got to interact with a fluffle of cute bunnies, and share a sweet moment with a bunny who looked like my late Obi Bun
✅ Got to see a life-sized exhibition of a book from my uni years that had taught me some important lessons
✅ Reminded me that life has richer and deeper moments than just the daily grind, if you can make time to seek them out
✅ Gain more confidence when travelling around new countries
✅ Tick one country off my bucket list and open my mind a little. Granted, I didn’t have much time to do much cultural sight-seeing, which is why I only said ‘a little’.
Well, this entire post reads like a political manifesto… Anyway, I’d definitely love to go to Thailand again some day (probably Chiang Mai next time).