Having "Me" Time

This morning while running, I thought about the upcoming Bangkok Marathon .  I have to get a little more serious in my running.  In 53 days, the Bangkok Marathon will be held as it has been for the past few years.  On November 20, 2011 tens of thousands of people will be out running in the wee mornings of the day.  I will be there.  Let's all be there.  Let's go out, have some exercise and enjoy the experience. For those of you who have never joined the marathon, let me tell you this.  Once you've experienced it, you will want to keep coming back.  It's fun, it's exciting and its open the everyone.  How often do you get to run on the street by the Grand Palace and watch the sunrise?  You don't have to run the entire 42km marathon.  They have the 10K as well as the 5K for you to choose from.  I will be doing the 5K.  I want to run it all and not run. The first time I joined the marathon was 4 years ago, I w...

The vegetarian festival is coming up soon in Bangkok and so if you are looking for somewhere that serves delicious vegetarian food, I recommend this little restaurant called "Thamna".  This literally translates to "farming" in Thai.   It's a lovely little eatery that opened up roughly two years ago and is very close to my office, so close that I had not written about it.  It is, however, one of my all time favorites and somewhere where you can go have a healthy meal. It's a tiny little shop with a cosy ambiance and soft music playing in the background.  Paintings line the walls and it has a somewhat artistic feel to it.  It has roughly 6 tables so I recommend making a reservation if you plan to go there during the peak hours of noon.  Office workers from nearby go to this shop during the lunch break. What kind of food do they serve?  It's a vegetarian restaurant so no meat is served here, only vegetables and lots and lots of mush...

Over the past few days I've been recommending the best of what ancient Bangkok has to offer in terms of sites and cultural heritage for those have only a day to spend.  Below is my recommended itinerary and one that I use when I have friends visiting :)  Hope you like it! Morning :  - Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha Lunch :  Pra Athit Road (There are so many restaurants along this road, I'll mention them in my next post) Afternoon :  - Temple of the Reclining Buddha  - Tea at "Vivi The Coffee Place"  - Cross the river to the Temple of Dawn Evening :  - Dinner at "The Deck" Arun Residence I realize I haven't  really talked about where to eat "Lunch" yet and eating is always a big deal of travel.  Somedays on trips one can spend so much time looking for good delicious food it can be a bit of a headache.  In the next post I'll give you some recommendations about restaurants along "Pra Athit"...

If you are visiting Bangkok or have friends visiting Bangkok, a site you cannot miss is the Grand Palace .  I always believe that to understand a city and its people you have to understand it's past.  The Grand Palace is exactly that.  It is what the old Kingdom of Siam (Thailand before we changed our name) is all about and it is indeed majestic sitting on the banks of the ChaoPhraya River or the River of Kings.  If you are a first time visitor, this should be your first stop, and if you have friends coming over, please take them to the Grand Palace.  It's an amazing site that everytime I go there, I feel like I'm transported into another era.   Bangkok is not just about shopping malls and good food. Amazingly, one can spend years and years in Bangkok living day to day life and probably never see the Grand Palace if you don't make an effort to see it. The city has expanded so much and now the economic centre is far from the ...