We arrive in Bangkok's very new international airport, an impressive hyper-industrial achievement that I photographed quite a bit. We chose our immigration/passport line very badly (totally my fault), so it was hours before we got to our street, Khao San Road. Khao San is quite a scene, with a teen/20-something hippie backpacker pop-cultured sea of people from all over the world (including Thais fortunately) roaming a quarter mile stretch of blocked-off pavement sporting Che and Diesel shirts, munching on street-cooked pad thai, listening to pretty good rock and dance tunes playing everywhere, and generally checking each other out. We entered and exited this stage many times over the next 3 days as our hotel, the D&D (another good suggestion by Pallavi - Madh's sister for those who don't know), was right in the heart of it.
Srini (Madhavi's brother for those who don't know) joined us the next day, which we mostly spent in the hotel's internet room pouring 10-baht coins into the computers every 20 minutes as we wrote our blog and I did some work on a painfully tedious project that I cursed myself with years ago. On day 3 we finally escaped Khao San and did some light touring of the town, happening upon some deliciously sweet samosas from a street vendor (we never could find her again).
We randomly ended up on a public riverboat, just riding along and jumping off at a stop to find ourselves at the footsteps of the famous Oriental hotel. The hotel's facade is surprinsingly bland though the lobby is very elegant with a giant wall-window providing nice natural light and a view of the beautfully landscaped poolside. The smell of jasmine filled the air and orchids adorned every corner. Madhavi shook her head in disapproval and embarassment as I continued to shoot pics left and right - I was addicted to my (OK, our) new Canon Powershot G7, a very cool compact camera with SLR-like manual features; some of you may understand. We sat for drinks with the international super-rich; my "drink" was rum raisin ice cream swimming in espresso - mmmm. 
We went back to our hotel for some Thai massage in a large open-air bamboo tent on the rooftop: $9/hour - I'm serious. We each had an hour and a half - Madhavi wisely chose an aromatherapy massage while Srini and I were assaulted by our masseuses in Thai style. Thai massage is all about point-pressuring or stretching every muscle to the verge of pain (or to actual pain). I'm exaggerating, of course, but it is scary at times and my little 95-pound masseuse giggled at her ability to make me squeal as she contorted my helpless body parts into previously unknown positions. You are more limber afterwards, no doubt.That night we had our best Thai dining experience at Tongue Thai restaurant - good ambience and great tom yum soup, pad thai, and green curry. Srini had somehow skipped the whole jet lag phase and we were having a good time. Off to Chiang Mai the next day.
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