Update on Sukhumhvit Soi 11, Sukhumvit Bangkok Thailand

Faithful readers of this Amazing Thailand travel blog – I know there’s one out there somewhere! – will know that one of my favourite sois (side street) in Bangkok is Sukhumvit Soi 11 which I blogged about a little while ago.

I just revisited the area, while staying at Le Fenix boutique hotel, and there’s a few places you really should know about …

The first is Bawarchi Restaurant, which is an Indian place about 100m on the right into the soi from the Sukhumvit Road Asok BTS station end. Neither the service nor surroundings are particularly flash but it’s all about the food. You know I always bang on about the Indian food in Bangkok in places such as Himali Cha Cha and Rang Mahal, well this is almost up there … but without the character, charm and ambience the others offer as part of the experience.

But if you want a damn good paneer, or chicken ticcas in gravy served to the accompaniment of lively and sultry Bollywood videos, this is the place, jing jing. Dinner for 2, with no alcohol, was 888 baht. (I know what you’re thinking – no alchohol, why not???) That's not even $30 to you for a great restaurant meal out.

If you’ve overdone the Thai curries and the Indian curries, your innards are threatening mutiny, and you just want something your poorly travelled stomach might recognize as real food, then just keep going on up the soi for a couple of hundreds metres or so till you find the Aussie Pub. Burgers and beers done just right, with football (any shape of ball you can think of) on the big screen.

That should keep you going. And then there’s still so much more to move on to in Soi 11 any time of day and night …

Read my previous Soi 11 blog here for some of the other nocturnal attractions of one of Bkk's hottest (or is that coolest?) streets.

Amazing Thailand's value compared to Singapore

I just returned from Singapore where I paid SGD$100 per night for a shoebox cleverly disguised as a boutique hotel. Forget about room to swing the cat -- I would've bludgeoned the poor thing to death on the walls accidentally on the first revolution.

It was pleasant enough, with an OK location in an interesting Chinatown neighbourhood, but it was a shoebox all the same – complete with rooms without windows. And breakfast was sachets of 3-in-1 coffee and a do-it-yourself peanut butter toasted sandwich, burned while the grinning Chinese duty manager stood there burping in the corner, jing jing.

Now, dear readers, SGD$100 is equal to about 2600 baht per night.  I know places in Chiang Mai where you get an airy room with views of the mountains, a bath tub, and a full American breakfast, all for 650 baht (that's a ridiculous $30 or so). And 2000-2500 baht a night boutique hotels in Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, which include designer chic inclusions, near-BTS locations, a wonderful cooked breakfast selection, and all the smiles you can possibly handle.

If you want to see what you can get for around 2500 baht per night in Thailand (around 80 or 90 real dollars), go to any of the popular hotel booking sites like agoda, asiarooms.com, bookings.com and put in that price range for the destination of your choice, then stand back as the avalanche of choice floods out of your screen.

Just think: what do you get for $80-90 a night in your country? See, travel to Thailand is cheaper than staying home.

That, dear readers, is Amazing Thailand’s amazing value …