This time last year in Bangkok, Thailand

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In the past four years, every year around this time of the month hundreds of people from around the world, connected by an online platform, will gather at one place in the world for their rendezvous. I made it to one of these meetings last year in Bangkok, and like many of the attendees, was looking forward to this year's meeting, where ever it would be. Alas, Covid got in our way, and now we're all sitting at home twiddling our thumbs and fingers, wondering where we'll be this time next year.

This is when I dig out my photos from last year, and think, those were the good old days. Even a normal random day in Bangkok, seem so special now.
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Lunch

My day starts at lunchtime because I'm a late owl. This place is near my hotel and I had my eye on it since I first saw it a couple of days ago. I like its modern spacious seating area, but I was even more drawn to something I saw outside the cafe.
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It's these little fried bread sticks. We have something similar in Hong Kong, but longer, like chopstick length, and dunk them in rice porridge. These were served differently, and I was intrigued to find out what they taste like. I'll come back to that in a minute.
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Lunch first. Thai milk tea of course. I fell rapidly in love with it during my short stay in Bangkok. Roast pork rice is popular Bangkok and they're pretty good. The only thing that I wasn't too keen on was the gravy, we don't have that in Hong Kong Kong. Nevertheless, you do in Rome as the Roman does. Not complaining, it's just an observation.
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Back to the fried break sticks. I ordered a portion, which I found out was called Pa Tong Go, with coconut milk sauce. You can also have orange, chocolate or strawberry sauce, but hey, I was in Thailand, of course it's going to be coconut milk sauce. What else?! They were yummy because I've never had these savoury fried bread sticks as a sweet before, the coconut milk balanced it really well. And the freshly grated coconut gave it extra bite.
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As I was digging in, the owner came over, picked up a piece of the po tong go and dunked it into my Thai milk tea. What the heck!!!!! Then he handed it over to me and told me to try it. I was a bit suspicious, but then.... Boy!!! Was that good!!!!! It took it to a totally new level. How come I never found out about this before. What have I been missing all my whole life!!!!!!!
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River boat ride

With my belly full and satisfied with a new discovery, we decided to go on a river boat ride. It can be quite scarey if you've never been before. That's exactly how I felt the first time I went a few days ago. And that was during morning peak hour. I knew the drill and what to expect now so was confident to take hubby for his first boat ride.

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The river boat ride was very nice and much more relaxing than the morning peak hour river ride which was jam packed with commuters, but nevertheless fun. It was very interesting to see how the riverside is developed, mixing old and new properties.

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We got off at Central Pier (I think), and we were going to just wander around town. Then I saw a fancy stand for a shuttle ferry to Icon Siam. I remember watching a video from @beyondpadthai about this spanking new shopping mall and it look bling bling glam. With nothing particularly planned for the day, we caught the shuttle ferry over to Icon Siam.

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IconSiam

IconSiam is bling bling glam, but not the vulgar bling bling glam, more of a classy bling bling glam. It's massive and with the layout you can see right across the mall from one end to the other. Ok not all the way, but nearly.

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I saw all the luxury high end brands here, a shopping mecca for ladies, and maybe the guys as well. But if the guys aren't into luxury fashion, how about a Marserati, a Porsche or maybe even a Rolls Royce? Toyota's are available as well, but who want's a Toyota when you can buy a luxury sports car?

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My favourite part in the entire Icon Siam is the waterfall fountain on the 6th floor. This is an amazing 15 meter waterfall that changes colours and creates patterns and words as it drops from the ceiling to the ground.

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I made a video of this with my mobile phone and after recording, my neck ached so much!! I hope you will enjoy the video, and I'd be grateful if you can keep it running for the duration (go get yourself a coffee if you like) as I need to ramp up my viewing time on my channel 😅.

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It's exactly a year since I flew into Bangkok for SteemFest4, hopefully next year this time I'll be at HiveFest 5 and I'll see you there.





You can checkout all my travel post on the Pinmapple here or click on Mr Pinmapple below



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33 comments
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A year ago.., blimey. How the time passes. Your food looks a lot better than those white balls we were eating at that dodgy market place. @goblinknackers couldn't finish his!

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Those were ok, but I've definitely had better ones before, pity we didn't have a chance to take him to some place else. How's he doing nowadays anyway.

Pity about this year, I was so looking forward to my second one/ 1st HiveFest.

Hope you guys are fine up north, sounds pretty bad. ☹️

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The next one was rumoured to be in Cancun, Mexico. Would you have gone? It was all STEEM this time last year. Could we have envisaged one year into the future and what was about to happen?

I am still in touch with him, I think between contracts.

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Never been to Mexico before, that would have been nice but its a long way and cost quite a bit more, dunno really.... Was that something about making it easier for certain people who might not be able to get US visas 😜

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I missed that Chao Phraya river and Icon Siam

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Me too. My first visit to Bangkok for a long time was a very eventful trip, I really enjoyed it.

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How insane that this was only a year ago. To look at photos like this now and think - boy oh boy, we didn't see 2020 coming did we?????????/

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We saw it coming, but not like this, now way anyone could have thought something no one can see can turn the whole world round 😡

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I really thought we probably see each other again this year but who have thought 2020 turned out like how it is now .....

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My wife told me earlier today that it was one year since we flew to Thailand. I miss that place so much. I can’t wait to go back there. Thanks for sharing these memories.

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We have a friend living in Bangkok and were really hoping to see him this year. This post makes me want to go right now 🙃

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I think we'll all be happy to travel anywhere right now 😌

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so true, i just had to take a boat ride into Moalboal Coastguard office to get the new numbers put on the Diveboat and it felt like a day out haha. I might post it later

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Yeah, I have been thinking a lot of this time last year too :D
What a pretty fountain. The patterns looked like they were kinda getting ready for Christmas :D
And you right, it wasn't tacky - classy is the word :D

Watched till the end!!

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Looks like a really cool place. It would be a bit off putting having a stranger grab a piece of your food, even if its to show you something that you're missing. I guess you wouldn't see that sort of thing nowadays hahaha.
Sounds like a good meal, other than the gravy.

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The Thais are a really friendly bunch, and he did use a skewer. I guess if there was no language barrier, he'd probably come up and say Hey, let me show you how to eat this the proper way, instead of just picking up my food. But it's all part of the fun, I didn't mind 😃!!

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I missed the part about him using a skewer. That makes sense. I thought he plucked it up with his fingers hahaha.
Thats a funny and cool experience. Odd things and encounters like that are what you remember about a trip years later. Cool!

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I've really missed my trips to Bangkok this year. I normally go a couple of times to see friends. Great sights, amazing shopping, fantastic food, and friendly people.

What more could you ask for in a city break?

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I particularly liked the buzz at Icon Siam coz I had been living in Taiwan for 3 years, and they don't have malls on that cosmopolitan scale. So it was nice to be back in a mall with 'westernised' vibe.

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