BANGKOK - DAY 9

Today was a pretty quiet and lazy day. We started off at lunchtime as usual, with a trip to Soi Lalaisap, a must-visit on every trip to BKK, introduced by my friend Sue. The name of the soi in English means 'money-disappearing lane'. Like Chatuchak, it's highly likely that you'll leave the place with a lighter pocket. This is a local market that's popular with locals and is especially crowded during lunchtime. I don't believe I saw a single Caucasian when we were there. One can have a cheap, delicious meal at any eatery if one can find a seat. The stuff is cheap, especially baby and kids' clothes, about a dollar a piece. I left the place with a bagful of clothes for Meg and my friends' kids, thoroughly satisfied! Be prepared to sweat it out though, it's hard work going through a binful of clothes in the sweltering heat!
Too tired after Lalaisap, we went back to the hotel room to rest and freshen up, and then headed down to our favourite Siam area for dinner. We purchased a BTS pass so that we wouldn't have to buy tix everytime we rode the BTS. There was a special promotion at the time, 25 trips for a flat fee of 22B per trip. We didn't eventually use up all of it with about 8 trips left.
I don't know what it is about Vanilla Industry but we ended up there again for dinner, the branch at Siam Square. The food is good, the cafe inviting and they've got lovely cakes and sweets on the ground floor bakery. MJ wanted to go for a patisserie making class up on the third floor, but the procrastinator didn't get round to it.
The prawn bisque soup is heavenly...all three of us were dipping our spoons into it furiously!
The calamari was good, but not special...
The tea is served on a small cute tray, complete with a cookie which Meg never fails to have at the end.
It comes in many flavours...MJ picked 'Black Vanilla'.
Their crepes are very good. We had two, bacon and egg and ham and mushroom, both came with a complimentary banana and nutella crepe each!
We were stuffed at the end of the meal!
One pretty soi at Siam Square decorated with tree lights.
At first we thought it was just Christmas lights strewn around the tree, but upon a closer look, we saw that the entire tree was fake and the leaves were actually lights which changed colour every few seconds.
After dinner, MJ went for a massage opposite Novotel while Meg and I went back to the hotel room to start packing.