Day One in Bangkok - Singapore Sling

My fresh off the plane energy to explore a new city was pretty shortlived. An hour of Koh San Rd craziness sent me back to my hotel ready for some rest. Old Bangkok Inn did not disappoint, bringing me a pot of hot vanilla tea, fresh homemade cookies, and a selection of DVDs. Hotel Rwanda had me in tears 2 hours later (especially considering that story only took place 14 years ago right next door to Tanzania...), but I still felt rested and was ready for more Bangkok. Working off Mom's recommendation list (a compilation from her time in Bangkok 20 years ago and the NY Times 36 hour guide), I headed to the Oriental Hotel for a delicious Singapore Sling and a view of the river...
Decided to work off my very strong drink by walking to dinner at Eat Me, an artsy dinner place about 45 min walk from the Oriental, and also on the NY Time's list. Maybe I ordered poorly, or maybe I was just tired and overly picky (read cranky), but I left feeling like my food was pretty tasteless, overpriced (and thats hard to do in Thailand) and the atmosphere was very "you could be at any over priced hipster mod restaurant in the world right now because they all look feel the same" Ah well...

Taxi ride home was an adventure...I had been warned that taxi drivers in Bangkok dont really speak english, and the hotel had given me a map written in Thai to show the driver where my hotel was. Just to be extra sure, I even asked the driver before i got in the cab if he knew where the hotel on the map was...two drivers shook their heads no at this question. #3 seemed confident and I got in. 45 minutes later i had given up on him getting to my hotel on his own and directed him to take me to koh san rd. Once we were there I made him go slowly block by block as I navigated with hand signals based on my walk to Koh San Rd from the hotel earlier in the day. After an hour driving what should have taken 10 minutes, I was so happy to crawl into bed...