Thailand Throwback – Bangkok (Part 1)
Getting There
Since Andrew and I don’t have anything planned for a while, I thought I would recap on our Thailand trip from last year. Our trip started off pretty rocky, but lucky for us it wasn’t a foreshadowing of the days to come. In case you are wondering – apparently travel insurance doesn’t really do you any good unless you are willing/need to scrap your entire trip. Our flight itinerary was Kansas City – Chicago – Seoul – Bangkok. Being a stereotypical February in the Midwest, a huge winter storm decided it would lay waste to KC and therefore disrupt our Thursday morning flight to Chicago. We found out our flight had been canceled Wednesday afternoon (about 18 hours before our scheduled flight time) – giving us plenty of time to freak out, breath a little, and then plan an alternative route to Chicago. The problem with the insurance was that our original flights were booked through Korean/American Airlines, and our revised route with Delta (not exactly transferable). We figured we would be stuck with the bill for the new airline, but what we hadn’t anticipated was the extra fees on our international flight because now our itinerary was no longer “round trip” since our first leg was “canceled” – it was a mess, but we made it! The silver lining of arriving in Chicago the night before, was that when we checked in to O’Hare Thursday morning, the Korean Air agent was able to switch us into some exit row seats! Score! And these exit row seats were enormous, I’m 5′-9″ and I could straighten my legs entirely while seated. (PS Korean Air food is top notch – we were especially pleased with the variety of vegetarian options).
Day 1 - Bangkok (Saturday Feb 24)
Friday night we arrived at our hostel (103 Bed and Brews) at about 1am utterly exhausted, but thanks to the magic of jet lag, we were raring to go by 8am that morning. We ate a simple breakfast at the hostel, followed by some traditional ‘custard toast’ at On Lok Yun – we knew we had picked a good restaurant because we had to wait in line along the sidewalk with some locals. After eating we started making our way towards some temples – on foot like a couple of idiots (foreshadowing). Our first sightseeing spot of our trip was at Wat Pho, and this actually might have been one of my favorite tourist attractions. The complex was full of various shrines, spires and Buddha statues – including the main attraction, the 150ft long reclining Buddha.
We continued walking in the general direction of the Grand Palace – and had our first run in with a couple Tuk-Tuk drivers (open air motorized tricycle taxis). Luckily I had read all the stories of their con-artist tactics and knew not to trust them – but I must say they are pretty convincing. As we were walking along the Grand Palace walls, we passed by this closed gate accompanied by a giant sign, completely in Thai save for a few printed Arabic numbers. The Tuk Tuk driver points at the sign and told us ‘”The Grand Palace is closed this morning for religious ceremony, the sign there explains it. It will open back up at 3″ (or whatever number was printed there – I don’t remember). He continued to tell us about how he could drive us around to several sites and bring us back at 3 so we can visit the Grand Palace then. With a lot of effort we were eventually able to politely decline and continued walking. As you could guess, the Grand Palace was in fact open, the tuk tuk drivers were just standing next to a non public entrance. Although I am curious what the sign actually said. Being the cheapskates that we are, we only wondered the free grounds of the Grand Palace and decided not to go inside anyway.
Andrew wanted to check out the amulet market up the street , so we grabbed some fresh mango to snack on and headed in that direction. If we were in the market for a “fertility token” (read as, dick statue) than the amulet market would have been perfect – there were soooo many penises. Having no intention of having kids anytime soon we kept our distance, but we did end up getting a little buddha amulet that is now hanging on our wall. Overall I did enjoy looking at the various amulets, but the tight confined space mixed with the incense was starting to get to me.
That’s where the day went downhill. We stopped at a nearby restaurant along the river, but I couldn’t tell you much about its quality. After having walked about 4.5mi (7km) in the Thai heat (intensified by the city smog) I had found myself dehydrated. I’ll spare you the messy details, but needless to say the rest of the day was spent sleeping and drinking local branded gator-aid and eating crackers. Completely spoiling my hopes of going to a sky bar that evening- my only regret from the trip. Later that day I felt up to getting dinner; not wanting to go too far away, we made our way to Chijuya, a probably vegetarian restaurant Andrew found. I feel like this was our first real Thai experience, everything else up to this restaurant had just felt so touristy. The restaurant was nestled in near the river, between some miscellaneous shops. When we got there, a lady was making flower arrangements at a table set up, and didn’t speak English. I think they were surprised to see white people walking into their thai only labeled restaurant. Luckily for us, a young woman in the restaurant – who was either an employee or a very helpful regular customer – came over to help us get a table and take our orders. While a strange experience to say the least – the food was delicious (although I must admit I ordered very cautiously, still aware of my sensitive stomach). Because the restaurant catered to locals the menu never actually said “all of this food uses imitation meats” but the items that looked like shrimps did not feel or taste like shrimps… the mystery may never be solved. Although some recent reviews online do confirm that it is indeed meat-free even though it looks like it isn’t.
Day 2 - Bangkok (Sunday Feb 25)
Our flight to Chiang Mai was scheduled for later Sunday afternoon, so feeling much better we decided to make the best of our morning and go check out the famous Wat Arun Temple. Being the adventurous frugal do-it-ourselfers that we are, we decided we would save some money and take the local ferry (about 10 baht or 30 cents). However, being the fools that we are, we went to the wrong pier, realizing our mistake only as our intended ferry drove past without stopping. To make matters worse, a Tuk Tuk driver had even told us the pier we were going to was closed! But we thought he was trying to con us like they are ought to do, so we ignored him. Too bad that one was actually telling the truth – wah wah. (Andrew’s note: To be fair he did tell us the pier was closed and that we should instead take his tuk-tuk to the floating market because who wants to go to a silly temple anyway). Well luckily for us the right pier was only a couple blocks up the river, and the ferry ran every 20ish minutes so once we realized our mistake we were able to correct it without too much lost time.
Wat Arun was really cool, and I’m glad we made it there. The intricate detailing is just astounding! We were disappointed to find out they don’t let tourists climb to the top anymore because of something called “safety”, but c’est la vie.
Following the theme for the day we opted to utilize public transport to make our way to the Don Mueang Airport (this is not the same as the international airport, Suvarnabhumi, we had flown into and would be flying out of). I will say using public transportation can be hard, but it always gives you a sense of pride after getting to your destination successfully – even if you got a few strange looks as you go through the subway metal detectors with your giant ‘backpacking’ bags. Regardless of how we got there, the Don Mueang Airport was INTIMIDATING. We walked in the door, and just inside were lines and lines of people going in every which way, and one really long line wrapping the perimeter of the lobby space. That was the most crowded airport I have ever been to (and I’ve been to O’hare, LaGuardia, Heathrow, etc). I immediately started panicking wondering if we gave ourselves enough time to check in and catch our flight. After some quick deep breaths we did figure out that we were in the wrong terminal, and ours was much less crowded. So we made our way down to the gate with plenty of time and no other hiccups. One thing I wish the US airports would take note of from the Thai airports is to provide FREE carts to roll your bags in, that was a nice luxury.
Our overall impressions of Bangkok weren’t the greatest. The city itself was very populated, and you could just FEEL the smog. Seeing people wearing dust filter masks was not uncommon. It was really strange to be walking down the street, and during the day it would be a shop of some kind, but at night you might see a guy watching tv in his underwear or a family eating dinner in the middle of the shop. I do admit my opinion of the city was a little tainted with me getting sick – but I also know that not every city is for everyone. While planning the trip I wasn’t really expecting much out of Bangkok, which is partly why we had kept our time there to a minimum. Needless to say we were ready to leave Bangkok and anxious to get to our next destination.
...To be Continued in Chiang Mai, and there'll be elephants!
Overall I did enjoy the 103 Bed and Brews hostel we stayed at. I chose it for its proximity to public transportation. It’s right by the train station and subway as well as near ferry stops along the river. I booked a private room for Andrew and I. We had our own bathroom as well, but it was across the hall. The room space was really neat with a bed lofted over a small living room type area with a futon (which was extra nice to have while I was sick). The booking came with a nice simple breakfast and coffee. They also gave us bottled water upon arrival, and with our breakfast. (As I’m sure you know Thailand is one of those places that falls on the “don’t drink the tap water” side of the spectrum for non-locals). I don’t know if we ever saw the same staff twice, but they were all very friendly, and spoke English. The only complaint I had was that taxi drivers seemed to have trouble finding it. None of them believed me when I showed them the address (both in English and in Thai). We even gave 1 driver their business card, and he still didn’t believe us! He took us there but only after calling the number on the card and finding out it was indeed a place. If I were to go again I think I would choose somewhere else closer to sites of interest, but only because Andrew and I like to walk, and it wasn’t a very walker friendly area.
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