Bangkok, Over and Out

We took the overnight train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok which left at 4pm and arrived at 6:30am. The four of us shared a sleeper with four bunks and depending if you reserved upper or lower each 2nd class ticket ran about $22, not bad Thailand!

The train was fine but they had the air conditioning cranked and it was freezing. Everyone on the train was completely bundled up and shivering. Not the best experience but what can you do except pile on as many layers as possible.

For this second Bangkok visit we booked in at the Aetas Bangkok Hotel. Not only did they have our rooms ready even though we arrived so early in the morning but they upgraded us to suites, too bad we were only going to be there for one night!

We were all starving and saw a food cart across the street so we headed over for some delicious pork noodles. Al fresco dining at its finest.

We grabbed a cab and headed to the Royal Palace for a morning of sightseeing. Forest and I had both brought scarves to wear around our shoulders but the palace was having none of that and we were forced to rent shirts if we wanted to enter. And of course they were very fashionable.

The palace grounds are absolutely incredible. Opulent is an understatement. Even having visited numerous temples at this point we were all ooohing and ahhhing.

Wat Phra Kaew on the palace grounds houses the Emerald Buddha which, just like the Mona Lisa is smaller than expected, but still beautiful.

We left the palace after a couple of hours and headed to Wat Pho home of the Reclining Buddha. Unfortunately it was closed for lunch hours. The heat was absolutely baking so we headed back to the hotel for some refreshing pool time, a much needed nap, and then cocktails in the hotel bar before heading out for the night.

Our destination was 38 Soi, a small street lined with all sorts of food stands. We grazed on noodles, grilled chicken, and mango sticky rice (served in a plastic bag of course).

Nightcaps were had at the popular WTF cocktail bar, which was ok, and then later nightcaps at the bar in our hotel and more in our hotel room. Hey, our trip was almost over! Don't judge!

The next morning we took the skytrain to meet up with a small group for the Bangkok Food Tours. We had booked a 9am-1:30pm walking tour and immediately were so happy to have our guide Mot as she was knowledgable, friendly, and a foodie!

We tried the specialties at four different restaurants as well as various street stalls, having about 15 dishes overall. Mot was also great about pointing out buildings, temples, etc. that were interesting and giving us a bit of history.

A few standouts were the roasted wild duck with rice at 50-year old and 3rd generation run Charoen Wieng Pochana.

Absolutely addictive curry noodle and stuffed roti (mataba) at a Muslim restaurant. Tasting a selection of interesting sweets from a street vendor. Traveling across the river by pedestrian ferry to get green papaya salad, fried catfish, and fried chicken at Yum Rod Sab. Heavenly banana pancakes from another street vendor. Pan Lee Bakery for BBQ pork bao and Thai ice tea. And this gorgeous green curry chicken with savory roti at Kalpapruek.

 To say we were stuffed would be an understatement! I highly recommend taking one of these food tasting tours, we tried to get one earlier in our trip but they were booked up. Make a reservation for your first full day and you'll learn what to search out the rest of your time there!

We were thirsty after all that eating so we headed near by to the super posh Mandarin Oriental for a drink at The Veranda Bar (the Bamboo Bar is only open at night) where two Hemingway Daiquiris put Forest and I back about $22. Not bad if you are in the states but figure that was about the same price as each of our train tickets from Chiang Mai!

We had paid extra at our hotel for a 6pm checkout so we headed back to cool off by the pool and pack before dinner. As our dinner that night was inside the Metropolitan Hotel we just took our luggage with us and checked them with the bellhop.

We were very excited for dinner at what is reviewed as one of the best restaurants in Thailand, Nahm, currently #22 on the World's 50 Best list and holding a Michelin star.  The space and service were fantastic and all the dishes were really interesting modern takes on regional classics. Having had so much fantastic street food over the last two weeks, it was tough to say what was better! Much different set up than the street tables though!

We all shared a cab to the airport, Thibault and Forest caught their flight home while we stayed at the airport Novatel. Our flight left at 7am the next morning so it was incredibly handy to have the hotel connected to the airport.

All Bangkok photos here.

More Than One Night in Bangkok

Now that I've got that song stuck in your head...

It takes a long time to get to Thailand, no one really talks about that. I left on noon on Christmas day last year and landed midnight on Dec 26th. In fact by the time I got to the hotel ( I hired a car from the hotel to pick me up for $50) it was just after 1am on the 27th. That damn dateline!

Everyone suggested that I get in and out of Bangkok relatively quickly during my Thailand vacation, but I ended up being disappointed that I was only there two days in the beginning and two days at the end. If you love big cities I'd suggest planning a few more days if you can. There is so much to see and do there!

For this first leg, I stayed at the Chatrium Hotel Riverside, where they upgraded me to an executive suite because I asked nicely. The room was huge with a separate kitchen, living room, balcony, and had amazing views of the city. When the smog wasn't hiding it. The hotel is at the southwest end of the river, you have to take their boat one stop to the main express river boat stop, but it was easy and free so no problem.

Thank god for 24 hour room service, cold beer, and comfy pillows. When I woke later that morning I headed down to the pool to relax, unwind, and soak up some sun and river views.

When I got hungry I walked down Chan Road and picked a random noodle stand/stall which was busy with locals. I literally had no idea what the woman was serving except there was broth and there were noodles. As I stood there pointing she thought maybe I wanted it to go and started to fill a plastic bag. I waved that off and then she tried to find out which color bowl I wanted; did it matter? They looked the same except for one was blue and one was pink. I shrugged and pointed at her and smiled. Then she added noodles and again tried to find out which choices of additions I wanted. I recognized the fried pork skin and then just randomly pointed at some other things, reading her face for approval as I went. She ladled on the broth and another woman took my bowl and led me to a plastic table. Seeing that all the locals were drinking a mysterious beverage from communal Tupperware pitchers I asked for a dietCoke. Then I dug in to my first delicious bowl of noodles in Thailand. I had done it! I had ordered lunch! I had no idea exactly what I was eating but it was good and the locals were watching me slurp and they were nodding and smiling.

When I was done I made the international sign for "check please" and stared blankly at the man who told me the price in Thai. I held out my smallest Baht currency, a 1000 Baht bill which is about $25. The man looked at me, I made the "I'm sorry" face and he left to cross the street where he entered a flower shop. Shortly after he returned with my change, which I then figured out my entire lunch had cost the equivalent of $1.50. Note: change to small Baht!!

Dayne arrived later that day and in the evening we took the express boat to the flower market, Pak Khlong Talat. It was absolute mayhem! Food stands everywhere selling things that we couldn't always figure out; a maze of flower stalls with amazing arrangements; smells of exotic blooms mixed with gasoline, food, and people; and more marigold leis, called phuang malai, than you can imagine. Everyone buys these daily as symbols of luck and a form of protection, so they are the biggest seller at the market. Add to all this a dizzying number of motorcycles, scooters, cars, and tuk tuks driving wildly. Lanes? Who needs them!

I loved it! I have never seen anything like it! The market is pretty much open 24 hours a day, I hear it is busiest pre-dawn so if you are up around that time in Bangkok go take a look!

We grabbed a tuk tuk and after a lot of misunderstandings found the Amarosa Bar which sits on the rooftop of the Arun Residence. There is nothing special about the bar itself, certainly not the drinks or the service. I was there for this absolutely outstanding view of the Wat Arun.

Drinks drunk, we grabbed a taxi, negotiated an off meter price of 250 Baht (about $7) and headed across town to Soul Food Mahanakorn. This place serves contemporary Thai food (like this crispy fried morning glory & squid salad) and fantastic cocktails. It's definitely more spendy than what you get on the street but we both thought it was really, really good.

The next morning we had planned to visit the floating market but for reasons I still don't know it was closed. We hired a longtail boat for a shared 2 hour tour of the canals for 2000 Baht (about $55) from our hotel pier. Our first stop was the Wat Arun where we could go off on our own to explore the grounds and climb the outside of the temple. I hadn't planned for a temple visit that day so I had to buy a sarong to wrap around my shorts and rent a scarf to put over my bare shoulders. Coupled with the broken china tiling of the temple there were a lot of patterns happening!

The canal tour was cool as we got to see lots of little "neighborhoods", scores of smaller temples, floating houses, water moniters, and even went through the locks.

We were hungry when we were dropped off at our hotel pier so we jumped in a cab and headed to Soi Covent, which is a street littered with all kinds of food carts, for lunch. We had an absolutely delicious meal of fried fish, spicy green papaya salad, and rice while sitting on tiny plastic stools on a side street.

After exploring more food stalls, we grabbed another taxi down to the river and took the express boat to the Amulet Market. The streets here are lined with vendors selling everything from cheap touristy amulets to very rare and expensive ones. Each Buddha brings a different kind of luck; romance, wealth, health, etc. Men perch with magnifying glasses to search out the authentic and antique, and haggle over prices.  

There is a large food market at the express boat ramp so we explored that before heading back to the hotel via the river. We'd have to wait a little more than a week to see more of Bangkok, for now we had just enough time to catch sunset and a cocktail before heading to the airport to meet Forest and Thibault for our flight to Phuket. 

Bangkok photos here.