Travel Notes: Five Days in Bangkok

Since blogging on the road is a bit tough, I’m gonna start showing you guys snippets of what I’ve gotten into recently. I’ll still be doing fully detailed posts as well, but occasionally, fewer words and photos will suffice! Maybe…

It’s been a week! I just left Bangkok for the beach. Last night I arrived in Koh Lanta, one of the islands that I didn’t make it to last time I visited Thailand. It’s supposed to be laid back and full of beautiful sunsets. While honestly I’m a little sad to leave Bangkok, I have no doubt I’ll be back since it’s such a major hub of transportation here in Southeast Asia.

This first week of travel has been great, exceeding my expectations in more ways than one. I made some great friends in Bangkok, figured out how to find the best food (just never go into a restaurant pretty much!), and explored several different areas of the city. I’ve also probably gained five pounds. Gonna look really good in that bathing suit…

Surprisingly, I’ve found myself loving huge cities like Buenos Aires, Bogotá, and Lima, and now we can add Bangkok to that list. Being from a small town with one stoplight and a serious lack of food options, I think that part of me just revels in the endless options and amenities you can get in a big city. I love walking everywhere, using efficient public transportation (hello, Skytrain!), and finding everything I could ever need for sale on the street. Bangkok makes this even better by providing some of the best Thai food for less than $2 a meal.

Some other travelers are shocked when I tell them I spent five days in Bangkok before leaving for the coast. I just tell them that I kinda love it.

So what’d I do the entire time? What, you mean besides getting daily massages?

A Visit to Chatuchak Market

I totally missed out on one of the world’s biggest weekend markets last time I was in Bangkok, opting instead for the Taling Chan floating market. So this time I wasn’t going to bypass Chatuchak even if I had to go by myself.

Luckily, that wasn’t an issue as I found five other people to go with me at breakfast that morning! Too bad we lost three of them when their tuk tuk dropped them off at a different entrance. There was just no way we were ever going to find them. Yeah, this place is that big.

We mostly browsed the clothing, accessories, and food sections, but you can literally buy anything you want here. Animals, plants, car parts…

Street Food

I wasn’t fucking this up this time.

I’ll admit that on our last trip to Bangkok, Charlie and I ate at a few too many actual sit-down restaurants. It’s just Western culture and more comfortable for us to do it. Even recently, I was tempted several times by overpriced (and no doubt less tasty) restaurants at the thought of having a doting waitress and a cold beer brought to me at my comfortable table… but I resisted.

And for that, my pocketbook and I have been rewarded.

Most meals from quick mom and pop places or street vendors go for about 30-40 baht (around $1 USD). You place your order, take a seat, eat, and pay at the end… and somehow they magically remember exactly whatever you ordered.

Wandering and Massages

For my first three nights in the city, I stayed just a few streets north of the infamous Khao San Road. Previously, Charlie and I spent our Bangkok nights in the more modern Sukhumvit neighborhood, so this time around I was looking for a more “backpacker-y” experience.

Needless to say, those three nights were enough, and I was more than happy to relocate to the historic Bangrak district near the river during my next three nights in the city. And I actually had to move because my hostel was full…

But even the streets north of Khao San Road held surprises like this nice waterfront park and a huge, brilliantly white, historic fort.

It was cool to roam the streets, including the slightly more laid back Soi Rambuttri, to find food and get daily massages with new friends. Seriously, I got a massage four out of my five days in Bangkok. I’m an addict.

A Midnight Food Tour by Tuk Tuk!

On my last trip, I had the best time taking a guided tasting trip through Bangrak with Bangkok Food Tours, so I knew I wanted to book another tour with them. I even emailed them before I left the States. They take you to seriously local places that you’d never discover on your own.

This time, the food tour took place at night and we traveled from stop to stop by tuk tuk, visiting different neighborhoods in the city. I’ll definitely do a full post on this later, so I don’t want to spoil it, but every place was delicious, I got to try new Thai dishes, and I was absolutely stuffed by the end of it.

A Self-Guided Food Tour of Chinatown

My new Chinese friend Miranda and I wanted to head to Chinatown – a part of Bangkok I’d never explored – for one purpose: to eat.

And that we did.

We set off around lunch time to wander Yaowarat Road and the crazy side streets and markets that comprise Bangkok’s Chinatown. It was especially cool to see the locals gearing up for Chinese New Year in a few days. I’ve got many a food pic to share about this quest too, but trust me, you can eat some crazy stuff in this ‘hood.

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So that pretty much breaks down my five days in Bangkok. Well, except for my final day, during which I was totally solo and went seeking out soup dumplings and a plush Bangkok movie theatre in which to watch The Revenant.

Oh yeah, and the overpriced beer I bought at the Royal Orchid Sheraton just so I could have a riverfront view of a Bangkok sunset. I’d say it was worth it…

I look forward to many return visits to the Big Mango in this lifetime!

Even with all its chaos, does anybody else actually kinda love Bangkok?