Bangkok

by Allie on January 31, 2010

After 28 hours of travel, including a three hour layover in Japan, we arrived in Bangkok. The journey was uneventful, which is exactly how I prefer any plane trip I’m on to be.

We managed to keep both our bags under our goal of 30 pounds. Mine came in at 24.8 and Mark’s squeaked in at 29.4. This does not include the weight of our carry-on day packs, which probably adds another 10 pounds each. I planned to only bring a couple books (in addition to guidebooks). Book glutton that I am, I currently have FIVE non-guidebooks in my possession. And a couple magazines. Sigh.

We finished up with customs and immigration by 1 am, followed the airport signs to the metered taxi stand, hopped in a cab (telling the driver, “meter, please”) and arrived at our downtown hotel half an hour and 300 baht (about $10 US) later.

 After crashing at 2 am, we were up by 7  the same morning. We had no agenda, so decided to pack up our bags and go for a walk.

We’re staying near Victory Monument, which is not a heavily touristed area, judging from the lack of farang (non-Thai) people we see in restaurants and on the street. There is a BTS stop (like BART, except more consistently air-conditioned AND the cars have video screens) and lots of street food stalls. This chicken soup was lunch:

Victory Monument Bangkok Street Soup Lunch

A few words about eating on this trip:

1. Contrary to the advice given in various guidebooks and by our nurse practioner, we dove right into street food. So far, the gods are merciful and Bangkok Belly has not struck. We are proactively popping Pepto and probiotics in an effort to appease the fickle belly gods.

2. That is chicken in the bowl. And I ate it. I am on a temporary “meatcation” while traveling.

After lunch, we looked at our map, picked a street, and proceeded to head towards the river. About two hours in, we realized our handy hotel map lacked a scale. We broke out the guidebook, and that map showed we had walked about four miles.  In 90 degree heat and 90% humidity, we deemed this sufficient exercise and opted for taxis and the BTS for the rest of the day.

Other places we went…

  • Wat Benchamabophit (Marble Temple): modern, beautiful temple – our first introduction to Wats. This temple is also featured on the 5 Baht coin.
  • Grand Palace: stunning, amazing, ornate, our eyes couldn’t take it all in. We will come back here on one of our other trips in/out fo Bangkok and get aguide to walk us through it. The murals along the inside walls were breathtaking, and they weren’t even mentioned in the official guide.
  • Ferry Ride along the Chao Phraya River: we walked up to a water taxi that held maybe 100-150 people, were ushered on board and zipped down the waterway. Nature’s air conditioning at its finest. And affordable – our 2-mile ride cost 13 Baht each.
  • High Tea at the Mandarin Oriental: Wow. This adventure deserves a post of its own, but let me just say it was fabulous and elegant and delicious and I want to go again. The Oriental is considered to be one of the finest hotels in the world, and their high tea lived up to my expectations.
  • Chatuchak Weekend Market: possibly the world’s largest flea market?

Today is my birthday, and Mark is spoiling me with another trip to the Oriental…for a spa treatment. Yes, I am incredibly lucky. And spoiled.

Tomorrow we leave Bangkok and fly to Krabi, where we hope to catch a mini-van to Koh Lanta. Beaches, snorkeling, mopeds, and a chance to dig through some of those books are on the non-agenda.

More Bangkok photos on Flickr.

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1 Laurie March 1, 2010 at 4:00 pm

Allie & Mark,
Wow! What an adventure. I am enjoying your descriptive and clever writings about your travels and will continue to do so. Enjoy yourselves and be safe!!
Love,
Laurie

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