One Night in Bangkok

Backdated: 20th June 2012

We got out of the airport and onto the city line train to go to Phaya Thai station, the end of the line in central Bangkok. We then aimed to get a bus to our booked hostel. Our orientation was off and if it weren’t for a friendly and helpful Thai man, we would have ended up on the BTS skytrain – which was not very useful to us. Having successfully exited the station, we were then greeted by yet another friendly Thai man, dressed in an army t-shirt who told Len it was bad to smoke… alone! After borrowing a light, he told us which bus we should get to get to our hostel and warned us it would be a good idea to book most hostels ahead of arriving due to Thai school holidays. It’s a shame most of the Thai people we met after this were just trying to tout us. 

After waiting for the bus for about 20 minutes and having watched several bus numbers pass us, our fatigue got the better of us and we flagged down a taxi to take us. After rejecting the first taxi who had refused to put the meter on and wanted to charge us 200 baht (125 baht too much), we got into another taxi. We had a fair bit of conversation with the driver who eventually asked us why we had rejected the taxi before and gone with him. When we explained why, he told us that petrol costs are very high. Taxi drivers have been striking and more and more of them are refusing to go on meter. He says although petrol costs have risen over the years, the starting price of the meter on a taxi has not and the money they make after covering costs is barely enough. The government say they will think about putting it up next month. 

When we got to our hostel, Khaosan Baan Thai, we were pleasantly surprised with how lovely the hostel was. Beautifully decoration teak wood house; small and comfortable with welcoming and extremely hospitable staff. We highly recommend anyone visiting Bangkok and wishing to stay somewhere quiet and clean, to stay here. 

Being 'taken for a ride' on the canals

It was still quite early when we got to the hostel so we decided to go out for a wander and orientate ourselves a little bit. We eventually decided we would just walk to the river and have a look. On the way, we may have been successfully touted for a longtail boat ride around the Thonburi canals of Bangkok. On reflection, I definitely think we paid a little over the odds for it, but we had the boat to ourselves and the ride was lovely. The people there think that if they feed the fish it will bring them good luck. As soon as the first handful of food is thrown, the calm canal erupts into jumping fish battling for the food. It’s just as shame that the only thing I could think about as they splashed was that they were covering me in dirty and potentially diseased water – though my mind was later rested on the disease thing when we saw children playing in the water. 

Food @ Khaosan

After our ride, we walked back up to Khaosan road. We had passed through and had some chicken pad thai from a street stall earlier on our wander to the river. We decided to go there for dinner. Being the adventurous eater that I am, I ordered chicken pad thai again. Paid 40 baht more for the same dish and it wasn't anywhere near as nice. 

We woke up this morning after a decent night’s sleep. Our sleep would have been perfect if it weren't for our lovely neighbour flemming every 10 minutes. We ate our complimentary breakfast from Khaosan Baan Thai of egg, toast and sausage and headed for The Grand Palace. 

Me at the Grand Palace

We were prepared for the onslaught of deceiving tuk tuk drivers, however it still came as a shock to me that even within earshot of the English announcement which stated the attraction was open every day from 8.30-5, that these resilient drivers still insisted ‘it’s a Buddhist day.. open this afternoon –not now.. why not see big Buddha first?’ 

Having fought our way through, we paid our entrance fee (about £8) and wandered inside. The palace and temple buildings are all beautiful. Must have taken such a long time to decorate with the shiny mosaic type walls everywhere insight. The emerald Buddha was much smaller than I anticipated, but the temple is lovely overall. The whole time in the grounds, all I could think was ‘imagine living here... walking around here without the hordes of Chinese tourists… having this as your home’. Being King had some pretty big perks (not to mention 80+ wives). 

Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho

Behind the palace is Wat Pho, much less popular with tourists it must be said. I feel that you are able to enjoy Wat Pho much more than you are the Grand Palace because there aren't the same crowds. The buildings and grounds are just as beautiful and reclining Buddha is amazing! Nothing had prepared me for the sheer size of him. 

Wat Pho

We had planned to visit War Arun today as well, however our feet were tired and stomachs hungry so we retired once more to Khaosan road to enjoy some satay, tom yum goong soup and a half hour foot massage. We then wandered back to the hostel to pick up our luggage and then attempted, for the second time in our trip, to take the bus. Attempted being the operative word, at 17.10 (30 min after the bus was scheduled) we decided not to risk being late and to get a taxi. 






And we are now sat writing this from our bunks on the Bangkok-Chiang Mai sleeper train… which I must say is surprisingly comfortable.