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| You're not in Bangkok until you've taken a spin in a tuk-tuk. |
On the 9th of July, 2016, I finished up yet another visit in Saraburi, to the north of Bangkok; it's become one of my most frequented areas over the past year or so. Following on from this, I was schedule for a trip up to Japan, but not due to start until the 15th. So, instead of flying home for 2-3 days, I booked into a hotel in Bangkok and took some time to recharge. My fiancée was able to find some cheap flights from Taiwan to Bangkok on Scoot / Nok Air, and so she joined me for a few days of tuk-tuks and noodles and shopping.
My driver for the job in Saraburi dropped me off around midday at my hotel, Pullman King Power; I'd been here before with a colleague but never actually stayed. In the midst of a major renovation, everything was a bit jumbled, with check-in happening on the second floor. Nevertheless, every staff member with whom I interacted was helpful and friendly. While waiting for check-in, I was provided a fruity welcome drink. The check-in was very quick and, after I provided my Accor member card, my "not-yet-ready" room became an upgraded "ready now" room, so that was nice!
Akin to my stay in Radisson Blu in Cebu, the room was spacious and comfortable with a large bed and small couch, along with working space at the desk. The bathroom, too, was quite sizable. Rest and recharge mode: activate!
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| My room in Pullman King Power, Bangkok. |
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| A rather spacious bathroom for beautifying oneself. |
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| Bathtub, complete with soap-squirting Nemo! |
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| Complimentary shower products. |
During the recently-finished job, I had damaged my laptop screen and needed to do some IT-related shopping. So in the afternoon, I took a trip to Pantip Plaza. A quick ride on the BTS from Phaya Thai to Ratchathewi, followed by about 10-minutes' walk up Petchaburi Road, the sliding doors of Pantip Plaza opened to greet me with a slap in the face of powerful air-conditioning. What a feeling that was on a warm Bangkok day! To be honest, I didn't know where I could find what I needed (a portable monitor), if I could find it at all. So I spent the next 2 hours or so just exploring the 6 levels of the Plaza, asking random shops for assistance. Most of the shopkeepers were helpful, but some were a little less friendly. Prior to coming, I had read about the dodgy sidewalk-sellers in Pantip that will spruik at you and try to sell you various software in suspiciously unofficial-looking packages that, once they've taken you aside, turns out to be pornography. Not that I would have been interested in their software anyway, but it was good to have this knowledge in advance, because there was quite a few of them around! Pantip certainly does seem to be a great place to go bargain shopping for possibly-real-but-maybe-fake computer and phone hardware and software and decent prices, so it's certainly worth a look. But my mission was unsuccessful, and so I returned to the hotel.
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| Hotel pool area, complete with bar (not shown). |
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| Hotel gym. |
In the evening, I took a table at Cuisine Unplugged, the main ground floor restaurant in Pullman hotel. While it's open for buffet dinner every night, I can't trust myself at all-you-can-eat dinner, so I typically use my willpower to do a la carte instead, which is also an option here! And so, I picked a spicy Thai dish called Kao Pad Krapow Gai off the menu; that warmed me just nicely, with just the right kick of chili for my tolerance. Accompanied with a Chang beer (which I've come to realise is better than Singha, in my opinion), and topped off with a soft and creamy tiramisu, it was a very pleasant dinner. Unfortunately, photos of of the dinner were taken on my phone that later died, so I cannot share them!
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| In front of the fountain outside the King Power Duty Free. |
The next morning, I relaxed for a while before heading out to Don Mueang Airport to pick up Avy. DMK used to be Bangkok's main airport until Suvarnabhumi was built within the last decade. It's hard to imagine how they managed the same traffic through DMK, as it's quite tiny. About 30 minutes' north of the city centre, there's a few ways to get to and from Bangkok's minor airport. To get there, I took the lazy option of a taxi; organised through the hotel concierge who told me it would be "about 300 baht", it wasn't until a little way into the trip that I realised he wasn't running the meter - you have to watch these Bangkok taxis carefully! The price was obviously prearrange between hotel and driver, because it was exactly 300. After Avy arrived, we took the cheaper option back, catching the A1 airport bus from outside door 6 of the international terminal. For the bargain price of 20 baht each, we got back to the city at Chatuchak / Mo Chit BTS station, using the BTS to get to the hotel from there. A third option is the local bus, but you have to go out to the main road to catch it. The advantage here is that they run 24 hours/day. Bus number 29 (among a few others) will go to Victory Monument.
After dropping off her luggage, we jumped back on the BTS to Mo Chit and spent the afternoon walking around the Chatuchak Weekend Market. A throng of crowds, the market is packed with cheap clothes, fresh food stalls, drinks, small restaurants and souvenirs. You have to watch your bags - advisers hold signs telling you to carry bags on your front due to many pickpockets operating throughout the market. A lot of the clothes shops offer sliding prices if you buy multiple items, typically around 3 for the price of 2 and so on. One place even offered a special price if you buy 20 pairs of denim shorts. I was certain it must be a typo - who buys 20 pairs of shorts in one go? People in Bangkok, apparently!
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| Mango and sticky rice at Chatuchak Weekend Market. |
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| Chatuchak Weekend Market. |
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| Hot and spicy soup at Chatuchak Weekend Market. |
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| Pad Thai and Chatuchak Weekend Market. |
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| Mixing up some Thai Milk Tea. |
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| Breakfast at Cuisine Unplugged in Pullman Hotel. |
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| Erawan Shrine; the four-faced Buddha. |
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| Erawan Shrine, sitting amid the metropolis of Bangkok. |
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| Erawan Shrine. |
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| Avy enjoying some beer (except that she doesn't!) |
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| A veritable feast of dishes. |
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| Thai "hot pot". |
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| Cheap cocktails (no, I didn't drink all 4 by myself). Those creatures were possibly there, after a couple, though. |
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| Breakfast at Cuisine Unplugged in Pullman Hotel. |
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| 14 Baht? Now that's gangsta. |
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| On the Express Boat up the Chao Phraya. |
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| Several of these boats passed us at high velocity, and an equal amount of noise. |
We got off at N8, the main pier for access to Wat Pho. Wandering through the riverside market for a while, we stopped for a refreshing coconut - a good way to re-hydrate in the Bangkok heat for only 50 baht, but the amount of water never seems to last long enough! Continuing alone through the market, you will hit the main road; across and to the left are the walls of the Grand Palace (entrance is around the other side), and straight ahead is Wat Pho. It can be a pretty popular place, but entrance is only 100 baht, and that includes a free bottle of water - a very practical souvenir!
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| Want something deep friend? There's a shop for that. |
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| What baffles me is that there are still thousands of places where you can buy Buddha statues and souvenirs. |
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| Ticket into Wat Pho. |
Inside, the main attraction is the Reclining Buddha, a massive gold-coloured statue of Buddha, lying down to the right, rest the head on the right hand. It's quite a phenomenal construction, and is one of the most famous depictions of the Reclining Buddha pose in the world. There are many other poses used for statues of Buddha depicting various stages in the life of the Historical Buddha.
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| The Reclining Buddha. |
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| Various spires and statues around the Wat Pho temple. |
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| A waterfall? I better play with my slow-shutter! Didn't quite nail it here... |
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| The colours and beauty of Wat Pho. |
Other than the main attraction, there's quite a bit more to see around Wat Pho, with temples, spires and statues all around the place. It's easy to get lost in the serenity... once you get away from the crowds! In the middle sits a large temple with an ornately decorated sitting Buddha statue where people come to sit, reflect and pray.
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| Buddha standing tall. |
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| An ornately decorated temple. |
From Wat Pho, we walked parallel to the river along the main road, the Grand Palace to our right. We stopped to speak to a couple of tourism guys who offered a tuk-tuk to take us around to a few different places, waiting at each spot, all for just 100 baht. I was skeptical at first - if we pay up front, what's to stop them driving off while we are at the first place? And would they accept us paying at the end, because we could just walk off at any of the places and not come back to him? Sometimes, my brain gets the better of me! In any case, we still wanted to explore further up along the river, so we said thanks and moved along.
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| Down by the Maharaj Pier. |
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| Down by the Maharaj Pier. |
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| Residential area along the Chao Phraya. |
We got up to the Maharaj Pier, walking through the shopping mall and market in the area. Avy had been looking for a particular kind of dried flower from which you can make this bright purple drink. We asked a couple of shops, but had no luck. There was a guy selling an assortment of fried bugs and insects from his motorbike stall; Avy took a few photos before the guy got pissed off that we weren't going to buy anything and shunted his bike 3 metres up the road to get away from us!
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| Hungry? |
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| Wash those grubs down with a glass of beetle juice! |
Wandering back in the direction we had come, we came across another group of people offering the tuk-tuk deal; seems like it's a legitimate business thing. We decided to go for it - the price was the same, and they said they would take us to the Big Buddha statue (Wat Intharawihan), some kind of Thai silk "museum", the Marble Temple (Wat Benchamabophit) and then finish up at Khaosan Road. Seemed like a good deal for 100 baht, right? Well it is, but it turns out that it's an organised deal between the locations and the tuk-tuk drivers; the drivers bring the tourists to certain locations and the locations thank them with a free fuel voucher! We discovered this at the second stop, the "Thai silk museum", which was actually a custom-made suit shop. Inside, you get lambasted by a bunch of Indian guys trying to measure you up to buy a suit you didn't even know you wanted. When we walked in and out of this place within 2 minutes, the driver got all concerned and revealed to us that he doesn't get his voucher if we don't stay for 10-15 minutes. You don't have to buy anything, but you have to pretend you're interested for a little while!
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| Tuk-tukin'. |
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| The big Buddha at Wat Intharawihan. |
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| The big Buddha at Wat Intharawihan. |
So now, with the cat out of the bag, he arranged to take us to a different suit shop called James Fashion and just asked us to play along for a while. We did that, and I actually almost bought a suit, to be honest. But on reflection, it was good that I didn't. While these shops are a more legitimate than the ones on Khaosan Road, with a full suit priced at around 10,000 baht (mid-quality), the sales pitch is pretty pushy, and you never actually get to see an example of the suit you're going to get. I asked to try on a jacket to see how it felt, and he couldn't even give me an example close to my size. By the end, he was getting quite grumpy and starting to piss me off with some of his comments to Avy, so I was glad we walked out. I have since read some reviews on TripAdvisor, none of which a particularly complimentary! So be warned!
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| Wat Benchamabophit, the Marble Temple. |
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| Wat Benchamabophit, the Marble Temple. |
Arriving to Khaosan Road around 4pm, I felt like I was almost back home - the place is just littered with westerner backpackers! I'd heard about this area, but hadn't visited on previous trips. To be honest, it didn't wow me that much. The street is lined with tacky souvenir shops, cheap t-shirts and clothes, a few little street-food restaurants... and two McDonalds! I mean... it just felt like a bastardized tourist Mecca and not really like Thailand. But hey - I understand there's cheap accommodation in the area, and some pubs, so it's probably good for a backpacker on a budget. But I don't think I'll put too much effort into a return visit in the future.
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| Khaosan Road. |
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| Such a charming sign, seen on Khaosan Road... |
Just as we had finished the second lap of Khaosan, all the clothes shops started scrambling to cover their front racks with plastic bags; a glance to the skies saw some ominous black clouds approaching. Rainy season in Thailand typically sees an afternoon downpour on a daily basis, and this day's had arrived. We hopped in a tuk-tuk back to Maharaj Pier, planning to get the boat back down the river. But with the rain coming down hard, we considered a taxi instead. Eventually, we managed to find a tuk-tuk driver willing to take us all the way back to our hotel for only 200 baht, so we went with that.
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| A rainy evening sent us retreating to the hotel for mango and drinks. |
Our last full day in Bangkok was a little bit of a shambles. The plan had been to head out to Amphawa Floating Market to the west of Bangkok. To get there, you can take a taxi if you have a spare 1200 baht or so. Alternatively, there are mini-buses that go around once an hour for about 80 baht, departing from just near Victory Monument BTS station. However, we stayed in bed a little bit later than planned and ended up only getting to the station around 10:30. The market doesn't open until 11am, but it's about a 2-hour drive there, so the earlier buses fill up quite fast. When we got there, we were first told the next available bus was only at 11:30. Then we were taken to the woman selling the tickets, and she said 12pm. We ummed and ahhed about it because this would mean only getting there quite late; was it worth going all that way? We walked off and thought about it for a while, eventually going back. And the woman then was, to be blunt, a bitch. She dismissed us when we asked about the next bus; I'm sure it wasn't the case, but it was as if she had no interest in selling tickets to non-Thais. This really sullied my opinion of the whole experience. We gave up on the idea and made other plans for the day instead.
A tuk-tuk driver pulled over to help out the two confused-looking tourists; he got an English-speaking friend of his on the phone to suggest some ideas to us. The driver ended up taking us out to a spot by the river and we quickly realised it was another driver/business relationship like the previous day. We'd thought we were being taken to a floating market of some kind, but it turned out to be a river cruise. They wanted 2000 baht to take a 1.5 hour lap around some of the smaller rivers branching off the Chao Phraya. Yes, there was some sightseeing involved, but the floating market that sometimes is part of the cruise was reportedly closed that day. So we said "thanks, but no thanks" and made our way on foot to the Saphan Taksin BTS.
Disembarking at National Monument Station, we went into the Bangkok Art & Cultural Centre. Herein, on the fourth floor, sits a tiny shop called IceDEA which Avy had read about on various blogs. They take ice-cream and present it shaped as various other foods and objects; it's really quite cool! The only downside seemed to be a lack of options available - it wasn't entirely clear if they had a range of items on sale, or just what was available that day. Nevertheless, we sat down to share an ice-cream tonkatsu (Japanese fried pork cutlet). The presentation was fantastic - it really did look like something that would be served up in a Japanese restaurant, even down to the plate and side dishes. I highly recommend a stop in here if you're in the area.
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| IceDEA's tonkatsu made from ice-cream. |
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| IceDEA's tonkatsu made from ice-cream. |
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| IceDEA's tonkatsu made from ice-cream. |
As we were leaving the BACC, another afternoon shower started with little warning. We ran into MBK centre, but didn't hang around long, taking the BTS back to our hotel area. After mulling around for a while, we stopped at a restaurant along Soi Rangnam for a proper lunch (ice-cream only goes so far!), getting a nice hit of spicy Thai dishes to pass over the palate. And as the rain continued to pour down, we retreated to the hotel to relax for the late afternoon and evening. We ventured out onto Rangnam a bit later for a light dinner - I had some simple noodles while Avy The Hot Pot Pro had another shot at the Thai-style hot pot. She was flying out from DMK in the wee hours of the morning, so we got a taxi there around 11pm, spending the last 2 hours or so of this trip together before I saw her off through the departures gate. *sadface*
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| Some tasty and spicy Thai dishes. |
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| A little exploring in the King Power Duty Free, which is typically full of Chinese and Korean tour groups! |
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| Exploring the street food for dinner. |
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| Avy stays awake for her flight with a coffee, while I have a beer! |
My final day in Bangkok was utilised once again trying to fix my laptop. Pantip Plaza had been a bust, but this time I went to Fortune Town, which is known to be about as useful as Pantip, but with less dodgy knock-offs. I had read a bit on the internet about it and I happened to come across a few raving reviews for a repair shop called Fix IT by Lek. And as it happened, when I arrived at Fortune Town, I noticed the shop within a few minutes of entering. I showed them my laptop screen and less than an hour later, I walked out with a new LCD installed. Fantastic service and workmanship - if you have a laptop issue, definitely drop in to see Mr. Lek!
And that was about that for this time in Bangkok. I hopped onto the Airport Link train around 5pm; my flight wasn't until 10pm, but I was hoping to check in and relax in the lounge for a while. Unfortunately, check-in didn't open until 7pm. I got a bit further into Japanese-mode by having a little ramen for dinner on the 2nd floor at Kinramen; it was fine, but nothing compared to the real deal. Topping off the evening with a whisky at the JAL Sakura Lounge, I boarded my flight and settled in to watch Batman Versus Superman instead of what a really should have done: sleep! Shuffling out into Haneda airport at 6am the next morning (4am in Bangkok), I'd arrived for another trip to my favourite country (apart from home). Ohayou gozaimasu!
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