Okay, it has been way too long before I last updated this blog, so here we go…

As always, here are some tips for the trip:

• Stay at The Onion Hostel. It is a very nice hostel with quite nice personnel.
• Beware of roaming charges through your SIM card provider. I had M1 and lost more than S$20 (ca 14 EUR) (all my main balance) 15 minutes after we had landed.
• Use grab when you want to drive somewhere. This is the easiest way to get around, and if not, you will have to bargain with the taxi driver. If you have to take a taxi, go by taxameter.
• Look up the temple opening hours and confirm that the temples you try to visit are open. Some locals standing outside them say they are not open just to trick you into buying their services, or whatever.
• Avoid Tuk-Tuks as much as you can. Apparently, if you take a Tuk-Tuk they will most of the time take you to shops and places you do not want to visit, in order to get you to buy stuff there. We did not make this mistake, but a guy we spoke to had told the Tuk-Tuk driver exactly which route he should take, but still got tricked into this.
• The grand palace requires you to wear something that covers your knees and shoulders. Wearing a shawl (svenska: sjal) is not enough. Luckily, they sell comfortable thai pants for 100 Baht (ca 3 EUR) just outside, so if you can accept this cost, you do not need to bring any long-sleeved clothes with you.
• If you like food, you should definitely go to Khlong Lat Mayom floating market.
• You do not need more than 2-3 days to explore the city as a tourist. We felt like we had done most of the things the city had to offer tourists when we left. There are probably many more things to do than what we felt there was, but nevertheless, 3 days felt like a good amount of time to stay here for.

For our google photos album for the trip, please click here!

Three weeks ago, I went to Bangkok together with TTTT (The Tuk-Tuk Troup), and it was our last trip together as exchange students. Just for clarification, TTTT consists of me (aka Amok Fish), Sara (aka Coconut Lady), Lukas (Tomb Raider) and Eric (Chicken Nuggets), and it is the same nice group of people that I went to Angkor Wat with. And this travel group have made me realize how a great group of people can change your experience during your travels.

Anyways, we landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport around 16.30, and it lies more than an hour away from the city center, but is oddly enough still surrounded by the city (yes, Bangkok is HUGE). We quickly booked a grab to our hostel, The Onion, which lies very close to the river, in the middle of the city (if the city can even be said to have a middle), and just next to the largest flower market in the world, Pak Klong Talad. I highly recommend this hostel, as its personnel is very nice, it has big and comfortable beds, it has a nice breakfast included, it is very fresh, it has quite big safety lockers, and it is very centrally located. If you are out in good time, you can stay here for around S$13 (ca 9 EUR) per person and night.

Having checked in to the hostel and installed ourselves, we quickly went out to grab some food in the nearby area. There was a path with quite nice looking restaurants along the river that we first rejected, because of its high-end vibe and non-locality cuisine-wise. Instead, we walked through the street food market located a street up (I wish I could write out the name here, but as it turns out, the street names are in thai even on google maps). We ate some delicious fried coconut balls, some soup/stew that Eric the Chicken Nugget bought, some delicious crepes filled with different pastes, some sate, and some other foods that I do not remember now.

We walked the street food market out and entered a nearby temple where they served some more street food (yes, street food seems quite popular in this area). We walked around in the temple and then headed back to the river area that we previously skipped to have some real dinner and beers. Unfortunately, I was quite unlucky with this restaurant, as they misinterpreted my order and got me a quite badly tasting dish filled with chicken bones, and almost twice as expensive as the one I had ordered. As for the others, they did not seem too impressed with the restaurant either, as they expected more from a thai curry served in the center of Thailand. It was okay food, though.

Content with the night, we went back to the hostel and our nice beds.

Next day, we walked around the city to explore some of the temples. We first went to The Grand Palace, where we apparently had to buy long pants (100 Baht per pair (ca 3 EUR)) in order to walk inside the palace. Then we bought a ticket for 500 Baht (ca 13 EUR) (quite expensive, but the ticket also gave us access to another temple 40 km away that could only be used the same day, so it was not too bad) and finally walked around inside the palace. It was a nice sight and I highly recommend visiting this palace if you are in Bangkok.

After the palace, we crossed the river by boat to walk around and eat street food at Wang Lang Market. We also ate some curry lunch at a local restaurant called Ruam Tai. It was both cheap (ca 80 Baht per person (ca 2 EUR)) and really good.

Later, we left for Wat Arun (another very popular temple), and had delicious coffee on the way at a café. Then we entered Wat Arun (actually called Wat Arun Racthawararam) for a 50 Baht (ca 1 EUR) entrance fee, and looked around. We walked around, had some fun, then took a boat back to the Terminal de ferri pier. I, unfortunately, got left behind as I bought slices of pineapple, and had to take the next ferry.

Next up, we went to Wat Pho to take a look at the Reclining Buddha (it actually lies down). The entrance fee here was 100 Baht (ca 3 Eur). We had a nice time, and exited the temple around sunset, to get some really nice photos, and to catch the ferry to Wat Arun to catch another ferry to Asiatique to see the lantern festival, Loi Krathong.

I highly recommend visiting Asiatique, as it has a very nice lighting to it - according to Eric very similar to San Francisco. We ate some banana snacks (banana fries, banana balls, banana cheese sticks, etc.).

We then took a grab to Khao San Road Nightmarket (backpacker street) to stroll around and eat some more food.

This road was insane. The clubs were on both sides on the road and competing with each other about having the loudest music. Some shady guys were handing out posters to their ping-pong shows (I do not want to go into details what these are, but let us just say that they are quite nasty), and we were in the end just trying to get through to catch a grab back to the hostel, were we quickly went to bed.

Next day, we went to Khlong Lat Mayom floating market to stuff ourselves with food for 4 hours, as well as take a boat tour in the river. The food was extremely cheap and most of the time delicious, and I had small vibes of euphoria walking around here.

The boat tour took us to some other market and also a flower field which we could Ferdinand our way through (my Swedish readers will understand).

Next up, we took a grab to an enormous 5-story mall called Platinum to look at clothes for an hour. In my opinion, it was not that worth it, as it was packed with people and most likely only selling low quality clothes. If you want to buy a cheap Daniel Wellington watch that breaks after 30 minutes, you should go here, though (yes, I am looking at you, Sara the Coconut Lady, breaker of watches, explorer of McDonald’s watches). They also have a One Piece clothes store!

Next, we went back to our hostel, geared up a few levels and took a grab to Above Eleven skybar. As most skybars, this one was very classy and good-looking. We ordered cocktails for around 300 Baht (ca 8 EUR) and enjoyed the view and company.

Yes, we definitely fit in here…

Leaving the skybar felt a little bit sad, but we had to go to the Soi Cowboy red light district and eat burgers at a The Old Dutch restaurant. Fun fact: this was around the same time my family was enjoying a relaxing and proper spa weekend back at home.

We got up next morning to get to an airplane graveyard to get a feel for the life of fallen pilots. I also became lord of hens when I fed them some leftovers from the floating market.

After the graveyard, we took a grab to Chatuchan weekend market and ate some more food whilst strolling around and looking at an enormous amount of sales items, as this market has more than 8,000 stalls. It was very tiresome, and we almost did not buy anything anyways. We probably should have spent less time here, but it was nevertheless a nice way to spend the first part of the afternoon.

The second part of the afternoon, however, was better. This one was spent getting foot massage in Chinatown for 200 Baht (ca 5 EUR) if I remember correctly. The picture below is taking just after we exited the massage place.

!

Relaxed, we strolled around in Chinatown to eat at a cheap and delicious thai street food restaurant (the best one we had eaten at so far). We also strolled around in Chinatown to eat a little bit more street food as well as look around, but in my opinion it was not that impressive. For future travellers, you do not need to plan much time for Chinatown.

We ended the night by taking a Tuk-Tuk back to the hostel and going for a drink at a nearby high-end bar by the river, before taking a taxi to the airport, where our flight departed in the middle of the night. A great end to the trip!

Thanks for this trip, and I hope to do more travels with you in the future, Eric, Lukas and Sara!