Bangkok

| Filed in Thailand | Disclaimer: I use affiliate links and may receive a small commission on purchases. | Leave a Comment

(Last Updated On: )

I’ll be honest. Bangkok wasn’t my favorite. Busy streets, traffic jams, city noise into the night. I was ready to move on to the next city after our time there, but that could very well be my personality and travel preferences. That said, our time in Bangkok was packed full of many rad experiences.

Bangkok Day One:

We arrive in the airport around 13:00; gathered our backpacks, withdrew some BHT, and exchanged SIM cards in our phones to have unlimited data for 14 days (See my Thailand Travel Tips page). We took a taxi (30-60 min depending on traffic) to our hostel: OneDay hostel.

OneDay Hostel: The taxi drivers really thought the name was funny for some reason. It was recommended to us by a friend that grew up in Bangkok and it did not disappoint. We paid roughly $30 a night for a private room with A/C and 2 twin beds. The bathroom was shared, but was kept very clean and had many stalls and showers. Downstairs was a community room, a café, and a taproom.

We ended up staying at our hostel for drinks as it was convenient and we were dealing with some jet lag. We ran across the street (literally ran so that we weren’t run over) for dinner at Mint. It was okay. I think we would have been better off eating at the café in our hostel.

Bangkok Day Two:

With the help of our front desk, we planned to see the floating markets. The floating markets nearby are only open on the weekends, so we went to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market about 1.5 hours outside of Bangkok. We took a grab taxi there and then talked with our taxi driver about staying out there with us for a pretty decent price. He ended up coming along with us on our boat into the market, spotted us some cash, and drove us to several other spots. It was like hanging out with your weird Uncle.

His info: Kitti Vivatdangsee. Mobile: +66 81 9968926 Email: kitti250700@live.com. He is seriously the best. He took pictures for us and everything. His English was pretty good. He was helping us learn Thai.

The floating market was a wild experience. If you look on Trip Advisor – it has really bad reviews actually. I personally thought it was great and worth the money (1500 Baht per person for boat tour). We had our own boat with a driver and our taxi driver and he drove us through the market. We weren’t there to buy things. Most of our souvenirs we bought later in Chiang Mai. But it was a neat cultural experience.

We talked with a few of the shop owners and they told us how they boated in from their house just a few channels over. Our boat stopped at a place within the channel where they were boiling down coconut water to make sugar and a sweet drink. We also boated to a temple within the market where we spoke to a monk eating his lunch.

Once back in our car the taxi driver attempted to take us to a Tiger and Elephant zoo where you can ride elephants. We politely explained to him that we already had a tour where we help the elephants instead of riding them. He then drove us to the two well known temples in Bangkok: Wat Arun and Wat Pho.

Each temple seemed very different to me. I mean, the colors and all that were the same, but each temple had a different focus and different design. You could spend 3 weeks looking at just temples. I guarantee all of them will be equally as crowded in Bangkok. We were very content seeing only two.

Per a recommendation from my friend (who lives in Bangkok), we ate dinner at Thai Lao Yeh. It definitely had a more upscale feel being in a hotel lounge. The restaurant had good food and a good atmosphere to start out our only night exploring Bangkok’s nightlife. We then met up with my friend at Iron Balls Distillery nearby and enjoyed some groovy music and delicious cocktails. We then went to Sing Sing club for taste of the wild side of Bangkok. Think dancing unicorns on stage, multiple levels, too many people (the old lady in me speaks).

In search for late night food, our taxi was stopped, searched and we ended up in the wrong taxi out of confusion. This resulted in very poor use of google translate and ultimately ending up back at our hostel eating my trail mix.