I started this post back at the beginning of October when I had my first trip to Bangkok, but after I share a bit about what we got up to in the two and a half days we were here the first time round, you’ll realise it wasn’t worth a post on its own. So I’ve combined my two trips to Bangkok into one post to give a little more adventure to it! This is a tale of two halves, so let’s get going.

Bangkok pt.1 – Party

Party. I don’t think I need to say much more than that! Our trip from Siem Reap (Cambodia) to Bangkok (Thailand) was meant to be eight hours, it ended up being just over twelve, including two and a half hours to exit Cambodia and enter Thailand. It began at 7:30 in the morning and was probably the earliest any of us had woken up in a long time. The ride to the border was fairly smooth and we was happy with how it was going until we got to customs. Customs was not the best experience and not the welcome to Thailand we pictured. It began with a two hour queue to get our passports stamped, standing in a hall, with all our bags, with no aircon. It was not fun.

After we finally made it out the other side, we were greeted by our driver who was more than happy to see us, after waiting for us for the same amount of time that we’d been waiting to get through! We jumped on and began our journey and just as we was getting off to sleep, was woken in a service station, as the van tyre was about to blow! What??! All fixed and back on the road, we made a planned pitstop to grab some snacks and then hit the road fast and furious speed, finally arriving in Bangkok around 8pm.

When was was on the bus to Thailand, we all said that we were going to have a chilled few days here, do some exploring and just hang out as it was our final few days together as a group of six before mostly splitting in different directions. We also said that we weren’t going to go to Khao San Road (party central), this was a waste of breath saying as not even an hour after arriving, there we were. First up we went to Taco Bell, we hadn’t had takeaway the whole time we were in Cambodia so it felt so nice, and then after this we headed to get a massage, I was dead excited as I was hurting from the longest travel day I’d had in a long time, and who can say no to a full-body Thai massage for 400baht (like £10!). After this we were ready to party, so we headed to where the vibes were and grabbed a cocktail bucket each, and the night began! We were dancing with the drag queens, and then eventually after enough alcohol were up on one of the podiums dancing to all sorts of random stuff. We had the best night just enjoying ourselves.

Unfortunately we could all definitely tell the next day that we had a good night, we all woke up late and were dead in need of some chill time. We headed to grab coffee and then found a nice little street food restaurant where we had some of the nicest Thai food. We chilled out and then I went to get a pedicure because how can you not for only 300baht (like £7.50, insane) and it provided some much needed chill out time. We then went to grab a drink, just one drink. How wrong we were. It wasn’t just one drink (of course), it was a lot of drinks, a party tuktuk which we raced with another, a ping pong show, and another night on Khao San Road. Mate. It was interesting for sure. We did have a good night (minus the ping pong show) and I reckon we all enjoyed the tuktuk journeys there and back more than the actual show itself, and we enjoyed dancing the night away until 4am the next morning.

Our final day in Bangkok and we were feeling sorry for ourselves again and was just waiting for some others to move out of the comfy seats at the hostel so that we could occupy them for as long as possible. We also had to checkout so we couldn’t even be hungover peacefully in our beds. Our flight wasn’t until late in the evening so we had time to kill, so went for a massage again (how can you not) and then found a lovely looking Italian restaurant whilst wandering around so had our final group meal together before departing ways for the final time for a long time. Joe and I headed to the airport as we had a night flight to Japan. There we had it, good night Bangkok, good morning Tokyo!

Bangkok pt.2 – Explore

I made another stop in Bangkok en route back from the North of Thailand. It’s a long way getting to the South of Thailand even from Bangkok, so I need a few days in between travelling to break up some really long trips, but what better place than Bangkok where there is so much to do! There was a few bits I wanted to see and do here so made it my mission to try and do it all in two days, and succeeded. I’m not going to lie, I’m not the biggest fan of Bangkok, it’s dirty, smelly, very busy and overwhelming, and just not very me. The last time we were here I only really experienced the night time (as we weren’t sober for most the time we were last here), so being out in the day offered a different perspective of the city, but still, not a fan. I purposely chose not to stay near Khao San this time so I couldn’t be tempted by the nightlife, and instead stayed in Bang Rak, which is right near China Town.

I flew in from Chiang Rai and arrived in the evening, so my first day / night just consisted of grabbing some dinner and having a walk along the river, nothing too fancy. Just simple. Day one I only had one definite thing I wanted to do, and that was visit Chatuchack Weekend Market, it was Sunday, so it was the only day I had left to visit. I met up with another traveller and we wandered around together for a few hours, and genuinely didn’t realise how big it was! It was really good to visit though, managed to pick up some absolute steals, including some new flipflops which were very much needed for upcoming beach time, and a new funky shirt, as well as a backpack that I’ve wanted for so long (even back home) and was always reluctant to buy because it was so expensive, however, got it for super cheap here with some bargaining too. We grabbed some lunch from one of the street food stands, and it was decent, and then went for a bit more of a wander and then I got a grab bike back to my hostel to get changed before heading out for the evening, I went for another walk along the river (super peaceful) and grabbed some dinner.

Bangkok is huge. It’s an absolutely massive city so it’s hard to see lots of things that aren’t close together in one day, because there is also non-stop traffic at all times of the day here too. You almost need to group what you’re planning on doing to different areas and tackling it each day. Day two and my last day in Bangkok before heading off tomorrow, and I wanted to tick off some temples, some of the most exquisite and famous temples in Thailand. Most of the temples are in the same area so I took a grab bike down there and began exploring. Just on this, Grab bikes are such a cool way to get around, literally like Uber but you order a scooter instead, you jump on the back and it takes half the time to get where you’re going because they drive crazy through all the traffic, but you feel weirdly safe at the same time.

First up was The Grand Palace, 500baht entry (pretty steep; around £12) and under the absolute baking sun, in long trousers for their modesty standards, with it being the most crowded place I’ve ever visited, I can’t say it was my favourite. I definitely didn’t spend long enough there to warrant what I paid to get in, but it was nice to wander round and I also got to see Wat Phra Kaew; the Emerald Buddha. Again, slightly underwhelming, the way it was spoke about you would have thought it was a bit bigger, but, it was tiny! I queued for a little while to see it, and battled crowds, and genuinely stood in this room thinking ‘where is it?’ before looking up and seeing it at the top of the shrine. The area was stunning though, everything sparkled, it was super colourful, and everything was photo worthy, although I’m not too impressed with my photo skills here, I’m putting it down to the sunshine and not being able to see anything I was looking at through the screen. But, I’ve got the real life memories.

Next stop was Wat Pho; the Reclining Big Buddha. Now this was worth it, it was 300baht entry (around £7.50) and it was huge! It was still busy, but far less crowded than what I’d just experienced, and you could go round the Buddha as many times as you wanted. It was sensational, the statue itself is 46 metres long and gold plated, and I genuinely think my jaw dropped when I first saw it. I spent a good half hour just looking at it from different angles and taking lots of photos and videos. You could walk around the front and back of it too, to really see how incredibly huge it really is. It was also set inside of some really tranquil, and colourful temple grounds, which were empty compared to where I’d been before, and I really enjoyed walking around and seeing all the different areas.

I then wandered to the riverside to catch a glimpse of Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. I didn’t go in, as you needed to get a boat across the river, pay again (entry was 200baht) and it seemed like it was going to be just as crowded, and by this point, I was templed out. You could get insane views of it (and probably better, less crowded views) from this side of the river too, so I didn’t feel like I was missing out. I was also absolutely baking at this point and was dead in need of putting some shorts on, so admired it from afar and headed back to get changed. I headed back out to explore China Town which was cool and then grabbed some dinner before going back to my hostel to pack ready for travel day tomorrow.

Final day in Bangkok and I was up and ready for my long bus ride to get me further south. I had a six-hour journey to Chumphon which was the town where I could catch a boat to Koh Tao. However because of the journey time, I needed to spend the night here and then catch the ferry the following day. It wasn’t exactly an exciting town with much to offer, and by the time I arrived it was gone 6pm, so it was just a dinner and chill kinda evening. The next day it was up to catch my bus to the pier and boat to the island, it was finally beach time and I was so excited! I’ll see you there. Mads x