Both Bryden and I didn’t know what to expect of Bangkok. We had heard many polarized comments; some people seem to think it’s the most interesting city in the world, and others don’t want to touch it with a ten foot pole. Not knowing what to expect, we scheduled two days in the city. We would be there long enough to get a good feel for its cultures and scenery and food, but we wouldn’t be there long enough to get potentially bored. Luckily, after a day in Bangkok, we grew to love the city.
I woke up early for our first day in Bangkok after a slightly poor sleep. After showering and getting ready to head out, Bryden and I went on TripAdvisor and found a place called Snooze Coffee Shop, where we decided to get breakfast. Knowing that there is a large canal ferry system that could get us through the city, we aimed for a dock and headed off.
We easily caught the ferry we wanted and spent about twenty minutes heading north. The ferry was really interesting. It was a relatively small boat and it was jam packed with people. We found some standing room at front, and watched as the city passed us by.
The ferry operated in an interesting way. It was a very long boat, with a driver at the front, and an entrance/exit at the back. Because of the length, a man at the back used a whistle to “speak” with the driver. This team worked very efficiently; the driver listened to the man at the back, and we always ended up well parked.
We found the coffee shop and had a really great breakfast. The place was quite western but the pancakes and smoothies were delicious. While we were eating we figured out what we needed to do to prepare for our travels, and what we wanted to do for the day. My brother, who spent a few weeks in Thailand this past summer, recommended that we take a Klong (canal) tour, which would bring us through small flooded neighborhoods full of teak homes on stilts and temples. We headed towards one of the larger ports in the city, not completely sure about how these tours were arranged.
When researching online, I saw that people spent around 1000 baht ($30) for a one hour tour, per person. This felt too expensive for us, so we decided to see if we could do better. A woman approached us once we arrived at the dock and started trying to sell us a tour, for 1000 baht per person. We asked if they could do 500, and after a fair bit of negotiating (and acting very apprehensive about the tour, saying “it’s okay, maybe later” a few times), we agreed on 550 per person. This felt like a great price, and we happily headed on board our small boat.
The boat took us through a number of small canals, and we were extremely impressed by both how expansive the city was, and how small run down homes could exist right next to much larger high end developments. The boat we were in was extremely interesting too. It was a long boat, with six of us on it, and it was powered by an exposed turbocharged diesel V8 stuck on a pivot, with a direct drive shaft coming off the back with an exposed propeller at the end.
After this great tour, Bryden had a few errands to run (getting a phone case and a sim card among other things), so we decided we would leisurely walk towards Siam Paragon; a large and very upscale mall a few miles away.
Strolling through the city proved to be a great way to get a feel for Bangkok. We walked through numerous little neighborhoods, exploring small back alleys and looking for anything that piqued our interest. One of the most interesting parts of this walk was seeing a number of large, tightly packed markets. Full of locals, these indoor markets contained hundreds of small stalls, selling everything one might need for their home. You could easily buy lights, car parts, appliances, tools, and much more. People were haggling, running around, and it gave us a great feel for how locals shop.
We eventually made it to the mall, which was very impressive. There were numerous luxury car dealerships and boutique clothing shops. This mall felt strange in contrast to the small markets we had just been through. Bryden found a phone case and learned more about getting a sim card, and we rested our feet for a few minutes and cooled down.
We then decided to head to a restaurant near our hostel, and to get there we wanted to take a tuk tuk. We found someone who would take us, and agreed on a good price. We then took off, and held on. It said that this drive would take us 25 minutes, but we seemed to have the maddest and angriest and most rushed person in the world driving us. We ended up getting there in 15 minutes, thankful that we survived. Our driver kept flipping off other drivers, getting honked at, and making upset grunting noises. He also continually smoked some kind of hand rolled cigarette. I think that he must have added some kind of amphetamine to it to stay awake. He was zoned out.
We had an extremely great dinner at Nalin Restaurant, and then set off again towards a rooftop bar recommended to us by an older Australian couple we met on the boat tour. I decided that we didn’t want another tuk tuk, so I ordered an Uber. Our Uber driver was 10 minutes away, so instead of waiting I cancelled the car and we hailed a taxi.
In this taxi we showed a map to the driver with our destination on it (a large hotel on a busy road) and he seemed confused. Eventually he said he would get us there, but then set off in the wrong direction. He seemed to have no clue where he was going, so we asked him politely to let us out of the cab. We then ordered an Uber again, this time waiting the 10 minutes. The driver was much better and brought us straight to the hotel.
Entering this hotel was great. Everyone was extremely friendly, and directed us to the roof. We took an elevator 59 stories up, and then walked up a further two stories through a swanky restaurant. We ended up on the roof, looking over all of Bangkok. We found the couple that recommended the place to us and sat down and chatted with them. Although we missed the sunset due to our taxi diversion, we still had an amazing time. We then chatted with a friendly German couple (the guy was a theoretical physicist turned financial analyst, and the girl had spent some time in Marin), and stayed for a couple hours.
Tomorrow we will wake up early and go see the Grand Palace, and eventually we will take a night train to Chiang Mai. As always, leave any comments or questions below, and you can expect another post soon!