Travel

City trip to Bangkok

Hi dear travel lover,

After my fantastic period in Bali, ended with a wonderful trip, it was time to head home again. But luckily we first made a stopover in Bangkok. I would like to share my experience with this metropolis with you.

My first introduction to Bangkok

We arrive in Bangkok late at night. It is Saturday and even so late in the day it is still hot. We take a Grab taxi to Khaosan Road, where our hotel, Dang Derm Khaosan, is located. When we arrive here we first have to blink our eyes. What a hustle and bustle! It is teeming with young people. There is abnormally loud music from all sides and the whole street is in front of tents with food, drinks, ice cream, clothing, shoes etc. While we, with our mega-sized suitcases, manage to squeeze through the crowd, we got alcohol, drugs and laughing gas offered from all sides. It is about 50 meters from the corner of the street to the hotel, but it took us at least 10 minutes. Once arrived at our hotel we quickly go to our room to dump our things and freshen up. We still have to eat, so at 1 o'clock at night we quickly go down the street again. We looked our eyes out while we explore the neighborhood while enjoying street food.

A day of shopping. Clothing and souvenirs or just a puppy?

The next day we take a taxi to the Chatuchak market. This is one of the largest markets in Bangkok that takes place every weekend. You have everything you want here. From clothing and shoes to bags, plants, smoothies and local food. However, the high point on this market is the animals that are sold there. You can't think of it as crazy or they have it. Dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, squirrels, mini pigs, monkeys and so on. Especially striking were the Chihuahua and Pomeranian, who are sold for less than thirty euros. I would have preferred a hand full. And to make it a little crazier .. There were also shops with the most crazy dog clothes, accessories (think of hair bands, shoes, bows) and strollers.

After we were bored with this special market, we took a taxi to the MBK shopping center. You can find everything here. It has seven floors, each with its own theme. There is a floor with electronics, one with souvenirs, but also a department with all fake designer clothes. You will also find a wide variety of dining options in this mall. For the occasion we just sit down at the McDonalds. What had I missed this after 3 months 😉

We end our day with a ride on the TukTuk back to our hotel. In the evening we eat street food again on Khaosan Road. There is a tourist office next to the entrance of our hotel. You can book all kinds of tours here. I had already looked up a lot via the internet in advance, but the tours at this office were much cheaper and very well organized. I usually like to find out everything myself and view everything locally. However, because we had so little time in Bangkok and wanted to see a lot, we did it with this tour agency.

Just a snapshot at the second layer of the Erawan waterfalls. Personally my favorite layer! (Check the huge fish at my feet!)

The Erawan waterfalls; a source for muscle pain and very beautiful pictures

A fun full day was planned for Monday. We were picked up early in the morning to drive for 3.5 hours. Finally we arrived at our destination, the Erawan waterfalls. These consist of 7 layers. Each layer looks completely different again. The higher you go, the more it becomes a climb to get to the next layer. From level 5 it is really next level climbing, sliding and sliding to get up further. An enormous number of large fish swim in the waterfalls that suck at your feet and nibble as soon as you enter the water. Not really a success with my fish phobia, so I stayed safely on the side to take pictures. And those photos can be there! What a fantastic beautiful place this is. Definitely recommended if you go to Thailand.

After our long hike it is time for lunch at one of the local tents that sits along the parking lot of the waterfall. A delicious meal and ice cold water further it was time to continue. We went to the Bridge over the River Kwai. A very famous point in Thailand where many tourists come to. However, I did not find it that special and above all too hot to walk around. When everyone was bored we left for our hotel again. We arrived here tired but satisfied at night. This time we went for a real Thai meal and a delicious fresh smoothie in one of the side streets of Khaosan road.

Floating tourists

The next day we were picked up early again. This time we went to a floating and a train market. Both famous sights in Bangkok. So skip this if you do not like tourist activities. However, I really enjoyed seeing it. The floating market in particular is really an experience. You board a shuttle boat that will take you across the entire market. Along the side and on the water you will find stalls with clothing, bags, souvenirs, food, drinks, etc. You negotiate from your boat and you are attacked from all sides with the items that they sell. The market was much larger than expected. With half an hour's sailing you have not seen half. After we had been around with the shuttle boat, we went sailing outside the market with a motor boat. A bit of the Giethoorn of Thailand idea 😉

From the floating market we drove on to the train market. This is a market along a train track. Every hour a train passes by and all stalls are folded in a jiffy until the train is over. A special sensation that attracts many tourists. Personally, I didn't really like it and I wanted to get rid of the smell of dead fish as quickly as possible.

Train market

When we returned to our hotel in the afternoon, we had some time to relax by the pool. Nice to update our tan a bit before we would go back to the cold, wet Netherlands. When the sun goes down we go back to our hotel room to get ready for the evening. This time a fancy evening is on the program. So we put on our most beautiful dress, spend half an hour on our makeup and hair and then have to think about which shoes match our dresses. 1.5 hours later we are finally outside to start our luxurious evening. Two blocks further on we flopped down at a pizzeria with a juice from a roadside stall. So predictable with us 😉 After we have eaten to much pizza, without messing with our light-colored dresses, we take a tuk-tuk towards the other part of the city. Here we are dropped off at the sky bar Above Eleven. From here you have a beautiful view of Bangkok City and you can enjoy nice music and a nice drink. You can also eat very well here! Book in time because it is very busy here. After we have done a few drinks, we enjoy a delicious dessert on the top floor and of course we take a few photos for the gram. Tired of a long day we decide not to go crazy and we take a tuktuk back to our hotel reasonably on time.

The beautiful view from the skybar Above Eleven

The last hard day

On Thursday it is really time for our last day. We don't have to get out of bed that early and enjoy it to the full. We take it easy and have breakfast as late as possible. After breakfast we leave with a bottle of sunscreen, a booklet and sunglasses towards the roof to spend a day at the pool. This sounds very relaxed but it was hard to do! It was the only non-cloudy, windless, day in Bangkok and it felt like 45 degrees right away. We regularly had to go into the water or go to the shade to avoid merging with our beds and to prevent sunstroke. But hey, since it was our last day you don't hear me complaining. At noon we look for coolness in the hotel restaurant. Here we eat a delicious pizza. We see so many delicious desserts on the menu that we decide to take some later in the afternoon before our taxi comes to pick us up to take us to the airport. We conclude our trip in Bangkok with one of the funniest moments in our vacation. Our super sweet helpful driver had made a little mistake in the weight of my suitcase and with no possibility gets that big thing in the car. But we were not allowed to help. We could not help ourselves and cried from laughing. Still trained our abs after a few weeks of eating too much and, apart from the big walks, not exercising 😉.

And then it was already the end of our fantastic journey together. Apart from home, for me, a long period of traveling and working.

Bangkok, you hate it or you love it. I loved it!

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