Why is everyone hating on Bangkok?

That was the thought crossing my mind as I cautiously went through boarder control after our 16 hour flight.

Everyone — everyone — with the exception of one person told us Bangkok was not worth spending more than a few days in.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was skeptical about Christian’s desire to spend a week just in Bangkok. He had zero plans and zero ideas of what he wanted to do or why he wanted to go. Apparently he was  “called” to Bangkok. I’m guessing it was subliminal messages from the  Hangover Movie Part 2.

Nevertheless after  16 hours of flying to discover what Christian was looking for we arrived at the Millennium Hilton Hotel in Bangkok and I snapped this picture of my husband looking out at our view on the 29th floor.

Apparently he was looking for something close to Paradise and I was pretty sure we had just found it. SOLD.

CC: Jasmine Nears

However, the first morning started off terrible. I woke up after a night of little to no sleep and went downstairs to the breakfast buffet where my husband and I were seated at our table. Christian went to get food and a very angry man with his wife and two kids approached me and began yelling at me demanding I give up my seat since there were four of him and one of me. Issue was – this was assigned seating and I was not going to give up my seat without an explanation. I quickly got the attention of a waitress who escorted him to another seat apologetically.

Um ok. Not Sold now…

Thankfully, the rest of the day was spent exploring the Siam area of Bangkok. We went to Sea Life which is better for families than couples and explored the Jim Thompson House which was surprisingly entertaining (you can kill a good hour here). The next day I ordered room service for breakfast and we finally had our first tour.

Needless to say – I began to question the wisdom of ONLY spending a day or two in Bangkok.

We explored Ayutthaya, the Bang Pa In Palace, and took a river cruise. While the tour felt too rushed I was fascinated by the ruins and the canals.

Bangkok is truly the Venice of Asia and I could not wait to explore more. The next day we had a private photography tour where we explored Wat Pho with the reclining Buddha whose main attraction should be the marvelous temple grounds that are the birth place of the Thai Massage, the Grand Palace where I learned the story of the Ramayana Saga, we took a 40 minute cruise along the colorful canals and ate lunch in the old part of Chinatown (you could spend hours in chinatown) before taking a taxi to Laappaak dining room where we had a second lunch.

The next day we created our own itinerary. Public transportation is so easy in Bangkok so we opted to take it everywhere (and some taxi rides). We went to the Golden Mountain (aka Wat Sakat) to get this view:

Wat Sakat felt pretty touristy despite the fact that it was built decades ago and for the purpose of worship. Nevertheless, the view were nice. Then we headed to Khao San Road which is also known as backpackers road. Truthfully, I just wanted to walk the ground Leonardo DiCaprio walked and see if the streets were littered with hipster backpackers begging for money for their world travel (we saw one or two). We passed the democracy monument before arriving at Khao San Road. The monument is well worth a stop if you are headed in that direction. The place was tourist central but it was also the kind of place I could see myself loving in my 20’s or with a longer night of sleep. We had a beer and left for a four hour canal ride which was fantastic.

We saw the Royal Barges Museum which was like stepping back in time and marveled at Wat Arun. But the most spectacular moment was being stuck in the rain for 30 minutes on the canal under a bridge. The rain poured endlessly and hard and thunder sounded in the distance. I could hear the lighting strike in the silence. It was everything!

We spent our last day taking a rather unique and unusual tour of Thailand’s medical museums. It was like 6 hours of cadavers and heat. I personally like medicine and anatomy and considered it fascinating – especially since anyone from the public can learn about the human body for FREE in Thailand, but it was not for the faint of heart. After our tour we took the SkyTrain to Noodle Boat Alley which is this little area near the Victory Monument that serves tapas styles noodle bowls to hungry students for super cheap near a dirty canal. If you like noodles and have extra time it’s a must. The noodles were some of the best I’ve had.

Thailand grew on me not just because of the temples, cityscape, and beautiful canals but also the people I met who always had a smile.

I also loved the ease of public transportation. Their system, in my opinion, can put New York City to shame for it’s pure diversity. Unlike anywhere I had every lived before so much of Bangkok’s public transportation was by boat and it was uncomplicated and easy to use.

To get to Sea Life from our hotel we took a complimentary ferry from the hotel to the Saphan Taksin Sky Train Stop. After getting a ticket we rode the train to Siam which has a huge shopping mall.

We made it to Tealicious by taking a four Baht ferry across the river from our hotel and then walking the 10 minute walk. Thailand feel incredibly safe and people – including women by themselves- were out at all times of the night.

Forget what people say. Spend five days in Bangkok.

Curious to know what we did and how we did it? Here are the Basics:

The Basics:

STAY: Millennium Hilton Bangkok- Booked with Points — Also offers Gluten Free Bread! Laundry is not cheap there. We spent about 6,000 Baht to have a week’s worth of laundry for two people done.

GETTING THERE: Flew ANA and Thai Airways. I preferred Thai Airways planes but enjoyed ANA’s food more. – Booked with Points

TOURS:

• BKK Tours – Bangkok Highlights — highly recommend. Ask for Michai.
• Tour East Thailand – Thailand’s Ayutthaya Temples and River Cruise from Bangkok – Do not recommend however you will get all the highlight of the old town, but may feel rushed.
• Go Beyond Asia –Weird and Wacky Bangkok Tour – consists of visiting lots of museums in hospitals and universities that display the human body. It’s actually pretty interesting but not for the faint of heart or those under 12 years of age.

CELIAC EATING

• Tealicious Bangkok was extremely accommodating for Christian’s celiac disease. It’s run by a Thai woman and her British husband whose daughter has a ton of allergies. So they understand the need to be careful. We ate Green Curry and Phanaeng curry – both delicious.
• ลาภปาก – Laappaak Dining room has delicious Gang Som Cha (Thai soup with seafood and vegatable omelete) and Tom Yum Goong soup. They were able to accommodate Christians dietary restrictions.
• The Never Ending Summer – more upscale restaurant that has lots of gluten free options. They were very accommodating and speak English and German.

MUST NOT MISS HIGHLIGHTS

• Royal Barges Museum
• Two to four hour canal ride.
• Wat Pho
• Wat Arun
• Grand Palace
• Chinatown – go exploring through the smaller streets for a taste of “real” Chinatown and some great street food.
• Ayutthaya

PHOTO JOURNEY

Looking up at Wat Arun’s temple. It’s beautiful and something to behold and not miss.

Walking through the grounds of Wat Pho where the famous reclining Buddha lays totaling 46 meters. We spent over an hour here and I could not get over all the beautiful colors. Bangkok is full of flowers, temples, and colors at every turn.

This Buddha head is famous. No one knows why but after Ayutthaya was destroyed this Buddha head grew from the ground in tree roots.

This is another temple that’s part of the Ayutthaya ruins tour. Wat Na Phramen temple is beautiful on the outside with high ceiling and gold. We arrived in the middle of a ceremony for an offering to Buddha. The students and worshippers were chanting and the monks were leading. Suddenly we were told to kneel down on our knees and the lead monk came around with a wet broom and hit each of us on the head to drive out evil spirits. #1 it hurt and #2 it was a refreshing drop of water on my head from a very hot day.

More Buddha statues at Wat Pho. There are moments like this everywhere in Bangkok.

We took an early morning visit to a flower market. Flowers are a very important part of life for people in Thailand. You can give them to people for all occasions and you also offer them to Buddha or to your gods. In addition you use them as fragrance in your home so everyone buys flowers. But they are not the typical bouquets I am use to in the states. Instead these flowers are strung together in beautiful designs.

Our drive with a  Tuk Tuk driving during the Bangkok Highlight photography tour. As you can see his Tuk Tuk has flowers hanging from the driving mirror. This is very common.

More Ayutthaya ruins. This is part of the Wat Maha That Buddist temple that was restored.

Noodle tapas style from our short trip to Noodle Boat Alley on our last day in Thailand. Again, I recommend going if you have time. They offer rice noodles although I can not say what’s in the broth!

View of a very busy China town in Bangkok famous for it’s street food. I recommend a trip here and I recommend getting lost off the beaten paths in the alley ways where you can find little bodegas to have a bite to eat.

Backpackers Alley also known as Khao San Road where many backpackers stay and the young and old come to party. It’s very touristy but it’s a nice walk through a busy street with little car traffic.

Part of our relaxing canal boat tour where we passed many homes and shops along the canal. Here a man feed fish on the dock of a restaurant. I became an expert at getting on and off boats.

Worship in Thailand can take place anywhere and at anytime. There are spirit houses and Buddha statues everywhere in the city, including in front of this huge shopping mall. Bangkok is full of shopping and it feels like there’s a mall almost everywhere you go. We visited CentralWorld เซ็นทรัลเวิลด์, The Emporium, and Siam Discovery Center where we had lunch one day and where Sea Life is located.