Thailand is a great country to visit. Even though people don’t
speak English, they are still willing to help a foreigner. Bangkok is definitely
a must visit. I can easily spend five days there without getting bored. There is
always one more temple to visit or shopping to do. Out of town excursions are
great too. We did our excursions on our own because Prachi was in Thailand and she could
find out what to do. Otherwise, it may have been a little bit of a challenge
for me. I would have looked all over the internet and still not be happy with
my decision.
I would have stayed one more day in Phuket to enjoy it more. Or I could have skipped Similan island in lieu of seeing Phuket. Phi Phi island was much more enjoyable and also closer to Phuket so it gave us more time to rest in the evening.
Hotels are plenty and affordable. One has to ask about breakfast and transportation. In Phuket, the airport is about one hour from the town, so one has to take taxi, van or hotel transportation to get there. Same goes for Bangkok, the downtown, more touristy area is about 40 mins from the airport. That is why I wanted to get the hotel on a metro line. I could have selected a hotel more on the local line instead of the airport metro line, because we had to keep changing stations every single time we went out touring. And then we could have just taken the airport line once to visit the Baiyoke tower. Although I did like staying at the Baiyoke hotel :-)
The food everywhere was amazing! I love Thai food and in it's original place Thailand,
it was just too good. The flavors, the aromas were just too good. And we were
able to get vegetarian food. If I was going on my own, I would learn to say “vegetarian”
or “no meat” in Thai!
Shopping was the best all over. Prices are low and
quality is good. If anyone loves T-shirts then they would be in heaven. I had a
little hard time buying clothes because most of the clothes for females are for
skinny women. I was happy with other stuff. There are a LOT of places to shop and one can shop only one shopping area in one day - hehe. One does have to bargain a little bit to get good prices.
I always felt safe in the places we went to. I did not feel anyone was cheating me. Even at 11:30 pm we could walk from the metro to our hotel. Although it's possible that we were in good locations also. And the places were all touristy, which in general are crowded and safe.
I feel there is still more to see for me in Thailand, the
northern part is quite different than the southern. I would probably advice
anyone visiting to make a 10-12 day plan to completely enjoy the country.
Today Prachi is going to go to her place to bring the
stuff she wants to send to her parents, so it’s a late morning for me. While she
was gone (and she was gone early as her place is about one hour away). I took
it easy. I could not also pack because I don’t know how much she is bringing. After
she came back around 12 pm, I packed it all up.We checked out. I left my luggage with the concierge and we went to visit
one last temple – the marble temple.
This one was a little bit of a miss. First it took us a
long time to get there, with the train and bus and all, then we could not find
it and had to take a cab to get to it because I was so exhausted of walking and
it was so hot at 1 pm. The temple was just okay. Nothing special.
We came back to the hotel and from there I had to take
the train to the airport. I had selected that hotel because the train went
directly to the airport. It was bittersweet leaving Prachi at the station. I so
enjoyed our trip together and I felt like I was not quite done. And I know she felt
the same way.
After about 40 mins ride, I was at the airport. I still
had plenty of time to the flight. Check in etc was all easy enough. The airport
was quite beautiful.
The flight was fine, however Air Asia has the worst chefs
cooking for them. The food during both legs was inedible.
Today was an excursion to Ayuthaya. So again, went to our
breakfast buffet as usual. Today I think it was vegetarian noodles. All tasty
stuff.
Went to the local bus/van station to take the van to
Ayuthaya. It turns out that it goes to the main bus station, where we will have
to change vans. It was little confusing but we made it. The drive was about 40 mins. The roads were
all great and Ayuthaya was also a very pretty city. There were many tourists in
the city. Once we reached the city stop, we would have to take a tuk tuk and
see how many temples we could see. There
are many ancient temples here. I let
Prachi decide which temples to visit as she had a better idea. We negotiated
with the tuk tuk to take us to all these temples below and the driver and guide
decided the order according to the locations. It would take about 4-5 hours to
see all these. Which was great, we would get back to Bangkok in time to enjoy
our last night in the city.
Our ancient temple tour was as below, with some stops here
and there….
1 – wat yai chaimonkhon (sleeping buddha) – beautiful old
temple. It had these steep stairs to go up and then we could walk around and
see the whole compound around. Very pretty. We walked to the very large Buddha
statue at the back. Then as we were walking to the exit, we came to the sleeping
Buddha.
After this first temple, all other temples started looking
the same. They had similar architecture, huge compounds and very systematic layout.
There was usually a line of sitting Buddhas around the compound, some so old
that they were broken. It was a very hot
and humid day. There was a lot of walking. We did get some fruit in the middle
but otherwise, no lunch. There was not many tourist shops either – which is
good. It was nice just to walk in these old compounds and wonder how it would
have looked back in its glory days.
The only temple that was a little unique was Wat Mahatat
where there was a Buddha head trapped in a tree. Reminded me of one of the
temples of Cambodia.
For some of the temples it was interesting to see how the
buildings were tilting or curving into the ground from years of change in the
earth’s surface. It was interesting. I think next time, I would do maybe four
temples.
2 - Wat chai watthana ram: The next temple was actually a complex of temples and a world UNESCO world heritage site. There were many temples in this complex, of course all were destroyed. It must have been a beautiful campus when it was at its peak. All we could do this time was to just walk around and enjoy. We did not have a guide so could not tell which building was which one.
3 - wat lokayasutharan: This was very much an open temple. There was a huge sleeping Buddha statue to see. It was very serene here.
4 – wat phrasisanphet: I think by the time we came here all temples were alike. There was nothing unique about this one.
5 – wat phra ram: By the time we came to the last temple, we were exhausted! It had been so hot and humid all day and this temple was not much different. What I found unique here was that some towers were starting to tilt in the ground (like leaning tower of Pisa). The rain must cause the ground to change in hardness.
6 – wat mahatat: This temple was also the same as all. The only unique thing was that a there was a Buddha statue in a tree – the tree had grown around the statue (reminded me of Cambodia).
The tuk tuk dropped us off near the van and we came back
to Bangkok. We were very near the Chatuchak
market, so we walked there to see if more shops were open, and they were not. So
then we decided to come back to our hotel and go up the Baiyoke tower.
Baiyoke Tower
And today was the day for the massage! Finally we got in
time to spare one hour for massage. We both got one hour massages, mine was just
the foot massage and it was good! Highly recommend.
As we came into our street, we saw the Indira market
mall!! We had not seen it before because we never came at time it was open. We went
in and wow! What a market!! We were totally engrossed in it. So many shop
owners knew Hindi and there were so many Indians around. It turns out that
Delhi shopkeepers come here to shop for bulk goods. It was really good,
watches, belts, t-shirts, jewelry, suitcases, phones….whatever one wanted, it
was there! We left at around 8 pm otherwise we would be late for our tower trip….and
we still had to eat dinner.
Right across were all Indian restaurants, so we decided
to have dosa for dinner. Awesome! Went back to our rooms, go cleaned up to go to
the Baiyoke tower. We were thinking since it is part of our hotel, we would get
up there for free, but no, we had to pay a 600 bhat (a discount for us because we
were at the sister hotel). The ticket includes the ride up and a free drink at
the bar. The Baiyoke tower is indeed beautiful inside. We were first at the 83th
level and then took the stairs up to the 84th, which is the rotating
rooftop deck. It was glorious to be so high up. And the view was just something
else! Stayed out in the open for a nice long time. It was of course windy, but
not cold. The rotating deck was a little noisy, but it did not matter. We made
2-3 rounds and then came down for our drink.
The bar was very nice. There were different kinds of chairs
and places to sit. There was enough room for a lot of people. There was live music. All the seats were by
the wall to wall glass windows. Very nice! Came back around 11 pm. Was totally
exhausted.
Went for breakfast around 9 am. The hotel was okay. I selected
it because of it’s proximity to the tallest tower in Bangkok, Baiyoke tower,
which is also a hotel. I wanted to go to the deck on one of the nights we were
there. So this hotel is one of the more affordable of the three hotels Baiyoke
has.
The breakfast buffet was good. there was plenty to eat (continental
and Thai) and drink. Enjoyed breakfast and then also the view from the top.
Then it was time to visit Lebua tower, the second tallest
hotel of Bangkok. It is also the site where movie, Hangover Part III, was
shot. It was a little bit of a walk from
the station but we got there. Went up to
the 63rd floor. The top floor opens only after 7 pm, so we will have
to suffice with this level. That’s fine! The concierge there was nice enough to
show us the deck and leave us to our photography. Oh my God! What a beautiful view
of the city. Could see miles of the crowded
city. Really cool!! Saw the river, saw Asiatic – just beautiful to spend some
time there.
After that it was time to see some temples. Prachi, very smartly, got us the public ferry
to the temples. 7 bhat vs 100 bhat (for the tourist taxi) is some difference!! It
was a 20 min ride to the first temple, Wat Arun. It was a huge temple. There was some maintenance going on, but
otherwise it was easily accessible and a number of areas were open to visit. It
took more than an hour to see. As we were walking to find the ferry, we crossed
through some food and tourist shops. And then came another temple. Spent some
time there also.
Walked back to the ferry and boarded to go to our next
stop, Pra Vihara (the temple of lying Buddha). This temple is the biggest I have
visited! It took over 2 hours to see the huge compound. First we paid respect
to the lying Buddha and from there we went to see all the little temples around
the campus. All were unique in their own ways and all beautiful. We had some
good lunch also – vegetable noodles.
Then it was time to see if we could see the palace near
the Pra Vihara. It was a long walk to the palace and by this time, we were just
beat! It turns out the palace was closed as it was 6 pm now. It was quite a
bummer since we had to walk all the way back to the ferry which is about a mile
walk again.
Once we got on the ferry, it was time to see the flower
market in the Yodpiman Riverwalk. They probably created the Riverwalk to have a
nice entrance to the flower market. I think our timing was not very good. the
flower market is the busiest at night, and of course its not possible to come at
that time for us. But we still got an idea of how great it must be. Flowers were
really cheap and plentiful. Sad that we did not need any. The Riverwalk itself was
quite nice too.
Then it was time to move on the Asiatique.
That is also accessible from the ferry. Now it is about 8 pm. Getting late and
I am super tired from walking but not tired of touring. Asiatique is lit up
like Diwali and crowded like a party place! There is a little area where there
are rides and shows going on. The other side has the shops and restaurants. Of course
we were not going to a restaurant. I am
all about street food! So we walked through the rides and got to where street
food. And we had good stuffed parantha kind of dish. Mine was egg stuffed and
Prachi’s was chocolate – both were tasty.
Then it was time to walk around. Again, there were a lot
of shops. It was great to be in such a lively place. Then we got in the line to
get the ferry to the metro. The ferry is free to the metro! Marketing strategy
of Asiatique. From the metro we went to the Siam mall. It was one of the most expensive and huge mall
I have seen! Oh lord! Just the shoe section went on and on and on. The food
courts were huge and had such a variety of foods and the ambience was just
super. It seems that below the mall is a huge aquarium, sadly closed at this
time of the day.
It was time to go back around 11 pm. Every time we walked
back to our hotel, we saw this massage place and promised ourselves, tomorrow!
Today was extremely tiring, but really a great day.
The flight out of Phuket was in the morning. Did not have
time for breakfast also. The scenery out of the plane was beautiful. And then
came Bangkok – oh what a huge city! Really good view from the plane.
After a bit of walking around the airport, Prachi figured
out the bus to take to the metro. Once at the metro, we had to change the train
once to get on the airport line on which our Baiyoke hotel was. In retrospect, I
should have just taken a cab from there.
Some of the metro stations did not have elevators and carrying one large
suitcase was not really fun! The metro is really good though.
Decided to go to the big market, Chatuchak, since the
check in was not available yet and it was the weekend! We took the metro again to
the market. Thanks to Prachi, I had a very good guide in her. The market was
not as busy as I was expecting. There were a lot of shops that were closed. And
then there were a lot of shops that opened up at 8 pm. We were there from
around 5 pm to 11 pm. Really enjoyed
walking around and shopping. I could not buy a lot of stuff for myself since I could
not be sure if dresses would fit me. But I bought for everyone I needed
to. Had coconut ice cream on the way. All
was great.
Bangkok really looks great at night also. Its amazing that it is such a hugely
populated city but it is so clean and has no crime. We were walking back to our
hotel at 11 pm but had no fear. We had to take the long way, but all was good. I
decided to take the buffet breakfast for the two days we were there.
Was really tired that night and tomorrow will be another
long day!
