Exploring in Bangkok 

Ok so it’s hot here. It hit us like a wall when we walked outside the airport. But we are embracing it and working with constantly being sweaty. We only slept 4 hours and both weirdly woke up at the same time, 2 hours before our alarm. We woke up, got ready, and walked outside our hotel to find a crazy market which we walked through.

So we climbed in a tuktuk to Khao San Road. The driver looked at Dad and said 100 baht. “No, too much” “Ok 50.” And off we went. But then he stopped and tried to tell us about all these stores and 7 day trips. I have it all taped on the go pro. Long story short we got out and ended up a block away from the hotel as he was just driving us in circles. Thai people don’t understand the word No! …or at least the ones we encountered. We used uber instead and got where we needed to go. Side note: after talking to other people and watching the gopro video, we realized that the tuktuk driver was trying to explain that the markets on Khao San road are closed for 7 days because of the cremation of the king and everything going on right now. When we come back to Bangkok at the end of our trip, we will go back to get the full backpacker experience.

The famous Khaosan Road! We felt more at home here as there were other white backpackers. We had breakfast with a view of the street while I uploaded a blog post and we were bombarded with guys trying to take us by tuktuk to floating markets, temples etc. Once again they did not understand the word no. It’s a shame because some of them were nice to talk to but then you realize they are just being nice so you will buy things from them. The tuktuk was really fun to ride in, though, and I’m glad we did it even though we went in circles.

We then drove to the train station to pick up our train tickets for the overnight ride to Chiang Mai on the 29th. I figured this was the only time we had to do this as it worked best with our schedule. By now, I think we were starting to feel more comfortable with the busyness and heat, although riding in air conditioned ubers in between stops was magnificent. Also going into the cold 7/11 stores for water helped as they are literally on every corner.

We explored a bit more, looked at a lot of knockoff North Face, then headed back to the hotel for a swim and a rest. We also did some laundry in the bathtub and hung it to dry.

After our snooze, we quickly went up to the 77th floor of the hotel to the observation deck. The views were gorgeous.

Then we rode to MBK, the biggest mall ever. Outside was a huge food market! I had my favourite meal so far and my soup plus delicious shrimp dumplings were only 110 baht all together, or 4$ CAD. It was super yummy and also I love how cheap dinner was.

We went up to the 4th floor which is all electronics and had fun bartering and haggling with everyone. Dad is the ultimate negotiator and he got a couple charging things for the electronics. He almost got talked into buying a fake Rolex for 2000 baht, or like 70$ CAD but he walked away. It was super fun seeing all the cool cheap things and millions of iPhones, gopros etc. We took a tuktuk back to the hotel instead of an uber because I wanted to do it again at night time and why the hell not. This guy brought us straight to the hotel and lowered the price for us. It was so fast and fun.

The other thing I really wanted to do today was the Chatuchak market but it closed at 6! Should have looked into it more. We will try and go there still though. Instead, we came back to the hotel and went up to the Sky bar on the roof for a drink!! Expensive drinks but the view from the 88th floor was unreal. For example… a drink here was 150 baht but we could buy a whole mickey of vodka in the mart in the lobby for 200.

Today was super fun and a great experience exploring a new & different city. I can’t get over how cheap everything is. We spent a lot of time driving back and forth places today but it was so cheap that it’s justifiable. For 6 uber rides and 2 tuktuk rides it was about 50$CAD. A 45 minute ride in traffic ended up being $11. We went long distances and were in air conditioning. The nice thing about Uber is that you don’t use cash, it’s all just right to the credit card. And you don’t have to worry about haggling the price. The tuktuk tonight, he said 250 baht at first and then he ended up doing it for 150. The uber estimate wad only 70 baht!!! In an air conditioned car lol. But we chose the tuktuk for something fun.

My favourite part about today was the Sky Bar. It was so cool and I’ve been waiting for it for so long! I thought it was on the rooftop but it was enclosed. I thinkni got it mixed up with a different bar.

My least favourite part about today was the pestering from people/ the tuktuk drivers everywhere to go on floating market tours etc. I would prefer when I say no that they walk away. Tuktuk drivers chase you down the street and then when we said uber they would walk away.

Dad said his favourite part about today was the market we walked through this morning. He likes that it’s all nice stuff and the variety. And he is sitting here right now wishing he bought the Rolex watch. 😂

His least favourite part was… nothing. He said he loved it all and nothing bothered him. I’ll interject and say the heat lol. Also he is obsessed with noodles. He orders noodles everywhere and he is currently eating ramen that he made with the kettle in our room!

We are going to pack up our stuff tonight as we are going on a temple tour tomorrow then switching hotels to something closer to the DMK airport where we leave Tuesday morning for Vietnam! The hotel is letting us lock up our luggage in their storage area so that we can check out on time and just pick it up after the tour as they drop is back off at our hotel anyway.

Thank you for reading! I love writing this to look back on and I hope you are enjoying the quick little play by play 🙂

Xoxo Hales

Watch the Bangkok video I made here!!