Bangkok

Day 279 (April 3, 2019) – Bangkok, Thailand

We were back in Bangkok! Despite going seemingly everywhere on this around the world trip, we had yet to go anywhere we had already vacationed, until we landed in Bangkok. Bangkok was the starting point for our 2013/2014 Southeast Asia trip and unfortunately, I wasn’t a huge fan of Bangkok the first time around. I’m sad to say that the repeat visit didn’t change my mind.

Bangkok has to be one of the shopping capitals of the world. There are shopping malls everywhere and they're each enormous with hundreds of stores.

Bangkok is a hugely sprawling city of over eight million people. There are many different areas of the city to explore, but they’re not well connected. There is a train and subway system but it’s not that extensive and leaves many areas of the city somewhat isolated. Cabs are cheap but the traffic is horrendous. You need to double or triple the time you think it will take to get anywhere. It’s a chore to get around to different parts of the city.

We found some of the mall food courts to be surprisingly good and very inexpensive.

We were only planning on a week or less in Bangkok and then heading north to explore more of Thailand, but our plans ended up in disarray when we learned that it was burning season. Every spring, farmers burn their dead crops to prepare the land for the next growing season. This generates enormous amounts of smoke and reduces air quality all throughout rural Southeast Asia. Ironically, while we were looking to travel north to Chang Mai, everyone already in Chang Mai was trying to get out to find some clean air. Deciding to save our lungs and our health, we worked to identify an alternative itinerary, which left us with a lot of travel planning to do. Our time in Bangkok stretched out to nine days as we pulled together a plan to move onto China.

Breakfast in bed. From 7-Eleven, of course, as is everything else we snacked on.

We ended up staying in three different areas of Bangkok, spending time in Khaosan Road, Silom, and Sukhumvit. This was partly driven by a desire to see different parts of the city, but it was also driven by opportunity. We were looking for good hotel deals yet weren't sure when we'd be ready to leave so we only ever made reservations for a few days at a time and then would have to find another deal again.

One of the streets near our hotel around Khaosan Road.

Khaosan Road is the quintessential backpacker area of Bangkok. At night the street came alive with crowds of people, gaudy flashing signs, street vendors selling everything from Pad Thai to scorpions on a skewer, and countless bars and restaurants to keep everyone entertained. It was a bit too raucous for us and we preferred one of the streets that ran parallel to it, which was much the same, only toned down a lot. The main problem with Khaosan Road was that it had no public transportation connections to the rest of Bangkok. It’s like a tourist enclave separate from the rest of the city. It is, however, within walking distance from some of the city’s main temples. We had visited these places last time we were in Bangkok and we wanted to visit them again, but since we were last there the admission price had gone up four-fold. Electing to not spend the cost of an entire night’s accommodation on a temple, we decided to forgo the return visit.

Khaosan Road during the day. We never got a photo of it all lit up at night.

This was our big night out on Khaosan Road. Except we didn't like Khaosan Road, so this in on the quieter, parallel street. Empty beer bottles aren't cleared from the table until after you leave, sitting there all night like a sad trophy collection. You can immediately tell who's been at the bar the longest by seeing who's tables is completely filled up with empty beer bottles.

Compared to Khaosan Road, Silom was a much more put together section of the city, but it was also pricier. Many banks and international businesses are in Silom, so it had somewhat of a busy corporate feel during the day. Almost all the major restaurant chains that might be found at home are likely have a location in Silom (I imagine they’re taking advantage of all the business travelers who end up in the area). There were also a few enormous shopping malls. The restaurants in the area were quite pricey and we found much better deals for lunch at shopping mall food courts. When we did go out for dinner we were just as likely to find international cuisine as we were Thai food. One of our best meals in Bangkok was, coincidentally, not Thai food. We went to a Japanese restaurant and had a delicious meal of tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet), salad, rice, and sake. I think we were the only people in the restaurant not speaking Japanese, which made it a really special and memorable experience. While staying in Silom we also visited Lumphini Park, a huge green space with people walking, running, and taking part in open air aerobics classes to the tune of catchy Thai pop songs. We also made a trip up to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, a seriously huge market that we got lost in for hours. It was like a maze that had no end. You could buy anything there.

Silom is a lot more put together than Khaosan Road. It's less gritty and conveniently located along the train line, but you pay for it.

Our best meal in Bangkok at a delicious Japanese restaurant. 

The Chatuchak Weekend Market. We walked through corridors like this for hours. You can literally get lost within this market.

Our last stop was in Sukhumvit. This was the area we stayed in during our first trip, although after walking around some of the streets where we had been before, we realized that not all that much felt familiar to us. It’s crazy how fast you can forget details of past trips (making this blog all the more important for us). The one place we did remembered was an airport-themed shopping mall in the area, but that was about it. (Shopping malls are a common theme in Bangkok…) Most of our time in Sukhumvit was spent ironing out our travel plans. We bought a flight to Hong Kong that was only a few days away and we needed to figure out what we were going to be doing once we got there. We had to apply for a Chinese visa once we arrived and it took us a while to make sure all our ducks were in a row.

Many of Bangkok's streets wake up at night. This one, in Silom, is one of the more famous red light districts in the city. The day of the week is almost irrelevant. Restaurants, bars, and even the red light districts were a sea of activity every night.

The high rises in Silom, at the edge of Lumphini Park.

Lumphini Park, one of the few green spaces we found in the city.

At the end of our time in Bangkok I was happy to move on, especially considering that we were headed to Hong Kong, a city that I really enjoyed from our last trip. For me, Bangkok is just too big and too overwhelming. Bangkok’s charm is that it’s disheveled. Parts of the city are very international and cosmopolitan, while other parts are noisy and wild and chaotic. Bangkok is still a worthwhile travel destination if you haven’t been, but I think there are many more interesting places to visit in Thailand. Unfortunately, no trip to Thailand is complete without passing through Bangkok. It’s inevitable, as it was for us, because all roads in Thailand lead to Bangkok. Consequently, I’m sure we’ll be back one day, even if we’re just passing through, but perhaps after a third visit I’ll finally learn to like this chaotic and congested city.