Bangkok

My flight was just 3 hours from Kathmandu to Bangkok so a very easy day travelling. What a contrast to Nepal! Back to levelled roads, modern cars, proper bathrooms!

Bangkok is just like any city really but it’s so big, so it was hard to get a grasp of the place. The traffic is insane to the quickest way of getting around was motor bike taxis. I didn’t love Bangkok but in the few days I did spend there, this is what I got up to!

For starters, I had a really lovely hostel- ‘Niras Bankoc Cultural Hostel’ it was a coffee shop by day/hostel by night 🙂

This was a quieter part of the city, about 15 minute walk from the ‘Khaosan Road’ madness! Across the road, there was some lovely street food where I had my first Pad Thai for €1.64! My chopsticks skills could be better, could be worse 🤷‍♀️

After a good nights sleep, I visited some top attractions in Bangkok.

Wat Pho

This is one of the most visited Buddhist Temples in Bangkok, where history, medical science and education are combined. Here I saw some incredible Buddhist temples. This is also known as “the nations first public university” where you can read marble inscriptions about how Thai traditional massage was started and the medical benefits behind it.

I also saw the 46-metre reclining Buddha. Alongside the Buddha, were 108 coin pots where for 20baht (50 cent) you get a bowl of 108 coins and make a wish when you drop a coin into each pot.

From here I visited the “Grand Palace”, a complex of buildings such as royal and throne halls, government offices and the renowned Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

It covered an area of 218,000 square metres. Walking around here in the blistering heat took a lot of energy! But the building and murals were very impressive.

After all that walking I needed some fuel! So I found a cafe called ‘Breakfast Story’. This cafe had a menu similar to home which was very appreciated at the time! The pancakes were delicious!

I met up with an old school friend who took me to a lovely restaurant by the river called “The Deck by Arun“ to watch the sunset. It’s was so lovely to see a familiar face!

One of my last touristic visits was to the ‘Jim Thompson House Museum’

This museum sits on about half an acre (originally his home) which consists of six traditional Thai houses made of wood. He established the ‘Thai Silk Company’ in 1948 and was also an art collector, all of which is displayed in the different houses. The gardens were also beautiful. He disappeared in Malaysia in 1947 and since then, the house has been used as a tourist attraction. It was a really beautiful place to browse around.

3 nights was plenty in Bangkok, so after some more street food and some drinks with people I met, I decided to book a flight to Chiang Mai which is a little over one hour flight north of Bangkok. Chiang Mai is known for being a chilled city, with quieter streets and more nature which is more up my street! I will spend a week here, before returning to Bangkok to fly to Australia for Christmas. It’s a tough life!