In this blog post series I will have six posts telling you all about my adventures in Thailand. The posts will be published every other Monday. Check out Thailand part I, part II, part III, part IV and part V.

 

---

---

Around midnight the nightbus arrived in our last stop before Bangkok. It was the same stop where we were when we were on our way to Koh Tao. We ate some chicken curry with rice and it was spicy. We also bought some bananas and Oreos… I know, I know, Oreos have nothing to do with Thai cuisine but we wanted to try them. I also got a huge cultural shock there: an Indian family of around 10 people was eating with their hands only. Just taking curry sauce with rice in their hands and putting it in their mouth: this was unseen to my eyes!

We arrived on Ratchdamnoen Avenue around 5.30 AM on the 27th of January. Somehow we just walked behind other people from our bus and in 2 minutes ended up on Khao San. That worked very well for us 🙂

We walked around, asked some hotel prices and finally picked Top Inn for 680 baht per night. It was around 6 AM and there were still people and sellers on the streets: that’s one fun city! The room at Top Inn was by far the best room we had on the whole trip. We really needed to rest well the night before flying and travelling again.

We left the hotel room around 8 AM to go on our pre-planned city tour. By that time, everything was dead. No people, so street stalls, nothing. The street had closed down.

 

Our first stop was Amulet Market. It had just opened. It was nothing I’ve seen before: lots of religious amulets, little statues and other things. I was so blown away that I even didn’t take pictures. I forgot to take pictures?! That shows how impressed I was.

Our next stop was the Grand Palace. The ticket to get in was pretty pricy… We thought long and hard and decided not to go in the ticket-restricted area. It’s a huge complex and would have taken up the whole day but we also wanted to see other places. Gotta leave something for my next visit to Bangkok, right? 🙂 We walked around the free area and then headed to Wat Pho.

After walking for some time we arrived at Wat Pho. Wat Pho is a huge golden Buddha with a pretty large complex of other building surrounding it. They even offered free drinking water and wi-fi. The Buddha of course was something unique. The size is just unimaginable. 

 After leaving Wat Pho we headed to the port to cross the river to see Wat Arun: the Temple of the Dawn. We had some time until the boat left so we grabbed a quick lunch: fried tofu (which tasted like nothing really) and some fried rice with chicken. I had mastered the art of eating with chopsticks.

For 5 baht we got a 1-minute boat service to the other side of the river Chao Phraya. It is the dirtiest body of water I’ve seen. It almost looked toxic. 

 

 

 

After seeing the Temple of the Dawn we started to walk back to the center to do more sightseeing. It was hot outside. And the air in Bangkok: it’s a sight itself with all the smells and gases. You’ll appreciate the air in Europe so much more when you’ve been to Bangkok 🙂 

Next we saw the Giant Red Swing, Democracy Monument and the Golden Mount.

 

After visiting the Golden Mount we took a tuk-tuk to Chinatown to visit Wat Traimit and a big market. But unfortunately I didn’t know that Wat Traimit was closed on Mondays 😦 Then we walked around and searched for the market which we finally found. It was AWESOME. So much good food, interesting people and funny smells. 

We bought ourselves lots of food for dinner and headed back to our hotel on Khao San. We took the tuk-tuk again. By the way, it’s not recommended to use tuk-tuks. I can clearly see why. They drive really dangerously and are all open and without any safety measures like seatbelts. If there would be a crash, you’d be hurt bad. Take a taxi instead 🙂

After dinner we chilled and rested for some time and then went out to enjoy our last night in Bangkok and in Thailand. I started to get really sad because I really didn’t want to leave. I loved that crazy city! 

We went back to the hotel room around 11 PM to catch a good 10 hours of sleep before a long 24+ hours of travelling back to Europe. In the morning we walked on Khao San for the last time, ate our last pad thais, fruit shakes and coconut puddings. Around 11 AM we checked out of our hotel and grabbed a taxi to Siam Center.

When we caught the taxi, we asked for the taximeter. He said: “Yes, meter, yes.” The driver was funny: he was talking all the time and commenting on the radio show that was playing 😀 It took us a ridiculous 1 hour and 30 minutes by car to get to Siam Center because of the protestors that had blocked the roads. We also saw them marching, shouting and playing music.  

Around 12.30 PM we arrived near Siam Center. It was also all surrounded by protestors but the malls were still open and you could get in. But the damn taxi driver hadn’t actually used the meter and then tried to rip us off as much as he could 😦 I knew asking 500 baht for this drive was too much. We gave him 400 and left him shouting how “bad people” we were.  

The shopping malls in Siam were huge. There we also saw really rich and sophisticated thais for the first time. Since there was Gucci, Chanel and other world-famous brands there, it was logical to see other kinds of people. We bought some not thai food again: I really wanted to try the famous Krispy  Kreme doughnuts. I have to say: they are worth the hype 🙂

Siam Center was also the place to catch the SkyTrain to the airport. We arrived in Suvarnabhumi airport around 3 PM.

Our flight left Bangkok around 8 PM. I was sad. I thought about going home, winter, freezing weather and a ton of schoolwork that needs to be done. But at the same time I was so happy with our trip.  

We landed in Dubai around 1 AM. We had 5 hours to kill before our gate was opened. We did some shopping, walking and just sitting around. The time passed quick and around 7 AM we were flying to Stockholm. We also had 2 Estonian families on that flight 🙂 

We were officially in Stockholm by 10.30 local time. It was cold. I was in flip flops. The first thing I notices was how clean the air was. It seemed almost like home. We got our luggage, changed into warm clothes and jackets and got on the bus to the city. From there we caught the subway to the Värtahamnen port. We were freezing since it was below zero, about 40 degrees cooler than in Thailand.

We had to wait before we could board the ship and were finally on it around 4 PM. We showered, relaxed, fixed ourselves up and were ready for dinner at the buffet.

After indulging for 2,5 weeks and topping everything off at the buffet the night before, I was so done with carbs. In the morning I bought some salami and cheese from the ship store and was back on my regular low carb. Oh, did I mention: it was super cold in Estonia. The weather program said it was well below –20 degress Celsius and when considering the wind, it felt like –30C. 60 degrees cooler than Thailand. It felt like a total shock!

By the way, my mom told me I had spoken whilst sleeping on the ship 😀 I remember seeing dreams about missing the plane and the electricity being out. I said something about the electricity out loud and also almost got out of bed. I’m creepy 😀 

We were in Tallinn around 11 AM and home around 2 PM. On the 30th of January, our 19 day trip to Thailand had ended.

 

---

 

 My suggestions:

• Bring a hair-dryer. Even if backpacking, bring it with you if you have long hair. It will save you a lot of time and sitting around in your hostel/bungalow.

• Insist the taxi-drivers use a meter. If they don’t, step out and get another one. Agreed prices are always worse than the meter.

• Don’t buy from the first place. Look around, see what other offers are out there. It goes for food, trips, tickets, everything.

• Don’t freak out. Ever.

• Smile. Always, even if you’re angry. That’s what the thais do! 🙂

• Bargain to get a better price. Usually you can get a good discount. If they tell you 400 baht, say you’re willing to pay 200 (or if you want to, even 150). You’ll eventually get a price between 200–300 baht.

• Bring a travel guide. My Lonely Planet was SO helpful.

• Prepare ahead. That’s personal preference actually. I liked having an itinerary and knowing where to go next since we only had 2 weeks there.

• Let it flow! If you have more time, you don’t need a strict schedule. Let it flow, it’s a vacation!

• Bring insect repellent. It’s useful in some places, there were some mosquitos.

• Bring a warm hoodie/fleece. Even if it’s hot outside, it can get cool in the evening and in buses with air-con etc.

• Bring the best camera you have. I had to drag around my rather heavy DSLR camera and my neck got pretty tired but the picture quality is so worth it!

• Don’t bring too much clothes. You can wash and dry things and buy new ones pretty cheap. Some casual stuff and one set of nicer stuff (dress, blouse or whatever) is enough.

 

---

 

And to end everything, I have to say a big THANK YOU to Heidi for her excellent Thailand posts. They helped me out so much with planning everything 🙂

Thailand is such an amazing country: lots to see, friendly people, gorgeous nature, relatively cheap, good connections and roads. If you’re looking for a place to spend your vacation from anywhere between December to March, go to Thailand. Whether you want to lay on the beach, party all night long, do sports, hike, go diving: you can do it all. I’m already looking forward to going back and also visiting northern parts and other interesting places. South-East Asia: I’ll be back! 🙂