Tri-Country Trip: Bangkok! Bangkok!

(This trip happened last 2013)

Hello, Thailand!

That was quite a land trip that we went through there! Whew! 12 hrs of long and endless bus ride made me blank out. Well, I liked the view of the countryside but the novelty wore off after a few hours. But I'm thankful for this experience.

From Cambodia, we went through the borders. We did something not so good (Cambodian border security offered to expedite our lining up in exchange for a few hundred rials and we said yes), but it hardly made a dent because the line suddenly went from thick to thin in a matter of minutes. Waste of money. Charge to experience again.

We stood in line for around 3 hours at the Thailand border immigration. It was either stand or squat for us and we eventually ran out of stories to tell each other. Time was fast a wasting! So once we were done, we heaved a huge sigh of relief and went on to find our ride going to Bangkok.

FIRST TASTE OF THAILAND

While waiting, we stopped to get a preliminary taste of Thailand's food. A food cart and Pad Thai from a hole-in-the-wall stopover place.

The ride going to Bangkok was around 2-3 hrs if I remember correctly. We were with other travelers from the Thailand border.

Another stopover - at 7-11!

TUKTUK AWAY!

Our first and last tuktuk ride. The feel of the wind on my face was so good, especially after being stuck in the van for several hours.

STREETSCAPES

A few of the Thai architecture we saw on our way to our hotel. 

TAKE A NAP HOSTEL

For our accommodation, we chose Take A Nap based from a friend's recommendation. And that was a perfect choice because the place is centrally located, very affordable, safety is key to their services and the receptionist who tended to us was very nice. We asked a lot of questions and she just patiently answered each one of them.

We got 2 rooms and the photos above were from our room (3 of us). 2 beds, spacious T&B, a sofa and lots of room for our things. Our other friends' room was way smaller because there was just 2 of them so we really liked ours. 

For everyone's information. Protect yourself by being in the know. 

STREET FOODS

After we have settled our stuff, we immediately headed out and scouted for food! We were so hungry and the infamous Thai street foods were on tops on our list. Good thing that we found this alley where there was several stands offering Tom Yum soup, mango sticky rice and lots of skewered choices.

It looked very similar to what we have here in Manila and the ambiance was the same. It's just the food that is different. 

Mango sticky rice!

I tried several of them sticks over here. I like how the serving size was big. Great value for my money. 

Tom Yum Noodle Soup. This is what we came here for. The night was balmy but that did not deter us from having this spicy soup. Paired with a bottle of Coke and we're all good.

Happiness in a bowl!

WATCHED AN "ADULT" SHOW

Watched an "adult" show for experience but it turned out to be a bit comical because there were 4 girls in our group and one guy. So we were just laughing. And the show that we went to is not so impressive. I will no longer elaborate. 

RANDOM THINGS: I like that 7-11 served Thai milk tea. I wish we had this here. 

THE TRAIPSING GROUP

Map-reading skills is a must for every traveler. It sucks when you get lost and you ask for directions but they don't know how to speak in English. Survival mode on. 

RANDOM THINGS: Bikes for rent!

LUNCH

Oh-la-love! These I can definitely have every day! There is something really distinct with their food.

THE TEMPLE TOUR: WAT PHO (Temple of the Golden Reclining Buddha)

100 Baht entrance fee with free drinking water. Just don't forget to avail.

This is a Buddhist temple that houses the Golden Reclining Buddha. The minute we saw it, my initial though was "It's massive!" And with intricate details at the foot area. The Reclining Buddha's size is 15 meters high and 43 meters long.

Here you can drop coins that you can get from the temple in the 108 bronze bowls indicating the 108 auspicious characters of Buddha, per Wikipedia. Believed to bring good fortune.

Some of the 99 beautifully maintained chedis (or stupas) in ceramic pottery flowers and colorful tiles.

Chinese statues guarding the doors.

MORE STREET FOOD FINDS

WAT HUA LAMPHONG HINDU TEMPLE

We found a Hindu temple! It's the Wat Hua Lamphong temple. It's not frequented by tourists but its so it was great that we got to see this. This was of walking distance from our hostel. I don't think I have ever been to a Hindu temple before but this was nice. But I also read that this was Buddhist and also has a Chinese crematorium and that confused me a bit.  

I have read, only recently, that you can donate here for coffins for people who cannot afford to buy one for their dead loved ones. We missed that though. A shame since I think it's only fair to share something to this place since it provided us great photos for our souvenirs.

This, from what I understood, are Hindu deities because in the middle is the deity Ganesha.

This temple also has intricate details that are well-maintained. 

THE MODERN BANGKOK

Colorful traffic!

It's a mix alright -  mix of old and new!

More street food finds! Just like our version here but they had milk added. I like our version more with the margarine, cheese powder and sugar.

Milk tea!

The Central World mall. Very modern and has nice shops. I bought my first and only purchase at Forever 21 which is a pair of shades. We just strolled around to get a feel of their mall life and headed out after in pursuit of bargain shopping experience.

Now here, in the streets, is where you will find items at a low price especially if you buy wholesale. And unique finds such as real human hair and adult magazines, I presume haha! And the bags on the lower right portion, are from a bargain mall. I think this was from the Platinum Fashion Mall.

I tried KFC here! And they have items exclusive for Thailand only. The chicken and gravy tasted exactly the same. I knew that fact but, well, to taste is to believe.

My mandatory street signs souvenir. I try to do this in any country that I visit.

Our last night calls for a great dinner. But here, it was just okay. I guess we were trying to find the more authentic ones but we were not able to do so. Being hungry calls for survival mode so we just delved in to the nearest restaurant that we could find and this was it. 

MASSAGE PLACES

Price is acceptable to us ad we got this one. I still cannot get over how cheap our massage was in Cambodia, just USD $1!

SUVARNABHUMI AIRPORT (Bangkok International Airport)

Love how modern yet beautiful their airport is! Thai culture is everywhere. So even if you are in the airport already, great photo ops can still be done. Again, a mix of the old and new. Coming from our hotel, we just requested them to get a cab for us to drop us at the airport. I think travel time was close to an hour.

After this tri-country trip, this is what I've become. LOL! 

There are so many places in Thailand that I have yet to visit. What we experienced here was just, as the cliche goes, the tip of the iceberg. And I'm excited for that time.

Thailand is the last of our tri-country trip. The adventures and experiences we had were memorable and truly worth experiencing even the very long bus trips and exhausting lining-up at the Thailand border immigration.

I call this whole trip a huge SUCCESS!


~Lovelee~


Check out my other posts of my tri-country trip: 
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Angkor Wat in Cambodia
Siem Reap Day Tour