Bangkok: First Impressions

After arriving late at night in Bangkok, we were up pretty early (thanks time difference) and ready to check out Bangkok.

One thing I immediately appreciated was sidewalks - in our last SE Asia trip, Ho Chi Minh was seriously lacking in these!

Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, is extremely modern and there is a lot to do! 

We spent our first day just kinda ambling around - we walked through Benchakitti Park, which was really pretty, and Lumphini Park, which is far more well known but was quite underwhelming. We did see some giant monitor lizards swimming in the lake though (new fear unlocked). 

We also wandered through some of the huge shopping malls Bangkok is famous for - they are were aesthetic and lovely, but shopping centres aren’t really our thing (although, we enjoyed the air conditioning). 

Somewhere in there we also checked out 7 Eleven - which everyone loves here. You can get a toasted sandwich for a little over $2. Plus, they sell basically every snack or drink you could ever ask for (as well as amazing skin care and toiletries). 

After the amazing experience we had with a food tour in Hanoi last year, we decided this was a must in Bangkok. We joined a small group and were taken around China Town in Bangkok, where we ate to our hearts content! Samplings included: satay chicken,  green and red curry, papaya salad, chicken coconut soup, crispy pork in soup and so much more.

We also had Michelin star dumplings at a little place off an alley in China Town - I didn’t take any photos but Michael is keen to go back on our return. 

I especially liked these little sweet potato and coconut pancakes - yum!

The next day, we decided to get some touristy things ticked off. 

I thought we could get on a boat and have a leisurely cruise down the Chao Phraya River towards the Grand Palace. I was wrong. It was actually a jam packed commuter boat (jam packed with tourists who had the same idea as me).

When we arrived at our pier, we kinda just shuffled along with the crowd and ended up not at The Grand Palace but at Wat Pho - oops. We decided to check it out anyway.

Wat Pho is one of the six temples in Thailand that are of the highest grade of first class Royal temples.

This was the first time we were hit with the tourists crowds of Thailand. Wat Pho serves as home to the massive 46-meter long reclining Buddha image - known as Temple of the Reclining Buddha. It felt like the whole of Thailand was there to get a glimpse of this guy! 

To be fair, it was pretty impressive!

We were also impressed with the beautiful patterns on the pillars and roof. 

I’ve stolen this description from a website to provide an idea of the scale: The statue is 15 meters tall and 46 meters long, so large that it feels like it has been squeezed into the building where it is housed. The feet of the Reclining Buddha statue are 5 meters long and decorated in laksana (Buddhist Sanskrit symbols & characters) of the Buddha.

After we visited the Reclining Buddha, the crowds noticeably dissipated and we could explore more peacefully. The Wat Pho complex itself is huge and home to the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand. They were everywhere! 

We were also amazed by the intricate designs and tiny pieces of ceramic all arranged to create beautiful patterns on all of the temples - it must be painstaking work. 

We spent few hours wandering around and ended up deciding not to go to The Grand Palace - it was very hot and just felt like we had had our temple / tourist fix for the moment.

Instead, we jumped back on the not so cruisey boat and got off at another pier. This time we were aiming for a suburb called Talat Noi. I’d read online that it was a cool area for street art and coffee. 

The street art was really fun - and everywhere!

We also started seeing elephant statues everywhere - turns out these were all connected to a conservation project called Elephant Parade.

The project involves artists creating these elephant statues - and replicates as these being sold as gifts / keepsakes to raise money for elephant conservation. Apparently this was all inspired by an elephant called Mosha - the first ever elephant to be fitted with a prosthetic leg. 

We definitely want to buy our own elephant statue but have decided to wait until the end of our trip so we don’t damage it in transit. 

Whilst in Talat Noi, we also stopped and got an excellent coffee as well as some toast from a street food vendor called The Toast Lady! 

We then swung back past China Town on our way to the MRT (no more river ‘cruises,’ thanks). It was bustling and had some smaller markets open during the day. We managed to find some delicious coconut ice cream! 



I will say, the sky rail (BST) and underground train (MRT) in Bangkok are really easy to navigate. 

Although we mostly did a lot of meandering in Bangkok, we covered some ground with more than 30,000 steps each day! I think that’s a great way to justify additional street food treats.

Next stop: Chiang Mai.