During my four-month stay in Thailand I can’t say I visited Bangkok often even though I lived only an hour away by bus. It was only when I was nearing the end of my stay that I did the touristy things one does in Bangkok. My good friend Jenneke was flying in from California and we were to embark on a two week journey travel adventure. This post is about what happened the weekend she arrived.
It was a Friday afternoon in Chonburi, the city I was teaching at, when I said my goodbyes to my fellow teachers both Thai and foreign. I was going to miss them. I hurried back home to finish packing my things and clean my small studio apartment before my landlords came by to inspect and return my deposit. I had one suitcase and a backpack and I was ready to leave Chonburi and head on to Bangkok. I was on the next bus out. My friend Nick, who was also a teacher working at a different school in Chonburi, wanted to spend the weekend in Bangkok so we took the bus together. I had already booked our hostel for the weekend so we asked the bus driver to drop us off near a BTS station–Bangkok’s skytrain. Jenneke was suppose to arrive that evening but due to a massive delay she wasn’t going to land in Bangkok ’till the following evening 😦 I was glad Nick came along this way I wasn’t alone that first day. He knew someone staying in Bangkok so he Facebooked her and he found that she was actually staying just a few blocks from my hostel! Awesome. We walked to her hotel and planned out our first night out in Bangkok.
View from hotel (not mine) balcony. Oh Bangkok 🙂
Turned out she was actually expecting a friend of hers to arrive that night so she was going to go to the airport to pick her up. We decided to go with her. But before we headed to the airport we made a quick stop at a nearby 711–they are literally in every corner–to buy Hong Thong and coke. This had been our go-to drink doing my entire time in Thailand. It was cheap and arguably digestible. So after our booze run we took the BTS to the airport then took a taxi back. We greeted the poor girl with cheap whiskey and coke 😛 She dropped off her stuff at the hotel and we all took a taxi to a street where it was supposed to be ‘the place to be’. Can’t remember where this was though as we were not there for long. After a few minutes, a guy came up to us and told us he would take us to a club for something like 5 Baht per person in his tuk tuk. So we went. There were 4 of us so the ride came out to be around 20 Baht, which is less than a $1. Not bad. He dropped us off in front of a club, paid the cover charge of about 300 Baht–less than $10–and got a free drink with our ticket. Worth it. We danced a little then decided it was time to go. On our way back to our respective accommodations Nick and I realized in all the excitement, we never had dinner. We were starving. A small supermarket was open near us so we went there and bought whatever we could find. I think only bought a snickers bar. Not very smart, I know. But that pretty much concludes our night.
The following day Nick and I met the girls again to get food and decide what to do for the day before Jenneke landed. After brunch, the girls were off to do touristy things and Nick and I decided to go in search of a small brewery we had heard about that was in a tiny island, Koh Kret, just outside of the city. All we had were blog posts and word of mouth that
Entrance to the brewery.
this place actually existed. After stopping a few taxi’s and getting rejected, because no one knew what we were talking about, we finally found one that called the place and found out where to take us. We were in the taxi for a little over an hour and we just sat there not really knowing if he actually knew were he was taking us or if we were going in the right direction. Finally we arrived, well sort of. The taxi driver motioned us to get off and pointed in the general direction in which we were supposed to walk. We pay him and started walking. I knew we had to take a small boat to the island but we weren’t sure where to find the dock. We saw people boarding a boat so we did too. The boat ride was about a minute long. When we arrive there were tons of vendors selling food, trinkets and things. I don’t remember seeing many tourists, as I don’t believe it was a touristy area. We started walking only to quickly find that we were most likely not going the right way. We went back to were we started and took a different walkway. There was really no way of getting lost after that. It was one walkway that took us directly to the brewery, though it did feel like we were lost at times because we didn’t know how long we were supposed to walk for. The brewery was nothing fancy, just a small shop overlooking the water. I think they only had two kinds of beer that day so we tried them both and Nick and I both agreed they were delicious. Or maybe after only drinking Chang for 4 months, any change was good =P We sat there talking about our experiences in Thailand thus far and reminiscing on all that we had done and seen. We also got to see beer being bottled and sealed by hand. It was a neat little day trip.
For our way back into town we decided to skip the taxi and find a public bus to take us. The blog I had read described how to find the bus and which one to take. So thanks to my internet enabled phone we were able to find it and we saved the higher taxi fare. If you want to learn more about the beer and how to find it I have linked the blogs here and here. Apparently home brewing in Thailand is not necessarily legal which is why it’s not easy to find them. But there you have it, if I can find it so can you!
Mo Chit BTS station
On our way back into town, we stopped at a restaurant near a BTS station before making our way to the airport to pick up Jenneke! SO. MUCH. EXCITEMENT. I had been waiting for this day for 4 months and the flight delay only made the anticipation that much more exciting. Off we went, with Hong Thong and coke to give Jenneke a proper welcome to Thailand. I was secretly hoping she was up for a night out the moment she arrived.
When we arrived at the airport I told Nick to look for the blondest woman he had ever seen and that that would be her haha Funny thing is he was actually the one who spotted her and he had no idea what she looked like. I guess there aren’t that many blondes arriving in Bangkok airport. Once we were finally reunited, Nick got us a taxi and back into town we went. AND Jenneke was definitely down for a night out!!! Turns out, because of the delay, she stayed overnight in Tokyo and got to sleep in a real bed for the night so she was well rested. She was ready to dive into the Bangkok nightlife fresh off the plane 🙂 Quickly, she dropped off her things, Nick called up the girls from the previous night and we all took a taxi to where we were supposed to meet some friends of the girls. Unfortunately, we only had the name of the club and due to our lack of Thai skills–and the taxi driver’s lack of English–he really didn’t have a clue where we wanted to go. Instead he took us to another club, which, according to him, was good. Without knowing what else to do, and to make the most out of the night, we went in. Similar to the one from the night before, there was a cover charge but you get a free drink. I wish I remembered the names of these places but honestly I can’t. Bangkok is so huge and there are sooooo many clubs that I just couldn’t keep up. But anyhow, we went in, got our drink and enjoyed ourselves for a short while. The girl was determined to find her friends so she suggested we leave and try another taxi to try and have them take us to the right club. Somehow, we managed to do that. At that point, however, Jenneke and I were hungry and frankly kind of tired so we decided to get food at the restaurant next to the club. Very convenient indeed. We ate and laughed and called it a night.
Chatuchak
The following morning I found out that everyone got kicked out the club where Nick was in. From my understanding, in Thailand it is illegal to keep establishments, such as bars and clubs, open past 2 am but due to high tourism or if sales are going well, some stay open later. Apparently this club was having a good night until the cops showed up and kicked everyone out. Kinda wish I had experienced that haha. The plans for Jenneke’s first day were to shop. She needed to buy some things and I still hadn’t visited any of the famous Bangkok malls so thats what we did. After brunch, we went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. This is one of the largest markets in the world where you can find pretty much anything from food, clothing and flowers to pets. Seriously, anything. I’d been there only twice before. Once during midday where me and the friends I was with walked around for hours and the second time was in the evening where most shops where closing and didn’t really get to experience it. I was excited to show Jenneke around because I knew she would love it as much as I did. Finding joy in the little things we found and wanting to buy EVERYTHING as souvenirs for our loved ones back home. This place is so huge getting lost can be fun but also frightening because you never know when you will actually find your way out. I’d say this is definitely a must if you are ever in Bangkok. The best part is, it is walkable from a BTS station! Jenneke and I walked around, bought stuff, and returned to our hostel to get ready for our second–my third–night out in Bangkok. The plan for the night: food, sky bars and more food.
Our first stop was food. We googled some places and found a place called the Iron Fairies that was a short taxi ride away. Our taxi driver understood which street the place was in but he didn’t really know where exactly he was taking us. When he stopped to ask some food vendors for directions–which they too hadn’t a clue–Jenneke and I saw it. It was just across the road. Perfect timing. We got out of the car, motioned to the driver that it was there, paid him and walked to the restaurant. This place was really cool but it was also quite expensive, I think I paid over $20. We sat upstairs where it was lit up by only a few candles. It was not easy to take photos but it didn’t matter, we were there to enjoy ourselves. I had a burger and a margarita. I know, not Thai at all but I had been eating nothing but Thai food for four months so I was allowed a little western food 🙂
Cloud 47
The first bar on our list was Cloud 47. If you google, ‘best rooftop bars in Bangkok’, you get a ton of results. I don’t really know how we decided on this particular one—perhaps proximity?—but that’s the one we were headed to. I showed our taxi driver a map and hoped he knew what I meant. He dropped us off in what seemed like an alley, but just around the corner was a huge main street. Where was the bar?! Google maps indicated it was where we were standing but we still couldn’t see the entrance or any sign pointing to it. We got lost for a few minutes because the entrance was not easy to find. After asking someone for directions, and getting lost for a while longer, we finally found it. It was in what looked like a random building. We walked in and asked the security guard, he said it was there and to take the elevator to the 47th floor. Awesome, we were on our way. I had read that rooftop bars get packed so I was expecting to see a full house. Pleasantly, though, it wasn’t. There were an ample number of seats and we got to sit near the balcony overlooking the city. Not too close, though, because in this trip I learned Jenneke is actually terribly scared of heights =P What a champion though! Going to a rooftop bar is not for the faint-hearted. By the time we arrived at Cloud 47 it was nighttime so the view of the city was just many twinkling lights lighting up the many Bangkok skyscrapers. We sat, took photos, had a few drinks and talked about the exciting adventures we still had ahead. Then, on to the next one.
The dome at Lebua
I could have sworn we went to three rooftop bars but my memory is failing me and there are no photos of a third one so we might have had three on our list but decided to only go to two. So after Cloud 47 we took a taxi to the Lebua Skybar, the famous skybar from the film The Hangover 2. We were in Bangkok so we felt we had to see it! We arrived and it was not difficult to find. We were dropped off at the entrance to the tower and we—along with a ton of other people—were escorted to the elevator. This is one of the fanciest places I have ever been to! Again, I was afraid this place was going to be packed and that we wouldn’t be able to see the city skyline. Surprisingly, it was free to walk around. There is a restaurant and a bar, we were asked if we were going to dine or just drink. We were just going to drink so they let us out onto the balcony and we were free to roam around and take it all in. Also, because it was already nighttime, the skyline was a sea of twinkling lights so photos don’t do this place justice. We didn’t have a high quality camera to capture the beauty. We walked around, took photos and went up to the bar. After looking at the menu Jenneke and I both decided we were done drinking. Not only where the drinks way more that I would have spend on a few drinks elsewhere, there would be a long wait for the drink. Thankfully the experience was free! So it was definitely worth it. On our way out we decided to use the restroom. Normally I wouldn’t include when I do or don’t use the restroom haha BUT I had to include my restroom experience. Like I mentioned earlier, this is one of the fanciest places I have ever been to. The bathroom was more beautiful than those in magazines. There were people who opened and closed the door for you and when you wash your hands they give you a warm fresh hand towel. Not a paper towel, a REAL TOWEL. What the heck. Ok maybe it’s not ecofriendly—can you imagine how many they have to wash a day?!—but it was kinda cool. So that was our experience at Lebua Skybar. I definitely would like to go back to the two rooftop bars we went to in the daytime to get a different view of the city 🙂
What I was able to capture of the city skyline from Lebua
Mango sticky rice
Before calling it a night, we stopped at a restaurant across the street from the Lebua tower for some mango sticky rice. Upon my arrival in Thailand this quickly became one of my favorite desserts. It’s literally slices of mango with a side of sweet sticky rice. So simple but so delicious. Because the restaurant was across the street from the most famous rooftop bar in Bangkok, it was on the pricier side. After devouring our pricey dessert it was time to make it back to our hostel. Since it was our last official night in Bangkok–we were off to Jakarta the following day–Jenneke wanted to experience a tuk tuk ride around the city. We ditched the taxi, though it is generally cheaper, and headed over to where tuk tuk drivers were parked waiting for customers. I tried my best to haggle but Jenneke was so excited and agreed way too soon haha I had been in Thailand long enough to see others in action and get good deals. So after a bit of negotiation we were on the tuk tuk speeding through the streets of Bangkok.
The following day was a busy day. We had a lot we wanted to see before our flight to Jakarta that was scheduled to depart in the early evening. We woke up early and took a taxi to the Grand Palace. We first went to Wat Phra Kaew, also known as the Emerald Buddha Temple, which is next to the Grand Palace. It was so crowed. The entire place is pretty big so it was relatively easy to walk around and take it all in. During my stay in Thailand I visited many temples and they were all uniquely beautiful and this one
Wat Phra Kaew
was no different. Since this was not a tour, you just walk around, and since I am not Buddhist I can’t tell you about what I saw because honestly I don’t really know. I did manage to take a few photos, which I will share here. After the temple I took a few shots of the Grand Palace and headed out. In the frenzy of deciding what to do next, a man approached us and convinced Jenneke to get tickets to go on a boat tour. I say Jenneke because, as usual, I was panicking about time and making it to our flight. She assured me we would be fine so we went on this ‘tour’, well more like a ride because our ‘guide’ didn’t speak English. We were dropped off in a different part of town next to a small food market where we grabbed lunch and headed back to our hostel to grab out things and head for the airport.
Grand Palace
Our boat ride.
If you managed to read through this post you might have noticed that I talked a lot about taking taxis to get from place to place. Bangkok is such an enormous city that the thought of getting around can be daunting. This is actually one of the reasons why I rarely visited when I was living in Thailand. There is a skytrain, the BTS, BUT the BTS is kind of like BART. Anyone who is from or has spent some time in the Bay Area knows that BART is great but not very useful when trying to get around San Francisco. The BTS has a similar problem. Many of the malls are accessible via BTS, as is Chatuchak, but if you want to get to popular backpackers destination of Khao San Road–which we didn’t visit this particular weekend but eventually did–or to see the famous temples the BTS is ineffective. Like all other cities in the world there are other forms of public transportation, like the local buses. I had no idea how to use them and the alternative, aka taxis, are relatively inexpensive if you know how to haggle and/or get the driver to use a meter. It’s especially convenient when there are a few people so you can split the costs. Though taxis are a fast and convenient way to get around, there is one downside. Most taxi drivers have very limited or essentially no understanding of English, which if you can imagine can make things difficult. In the time I had been in Thailand I had picked up close to no Thai words. I knew the very basic of ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ but I struggled with the numbers and everything else. I did, however, become very good at using my hands to express what I was saying. When I would get a taxi I would either tell them where I wanted to go, or show them a map on my phone–making sure the address was in Thai. Then I would ask how much, either in Thai or English, but English worked best because if I asked in Thai they would respond in Thai and I wouldn’t understand what they said haha. If I asked in English, normally they would either try and tell me in English or use their hands to sign the numbers. It was easy to negotiate. Either I would say, ‘meter?’ and or point to it and they would shake their head or nod. If they didn’t want to use the meter, I would always request for half the amount they would originally ask for. Sometimes they wouldn’t budge, but I was proudest when I would end up paying what I wanted 🙂 It’s a process that can seem intimidating but it’s part of the experience and it became a sort of game to see how low I can get the driver to go. One of the funniest moments in a taxi was when I spoke an entire sentence to the driver in Thai. Not because I automatically knew, but the hostel we were staying at had provided us with a phonetic pronunciation of the address. I guess I spoke to the driver in good enough Thai that the driver turns around with a huge smile and says, “Ohhhhh, you speak Thai!” He looked so excited hahaha. I started to laugh and say, ‘mai, may’ (no). I was proud of myself that day 🙂
I often heard foreigners talk bad about the taxi drivers’ lack of English skills and I thought, well this is their country shouldn’t we be the ones trying to understand and communicate with them in their terms? If the taxi drivers had excellent English, or even good enough to hold a small conversation, my experience would have been completely different. I really enjoyed pushing myself and getting out of my comfort zone to try and communicate with them in a new language and learning a little of the said language. This was an experience I will never forget.
Rosa Roaming 