The Mean Streets of Bangkok

Foreword

    I am not gonna say I know how to travel nor would I say I know what I am doing when I am traveling. I will say I know how to save some money and use google earth to find places that look interesting. Then comes the figuring out how to get there.

    Over a year of saving, hours spent looking at google maps, and scouring the internet for cheap flights and stays, Camila and I devised a plan unlike any other we had concocted before. To put it simply, we wanted to travel with out an end date in mind. It's something that only great privilege and support can provide. We are so thankful for the people in our life who show this support and we are grateful for this life we get to live. Thank you.

Bangkok 2/2/2025-2/6/2025

    Sunday Night we arrived at the LAX Tom Bradley airport with the whole world in front of us. We made sure to get there quite early to allow for any last minute hiccups we might encounter. We get to the airline kiosk to check in for our flight but to our surprise, my name on my ticket does not match my passport perfectly. No biggie! We'll just call the airline and get things sorted and be on our merry way. Nope, we spend an hour calling the airline, talking with the kiosk peeps, and capital one to get my name changed on my ticket. It's too late, this change needed to be made three days ago and theres nothing we can do except refund our ticket and find a different flight. The flight we were originally on was jam packed and ticket went up to 5000 bucks. Fuck you. 

    The clock is ticking and the night is starting to come to a close. We sprawl out on the floor searching the internet for flights to Bangkok. We finally find a flight with four seats left. We accept we will not be sitting together but at least we will be on our way to South East Asia. We asked the people at the other airline if it would be possible to sit together and they said they would make a note. And to our surprise we were sat next to each other and on top of that we got our own row. This made the 15 hour flight to Hong Kong bearable. After that flight, it was smooth sailing, a short layover in Hong Kong, a short flight to Bangkok, a train ride to the actual city, and an Uber to our guest house and we were there. We left on the night of the 2nd and arrived the 4th at noon. Confusing.

Figure 1: View from our room in Bangkok

    Groggy and disoriented, we made our way from the guest house to a cool looking restaurant that overlooked a canal. We managed to make it there right before they closed for the afternoon. We both got vegetable pad thai which is all they had left at that hour. The meal was accompanied by a pineapple shake which is just pineapple, ice, and sugar. Insanely good. It felt like so much work to get to that first meal in Thailand but what a successful meal. 

    It was now time to fight jet lag by staying up as late as we possibly could. We stayed awake until about 3 pm. We found another awesome little restaurant in a cool little alley, had some great food and we were back to sleep by 8:30 pm.

    Bangkok day 2 we were up at 4 in the morning just waiting for anything to open so we could get a coffee or eat something. I think the earliest anything was open was 6 am. We found this mom and pop coffee stand and had our morning coffee in the morning's darkness.

    For breakfast I wanted to check out this street vendor that was selling chicken and rice on the street. The main reason was the price. A whopping 40 Baht which is roughly 1 dollar and some change for chicken served over rice with a side of soup. Another insane meal. Enough food talk what were we doing during the day.

Figure 2: Street by our guest house

Figure 3: Fortress right by our guest house

    We planned on covering a lot of ground our second day. We made our way to a royal palace which was pretty fascinating. Place was huge with so much ornate detail. Truly Grand. We then headed toward Iconsiam which is a mall and I was just expecting to be like any other shopping mall. This was the nicest mall I had ever stepped foot into. there were 7 floors of shops, a food market on the bottom floor, a Starbucks roastery, and a scenic roof top patio. I have been to a lot of malls but this one takes the cake.

Figure 4: Photo at The Grand Palace

Figure 5: View from Iconsiam

        That night after some more amazing food and long ass nap, we headed toward Khaosan road, known for its bustling atmosphere and ladyboys. The place was packed and everyone was trying to get you to come into their bar. Just felt like madness. We did not partake in any ladyboys as it is not really our jam. We got back to our room pretty early to prepare for a short flight in the morning to Khao Sok! To be continued...