THAILAND : A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO BANGKOK

Finally, after six months of living in the busy city of Jakarta, I finally had the chance to leave the country for a mini gateway to the place that I had been wanting to go ever since I moved back to Asia, Bangkok. Known not only for their Tuk-Tuks (automated rickshaws), Bangkok is home to one of the largest plethora of street food in the world! That was the sole reason that me and my friend, Kenneth, decided to have an impromptu trip over a long weekend to Thailand. Despite the fact that we only had four days and three nights to spend, we did go all out except for the last day due to a certain event during the second night, which I will elaborate a little later. I was fortunate to know a native Thai (Hi Natt!) who was able to speak the language and get us around town with ease. We also had the chance to visit some of Bangkok’s landmark, Wat Pho which was home to the late king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who was a well-respected and honorable man. After his death, a year-long period of mourning, was announced and people wear black to show their respects when visiting the kingdom.
So come follow me and explore what this city has in store.

Upon arrival, we were famished and had to find food right away. Luckily, our hotel, Red Planet Surawong, was right across a restaurant on our list, Somboon Seafood. Let me tell you that it has the best Thai Steamed Fish with Lime (Pla Neung Manao). It does have other great seafood as well! To our surprise, the food was not as expensive as we thought. We spent roughly 2000 Baht (US$60), worth it!
*All dollar prices mentioned would be in USD

 We then directly headed to Chinatown to get in on the street food madness early in our trip. This was the real deal! Food was everywhere!

Waking up the next day, we decided to have breakfast at Silom Square Food Center which was only a seven-minute walk from the hotel. Unfortunately, my camera was all fogged up because we turned the AC to its coldest setting the night before (stupid us) and thus, we could not take any pictures of the food. We then made our way to United Nations to visit one of Kenneth’s friends who was interning there. Needless to say, the UN office gave of a philanthropic vibe knowing that the discussions that happen there are all for a better world. Unfortunately, I am not that noble. After parting ways, we headed to the Airplane Graveyard which is basically a park with old grounded airplanes that has become a place for urban photographers. The trip was long and we spent roughly 500 bahts ($15) to travel there by Uber.

When we arrived, we were surprised to see that the graveyard was surrounded by a wooden fence and thought we could not get in. We were about to climb the fence when suddenly a boy ran up on the other side of the gate and said, “200 Bahts, one person!” I immediately knew what he meant and tried negotiating, “100 Baht, one person!” He immediately got up and walked away. We looked at each other and decided that we will not come all the way here for nothing and decided to pay the 400 Bahts ($12) to get in. It was interesting to take pictures inside an abandoned airplane and here they are:

Tip: Do not use a car to get to downtown Bangkok on a Friday night.
We found ourselves in one of the biggest shopping malls in Bangkok, Paragon. It was big and trust me, Jakarta’s mall are pretty large too and this was on a whole different scale. We ate Mookata (Thai BBQ) which was quite disappointing as it was a chain but we got Som Tam (Spicy Papaya Salad) which was awesome! After a filling meal, we decided to visit a rooftop bar on top of the shopping center and it was very empty but we did enjoy the view.

What came after was probably the worst, but funnest decision in Bangkok that I made (sorry, Kenneth). At 11pm, we decided to grab a tuk-tuk to travel to Rod Fai Market 2, an open air night market about 20 minutes from where we were. The choice was indeed an adventurous one. A tuk-tuk usually fits about three people, but we made it that five of use would fit. FIVE! It was the most uncomfortable 20 minutes of my life as we were speeding through the streets with the least amount of safety and even breaking some rules at one point (tuk-tuks were not allowed to use highways but we did so anyways). When we finally arrived, we vowed to never do that again and moved on to enjoy the market.

Day three started out by staying in bed to recuperate from last night’s shenanigans. That was followed by a trip to the floating market, Talin Chan Floating Market, which is the closest from the city (a 40-minute drive from the hotel). After that, we headed to the city again to explore Wat Pho which houses the Lying Buddha Statue and other pagodas near the King’s Palace as described at the beginning of this article. Fatigued by the insane Thai heat (Bangkok is known to be very hot), we headed for First Love Cafe which is a Husky Cafe. We were really excited for this an even hopped onto another tuk-tuk just to get there. To our disappointment, the cafe was closed because the dogs were apparently exhausted and moody. We were really disappointed and sad (insert super sad emoticon here). Anyways, we had to keep going and for our final night, we had a more relaxing one; we ate dinner at a hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Kram which serves authentic cuisine originating from North Thailand with a homey atmosphere. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of the food with my DSLR as we were too hungry to snap them. We then made our way to Game Over Lounge, which is a board game bar and was surprised by the variety of games they provide. Not only were there board games, but computers and consoles were also provided for the customers.