We arrived in Bangkok and got through immigration easily – we didn’t even need visas because we were only staying for one day. We got in a taxi and were shocked and amazed at how HUGE the city is – the sprawl goes on and on and ON! It took us an hour to get from the airport to the Viengtai Hotel where we were staying – there was lots of traffic.Checking In
Our hotel was not as nice as the pictures had looked online. I was pretty much expecting that, but it was very worn. Seems like it was just a heavily trafficked hotel for backpackers/budget travelers. By looking at the map, we assessed that we were pretty closely located to many temples and other sights, which was good. We were also one road over from Khao San Road, the crazy backpacker street that was featured in the movie The Beach. It was loud, busy, crazy, dirty, smelly, full of tourists and tourists stands, food carts, bars, etc. I think I would have enjoyed it more in my college years, but I accepted this as part of the adventure!
We had no idea where to eat. We had a foodie tour that evening that would cover good eats in the city, so we decided against spending time researching for top spots. Instead, we popped into a nearby Indian restaurant for a quick lunch so we could see a few sights before the evening. 
Being a Tourist
We had a tuk tuk driver convince us to go on a boat tour instead of taking us directly to Wat Pho like we’d requested. Once at the dock, we quickly realized that many of these tuk tuk drivers have relationships with local vendors and will take tourists to their businesses. We didn’t have time for a boat tour, so we insisted the driver take us to Wat Pho and he begrudgingly obliged this time. Glad we figure this out early on in our trip and glad we insisted on doing what we wanted.
When I’d research Wat Pho online, I mostly read about the Reclining Buddha statue. I was unaware that there was a huge temple complex there as well. We were completely awestruck by the beauty of the temples – the unique shapes of the spires, the intricacy of the glass pieces put together in flowers and mosaics, the incredible statues…
We wandered around for a long time, taking it all in before finally going in to see the enormous Reclining Buddha. It was awesome. I knew it was going to be a sight to see, but everything about it was amazing – such detail on something that large was impressive. Even the building it was housed in was beautiful!
After spending so much time at Wat Pho, we realized we had to get back to our hotel to meet up with our tour guide and group for trip orientation. We passed by a large park and some other sights in our tuk tuk and walked along the street of our hotel for a bit. It was lined with lots of outdoor cafes and restaurants, which were filled with backpackers and tourists.
Everywhere we turned there were locals with street carts selling food, fresh fruit, juices, even scorpions!
And, of course, tuk tuks were waiting to whisk us away to our destinations.
Intrepid Travel: The Start of our Angkor Trails Tour
We met our guide, Dyka, for our Intrepid Travel trip through Cambodia along with the rest of our group. There were 15 of us – which was larger than I was expecting. However, as we all introduced ourselves and it became apparent it was a unique mix of people, we knew we would have a good time. We had couples from the UK, Ireland (but living in Hong Kong), Germany and Brazil, friends from Australia, a woman from Colombia living in Hong Kong, a Canadian based in London but living in Dubai, and a man from Florida who was in the military and had been pretty much everywhere. Fun!
When we received our tour schedule, I was a bit surprised at how full the days were. I generally prefer to have a few included activities, but don’t want to be guided at every step. I always think back to one of my favorite travel quotes: “The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” I try to have down time to just “be” in a place and have some unplanned experiences and I was determined to make it happen on this trip, schedule be damned! 😉
The Food Tour
We missed our morning tour of Bangkok with Urban Adventures due to the airline/flight fiascoes and delays, so I was even happier that I’d booked this “Best Eats Midnight Food Tour by Tuk Tuk” with Bangkok Food Tours. We’d at least get a small “taste” of the city before departing in the morning!
I’ll start by saying that if you have limited time in Bangkok and want to do something fun and memorable, this tour is AMAZING! We were beyond exhausted about halfway through it, but glad that we finished strong and enjoyed every aspect of it.
The meeting point for the tour eluded us, as it was pretty far from our hotel and at a skytrain station (this is Bangkok’s above ground rail line). Taxi drivers weren’t quite able to understand that our destination was a rail station so that we could get to a different rail station, so we had to have a bit of faith that the driver was going to get us at least close. And he did. We still had to do some walking around and go up and down a few flights of stairs, but we eventually arrived at the station.
We noticed immediately that we were out of the backpacker/tourist area and were surrounded by locals who were pretty helpful, which was great. Using the train system was easy – everything was in Thai and English and we got a sense of accomplishment at doing this mostly on our own.
After getting turned around several times at the meeting point, we finally found the right spot and joined with our group. Whew!
Our tour guide, Kittisak, was a friendly, outgoing guy who taught at a university and did these night tours part-time because he loved it so much. We could feel his positive energy and happiness at sharing Thai food with us – it was awesome.
We were whisked away by tuk tuk to our first stop to sample some of the best Khao Man Gai (chicken and rice). The place was on some side street behind a large complex that we’d have never found on our own. It was brightly lit and BUSY. I’m going to devote an entire post here to the best things I ate in Bangkok, so I’ll keep it simple here by saying this dish was simple only in appearance!
We then went to try Guay Tiew Kua Gai – fried noodles. I was expecting thin, crunchy noodles but instead received wide, flat noodles that were wok-fried with egg and chicken, then topped with a sticky sweet sauce. So. memorable. Sean got his with chicken, ham and octopus, which you can see in the picture. Yum-o.
And then we got to see how the dish was made. We were ushered to the back of the restaurant to the “ktichen” – which was actually in the alley. What an incredible experience!
We got back on our tuk tuk and went to see the Flower Market – this is the biggest flower market in the world and is open from 4pm to 4am. Flowers are delivered here in bulk and then worked into bouquets or re-sorted for resale and subsequent transport. While orchids were the primary bloom, there was every type of flower imaginable – roses, marigolds, daisies, hydrangeas. We saw traditional flower necklaces and headpieces worn at weddings and even a special type of flower used for bouquets for the Royal family and government. 
Our guide with an orchid bouquet.
After the Flower Market, we were taken to Wat Pho, which looks completely different at night. With the tourists and crowds gone, there is a peace and tranquility to the beautiful temples that seems to be the way it was originally intended. It was magical.
We then went to the “secret bar” which was a rooftop bar at a small boutique hotel. We climbed 5 flights of stairs – and when I got to the top, I saw the bathroom was out of order and had to go back to the ground floor, then go back up again. Got my workout in, that’s for sure!
The views were sweeping and amazing – temples in every direction and barges and dinner boats cruising along the river. 
After we finished our Thai beer, we went for the most famous Thai dish – Pad Thai. There are many ways to do this dish, but the place we went had it two ways: Special, which had shrimp and came wrapped in an omelette or Original, which had tofu and dried shrimps. Sean had the Special and I had the Original and the winner was….the Original!!! The dried shrimps added a wonderfully complex flavor to the dish that was irrestible. We washed it down with a cold coconut-flavored icee and then walked along some street food vendors before returning to our hotel at around 12.15am. 
We crashed hard, but not for long as we had to meet our group at 6.30am to leave for Cambodia. Whew!
More to come – until then, check out the additional photos in the photo gallery.
