Goodbye Australia, and welcome to Thailand
After a month and a half in Australia, we leave Oceania and start our trip in Asia.
It is in Thailand that we first set foot in Asia, in the capital : Bangkok.
The 10 hour flight from Sydney goes by in the blink of an eye thanks to all the recent movies available. Once again we flew with Qantas Airways and we love the company ! Even the food is excellent…
In Bangkok we will stay at Luc’s place. Matt and Luc both studied engineering together, and he has been living in Bangkok for 2 years now, with his fiancee Ploy. Matt’s best friend, Verdier, is also coming to visit and will spend a two weeks with us. These should be a fun couple of weeks.
Luc and Ploy live in a rather rich neighborhood of Bangkok, and from the airport we take the subway and then a boat to get to their apartment building located right by the river. That makes for a quick introduction to local transportation !
Matt is thrilled to meet up with his friend, and Maider is glad to meet them both with Ploy. We sleep in the huge second bedroom with a nice view on the city.
For our first evening in Bangkok, we meet up with the Swiss family. After Patagonia and New Zealand, it’s in Bangkok that we meet again and share another dinner.
Luc and Ploy choose a great local market where we can all meet up and taste our first Thai food. We spend an amazing evening all together catching up on our travels as they have a flight to Myanmar the next day. We had such a good time that we completely forgot to take a selfie all together !
Visiting the unmissable temples of Bangkok
The Royal Palace, very pretty but too many tourists
The next morning we start our visit of the city, and go to the Royal Palace. We take the boat again to go to the city, a rather fun means of transportation, even if it is often full.
We arrive at the opening and are shocked by the number of people already present. Buses full of Chinese !
We try to forget about the people and start the tour of one of the symbol of the city.
We wander for about an hour and a half in between many temples, incredible statues, mythological paintings and of course everything covered in gold !
The most famous temple, the Wat Phra Kaew, is home to the equally famous Emerald Buddha (pictures are not allowed).
Wat Pho temple, encounter with the giant lying Buddha
A few minutes away is the Wat Pho temple, home to the giant lying Buddha. The statue is 150 feet long and 50 feet high.
It is one of the oldest and largest temples in Bangkok.
Contrary to the Royal Palace, this temple is a lot more lively outside of tourists. We run into monks, but also a massage school and a meditation center.
The lying Buddha is really impressive.
This giant Buddha is covered in gold leaves.
It’s feet are carved with pearls that show the 108 states of Buddha.
The lying position is the one taken before rising to nirvana and thus getting liberated from the reincarnation cycle.
Around the main temple, there are many other smaller ones, all different. Some decorated with nice frescoes, others with ceramic tiles.
A lot less tourists here, which makes the visit so much more enjoyable (despite the hot and humid climate in Bangkok even early in the morning).
We grab lunch in this historical neighborhood, where Maider eats her first Pad Thai for $2, in a tiny restaurant a little outside of the main street.
Wat Arun Temple, our personal favorite
In the afternoon we cross the river to go visit the Wat Arun temple, which is our favorite so far.
Another beautiful symbol of the city, that apparently resembles the architecture of the Ayutthaya temples.
For us this is really a must-see in Bangkok.
We can actually find it’s silhouette engraved on one of the coins. This temple was built to be the first one to get hit by the morning sun.
Unlike the temples visited this morning, no flashy gold here. The main “prang” is 375 feet high and covered in pieces of porcelain.
We very much liked this temple.
Our first day visiting Bangkok comes to an end. We go back to Luc’s place in the afternoon, before welcoming Verdier, who is flying directly from France.
Visiting Bangkok with Verdier
For our second day in Bangkok, and our first day with Verdier, we take the boat again to go to the Wat Saket temple, also known as the Golden Mount.
Tuk tuk for tourists
As we get off the boat, a Thai gentleman seizes us and tries to sell us a tuk tuk tour for around $1. Hard to say no. Indeed, he promises to show us several temples, stop by a factory outlet and a tourist information center before ending at the Golden Mount. It feels like a huge scam, but we have time and it will be fun to ride around in a tuk tuk. The tourist information center was indeed a huge scam but we had a nice laugh !
Climbing to the Wat Saket temple
The tuk tuk finally drops us off a the Wat Saket temple a little before lunch.
This temple is located at the top of an artificial hill and looks like no other. The temple itself isn’t extraordinary, but offers a unique 360 view on the city once we climb the 320 steps to get to the top.
Beautiful smells and chaos in Chinatown
After the visit of the temple we walk to Chinatown, a very popular neighborhood of Bangkok.
There we find a lively mess of jewelries at each intersection, stands where you can buy almost anything, and tiny little restaurants where the tables and chairs stand in the middle of the sidewalks.
A true city within the city, where the people are Thai but also Chinese. Where the barrows and scooters barely slide between the many shops in these tiny streets.
We find a nice spot for lunch and continue to walk around the streets in the afternoon.
A pretty unique experience !
Verdier’s 30th birthday in Bangkok
Today, January 8th, is a very special day. Verdier is turning 30 !
To celebrate this very special occasion, Ploy and Luc bring us to a huge outdoor market.
We wander around the aisles of this market, where everything looks and smells delicious. We stop here and there to taste some of the local specialties.
Before having some local beer in one of the many bars.
And only a little while after do we sit down to have diner. We let Ploy and Luc choose several dishes to share.
Absolutely delicious, but some dishes are so spicy it hurts !
We spend an amazing evening all together, our last one with Ploy and Luc, since we leave the next day towards the South of Thailand. We will stay a few days on the paradise-like island of Koh Phangan.