“Bangkok, Oriental Setting. And the city don’t know that the city is getting the creme de la creme of the chess world in a show with everything but…”
Just kidding, that was not an excerpt from my journal, but rather the opening words to One Night in Bangkok. You should look up the song! It will really get in your head. It isn’t actually Thai, so if you want Thai music than check out the playlist on my Thailand page. It will set the tone for reading about my couple days in Bangkok.
Back in 2019, when I was 17 years old and just starting to grasp how accessible travel really is, I went on a school EF tour to Thailand. Europe is my thing and the first place I will plan a trip to, but I had always had this desire to visit Thailand. Not many places in Asia are on the top of my bucketlist. I would really like to go to India and Indonesia, and I suppose I really would like to go anywhere there, but only a few countries there I feel like I absolutely need to visit before I die. Thailand was one of them, so I was really excited when I found out the next trip was going to be to Thailand. I am not sure what about Thailand makes it different from the rest of Asia for me. Perhaps it is the elephants, which have been my favorite animal forever. Or maybe it was the food, because Thailand really has the best food. Or maybe it is all the beautiful pictures you see online of the beaches in the south. Whatever it was, I knew I had to go and it absolutely lived up to the expectations.
Trip Prep
Prepping for Thailand was unlike any trip I have been on. Going to Europe I typically pack clothes I would wear at home and any of the basic necessities I use on a regular basis. Thailand required much more thought, especially with the clothing I was packing. First off it was going to be insanely hot. On top of that I had to dress modestly for the temples. At 17 I wasn’t wearing crop tops like I do now, but I did like my shorts. I had to do a bit of shopping to find modest clothing that covered my shoulders and knees, but would also not be too hot in the nearly 100 degree temperature (that might be an exaggeration). I also had to visit the travel clinic ahead of time to get any special vaccines I may need to be in this part of Asia as well as a z-pack for stomach issues that I never had because I love Thai food!
Travel to Thailand
Traveling to Thailand was not for the weak though! The journey began at 2:30 in the morning on Thursday, June 6th. I live about 2 hours away from the airport so we picked up some of the others and got to the airport at 5 am. These were the days that I got pre-check as a 17 year old traveler, so I got through everything fairly quickly. Our first flight left at 8:20 am to connect in Dallas. This was the shortest leg of the trip since it was only a couple hours. Then we boarded our 12 1/2 hour long flight to Japan. This is still the longest flight I have ever done. Usually when I go to Europe it is no more that 8 hours on a single flight. Well those 8 hours is about how long the flight from Japan to Thailand was. I didn’t realize until this trip how big the Pacific actually is. Now I never complain about my flights to Europe and Central America. There are people who think those Europe flights are a long haul, but man I really appreciate them now.
If you are wondering what I did during these long flights, it was mostly sleeping. I actually think my jet lag to Thailand was way better than it ever was to Europe because with such a long travel day I had no sense of time. I slept when I was tired and ate when I was hungry. It actually was not too bad. The food on all the flights were great and I had a lot of good movies to watch. Sleeping a lot also helped to pass the time. Now when I say that I had no concept of time while traveling, here is the actual time: we traveled all of the 6th and the 7th of June. It was two complete travel days because we arrived in Bangkok at midnight the next day. We weren’t actually traveling for 48 hours because there is a 12 hour time difference so it was noon our time, but that still meant our first full day in Bangkok was actually the 8th.
I know I said that the jet lag wasn’t as bad a Europe, but there was something about arriving at midnight that made it difficult. In Europe you arrive and are tired the rest of the day but you stay up and sleep really good that night so that the next day is a normal day. For Thailand I didn’t go to bed until 3 am and had to wake up at 7:30 am. It was not a normal night of sleep, but sleeping on the plane helped to make me not so tired the next day, so it was easy to adjust to the time difference where as in Europe it take days for my body to stop waking up at 2 am. I am sure now you are bored of hearing about my talking about jet lag and flying so lets dive into these couple of days in Bangkok.
Day 1
This morning I woke up at 7:30 am. I got 4 hours of sleep, but I was fine from sleeping on the plane and I was full of excitement. I went to breakfast at 8. I had yogurt, fruit, and bread. Also a latte. I wasn’t adventurous enough to try the Thai breakfast foods. Maybe tomorrow. – June 8, 2019
This actually was from my journal. I was excited. This was going to be a completely new experience for me. I had no idea what I was going to experience in Asia. What were the shops and markets going to be like? What was the food and restaurants going to be like? How about the temples, how is Buddhist culture different from Christian culture? Luckily we had an amazing guide with a great well rounded tour in store for us. Here is what EF had planned for our first day, straight out of their itinerary.
Day 3 of Tour in Bangkok:
– Take an expert-led tour of Bangkok.
– Visit the Grand Palace, the ornately decorated
former residence of the kings of Siam.
– Take a boat tour of the Chao Phraya River and
Thonburi klongs (canals), where you’ll see the
ornate homes and glided temples that once
earned Bangkok the name “the Venice of
the East.”
– Visit Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining
Buddha), which is covered entirely in
precious gold.
– Explore the Museum of Siam, an interactive
museum that depicts Thai history and culture.
We actually began the tour on the boat, which took us through the canals of Bangkok. I don’t know exactly what I had expected from the boat ride, but it wasn’t this. We saw so much as well as different sides of Thailand.
Our boat turned into canals like cars on a street. It was super cool I loved it so much. I really got to see the loved of Thai people. – June 8th, 2019
On the boat we also go to feed fish and see huge lizards. – June 8th, 2025
Once we left the boat we were dropped off in front of our first stop. We didn’t actually get to visit The Grand Palace, the official residence of the King of Thailand, but we would get to see it from the distance the next day. Instead we visited Wat Arun. Wat is the Thai word for a Buddhist temple, so many of the temples I will talk about start with the word Wat. This particular temple means Temple of Dawn.
It was beautiful! It was 400 years old and was made of many different marbles and stones. I’ve never seen anything like it in person. Then we went inside. We had to take our shoes off which was an interesting experience for me, since I’ve never taken my shoes off in public. We learned how to pay our respects to Buddha. You kneel and bring your hands together and bow three times. We also got blessed by a monk for good luck and got a bracelet. – June 8th, 2019
This was my first experience with Buddhism. I would continue to learn so much more during this trip, but this first experience was the most eye opening. I could never have imagined ever taking my shoes off in public. I don’t even like to go barefoot in my own house, but that was something I was open to and tried to embrace for the sake of being a visitor of a new country and culture. I feel weird when people visit churches and don’t follow the norms, so I was going to fully embrace Buddhism on this trip.
From here we walked to our next temple, Wat Pho, where we saw the reclining Buddha. This temple holds a lot of significance in Thailand for its center of education and medicine, as well as being a first class royal temple associated with King Rama. This temple was much busier which I am not sure was because of tourists like us or because of local Buddhists coming to pray. When we entered the inside of this temple to see the huge reclining Buddha statue. We had to take off our shoes once again, but they actually gave us a bag to put them in. I also want to note that there is a dress code for visiting these temples so this was one of those days I wore my long skirt and tee that covered my shoulders.
Afterwards we took a break from the site seeing to have some lunch. The food was great, but what was absolutely amazing was the air conditioning. I have never really been a lover of air conditioning, but I really appreciated it in Thailand. When you are out in the 90 degree heat all day, your feelings about air conditioning change. This is how I felt in Italy this summer too. As for the food I got to try a lot of great new foods including the papaya salad. It was buffet style so I also got to enjoy some pineapple chicken curry and Thai soup.
After lunch we checked out the Museum of Siam. This isn’t a huge museum, but it a very informative one. Its purpose is to educate people on the Thai identity and history of the people. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time here but I still found it really helpful to understand the culture and people I was encountering.
From here we went to our last temple of the day, Wat Saket. It is known for its Golden Mount. It is also an old temple as it dates back to the Ayutthaya period, which I will explain in the next day’s sites. When you visit this mount you get an amazing view of the city, which made it the perfect way to end our site seeing.
It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and had amazing views of the city. Bangkok really is a huge city. I could only see city and nothing but city. – June 8th, 2019
This was the point in the day where we were all starting to crash. We were given free time, but I just wanted to rest at the hotel. My mom and I did go to 7-eleven. Oh yeah, did I mention my mom was on this trip with me? My “day one” travel buddy came along to Thailand with me for this school trip. She worked at the school, so it was her school too. Anyway we got some snacks at Thailand’s beloved convenience store. I got dried fruit as well as green tea. This was the start of my tea addiction in Thailand. I drank so much iced tea. It just doesn’t taste quite as good bottled up in the United States.
At 7:20 pm we headed out to dinner. We had an authentic Thai dinner lined up along with a show too. I was really surprised when I stepped outside and it was completely dark. It was summer, yet it got dark around 6 pm in Thailand. It took me a bit to adjust to this because I was so used to it getting dark around 9 pm in June at home, but because of Thailand’s location close to the equator its sunset times don’t change quite as much throughout the year. Anyway once the group was ready we walked to Silom Village for dinner.
We walked into a room barefoot and saw pillows on the floor next to the table. We assumed we had to sit crisscross but there was a dent in the ground for our legs. Then we got our food. We had spring rolls, soup, steamed vegetable salad, rice, fried fish, and chicken stir fry. It was really good. Then we got pineapple and watermelon and later green tea. After eating the show started. There was a ton of different dances and constumes. I thought it was interesting that even the guys wore make up. The dancers could also push their fingers back really far. I was impressed. – June 8th, 2019
I know this is a long passage, but I thought it was the best way to transport you to this dinner. It was a really amazing cultural experience. I am sure some parts of it were exaggerated for the tourists, but I still believe the dances and food were authentic. I experienced so much culture and learned so much that day and it was only the first day. We had only touched the surface of what makes Thailand, Thailand.
Day 2
Our next day in Bangkok didn’t actually start within the city but rather in the old city of Ayutthaya on the outskirts. It is a bit of a drive north of the city, so we had to spend a bit of time in the bus. It was an earlier day with a wake up time of 6:30 am and a leaving time of 7:30am. After an hour of driving we had reached the old capital city of Thailand. It didn’t sound like a very busy day on paper, but we actually did a lot. Here was our itinerary for the day.
Day 4 of Tour in Bangkok and Ayutthaya:
-Travel to Ayutthaya, a UNESCO-recognized
historic city.
– Take a tour around Ayutthaya. While out
sightseeing, you’ll stop for a sweet local treat.
– Enjoy free time in Bangkok
The cool thing about these tours is that they give you this itinerary but they find ways to surprise you with cool things. Also having a local expert guide means they might throw in some of their own favorites into the trip. This day started with a bus ride to Ayutthaya. I had no expectations because I had no concept of what an old city in Asia looked like. It Europe the old cities tend to have a similar feel: medieval homes vs skyscrapers and cobblestone streets vs pavement. This is not the case for Thailand. What I got out of this went beyond anything I could have imagined. First, before I get into the photos, let me explain Ayutthaya a bit more.
It is now an UNESCO world heritage site. It’s name is Ayutthaya. It served as the capital from the 1300s until the Burmese invaded in the 1700s. Our first stop was an old Thai style temple and ruins. – June 9th, 2019
Just like in the other temples we would have to take our shoes off in certain parts of the temple, including the bathroom. At this temple, Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bophit, we experienced another piece of Buddhism.
Anyway, the temple held another Buddha and we got our fortunes told by shaking sticks with numbers on them. The first stick to fall out was the number of your fortune. Mine basically revealed that I am going to travel a lot and have a complicated time with love. – June 9th, 2019
Looking back at it that fortune has been pretty accurate. I have traveled to 9 more countries since Thailand and the love life has proved itself to be quite difficult. After we left this part of the temple that resembled the ones we had visited the day before, we explored the ruins of Wat Phra Si Sanphet. Afterwards we got to try the yummy Thai street food, Roti Sai Mai. This was basically like cotton candy wrapped in a crepe.
I thought it was absolutely amazing. It was all made of brick. Afterwards we got to ride the tuk-tuks to the next temple. I have found out that there are literally no rules to the road in Thailand. There are no lanes, just guiding lines. Bikes and tuk-tuks weave their way around traffic. – June 9th, 2019
After a ride on the tuk-tuks we had arrived at our next temple. It was a lot of fun. We had no idea this was going to happen and then suddenly there were 4-6 of us sitting in the back of these tiny colorful vehicles weaving our way through the streets of Thailand. It was a blast. We all were laughing the entire time. It has easily become one of my favorite travel experiences.
Our next temple had not only Thai structures, but it was also influenced by Sri Lanken and Cambodian architecture from the time. We learned a story of 3 brothers who fought for the throne after their father died. The 2 oldest fought each other for it and both died. The next day the 3rd brother became king and built a structure to honor his brothers. We also saw the Buddha head in a tree.- June 9th 2019
We had walked around the ruins of this old temple which was just as amazing as the last. The site to see of this temple, Wat Maha That, was in fact the Buddha head in the tree, which most likely was due to the tree growing around the broken down ruins. This is a great point to mention that when taking pictures with Buddha statues, you can never be taller than the Buddha, therefore this particular Buddha was a tricky one to get a picture with due to is being located so low in the tree. From here we got back on our tuk-tuks for our last stop of Ayutthaya where we could see the reclining Buddha as we approached the temple, Wat Chaiwatthanaram.
This one was built by a king to honor his mother. I think it was the coolest of the three because we could actually walk inside. – June 9th, 2019
This was the end of our time in the old city. We ditched the tuk-tuks and took the bus to a boat that would take us back to Bangkok. Here we had a buffet to eat from for lunch. I had crab fried rice, pad thai, sweet and sour fish, veggies, roseapple, and pineapple. I was really taking advantage of these buffets to try everything. It of course was all very good. Once we finished lunch we headed up to the deck where we had a little bit of a tour by water.
We went out and sat on the deck for most of it. Well that is, until it started raining. Then we went back inside for tea and cookies. Once we approached the Grand Palace we went back outside. I was excited to finally see it. It was very impressive. We stayed out there until it was time to leave. – June 9, 2019
We were brought back to the hotel in which we would have our free time. It was 4 pm and we had the rest of the evening since dinner was going to be at the hotel later in the evening. My mom and I decided to take the train to the mall because I forgot a pair of shorts and the hot weather was really proving that I needed another. To this day I still have the shorts I bought and wear them often. I loved them! It was really hard to find shorts though. I don’t think it is very common to wear them here. The journey to the mall also didn’t go the smoothest due to us actually not knowing how to use public transportation in Thailand, but in the end it worked out. Before heading back we also stopped at this really cute shop called NaRaYa bags. I did kind of buy a lot.
Everything was so cheap, so I bought quite of few things. I bought 2 scrunchies and a shoulder bag. It could me a total of $12.- June 9th, 2019
It was good quality stuff too! I still have all of it. Afterwards we took the train back, which was much smoother this time. Dinner was an interesting one because it was the first and maybe the only time we weren’t served Thai food. We had pizza which I thought was hilarious, because we were Americans so of course we would want pizza! It was a seafood pizza, and we were also served chicken, potatoes, and soup. When we finished it was 8pm and we were all exhausted. It was another long day of learning and experiencing Thailand. And we were going to do it all again the next day.
I hope you enjoyed reading my post about Bangkok. I wrote this one a little bit differently from most of my blogs posts because this Thailand trip was so long ago (6 years) and I had really great journal notes. I try to journal on my trips, but they usually aren’t that detailed, so I was really excited when I found my Thailand journal and it included background information on all the stuff we were seeing. I am going to continue to write posts like this with the itinerary, journal notes, and nice camera pictures for the rest of this trip, so stay tuned for more!
The Journal of Wanderlust 