View of Bangkok, Thailand
Hello adventurers! It's finally time to share our story from our amazing honeymoon where we traveled to Thailand (and Singapore!). We visited three major cities/regions of Thailand: Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Phuket. For this blog, I'll post each part by the location it happened in.
To begin, we live in the United States, so you can imagine just how long it took for us to fly all the way there! If I remember correctly it was a 12.5 hour flight from the Philadelphia airport to Doha, Qatar, then another 6.5 hours from there to Bangkok. So, be ready to try to get as much sleep as you can on these flights if you live as far as us.
It is pretty easy to obtain a taxi from any of the airports in Thailand. I would recommend going straight to one of the kiosks though, otherwise you may be overwhelmed by several drivers coming up to you individually to try to offer you a ride. From the BKK airport, it took around an hour or so to get to our hotel along the Chao Phraya River (mainly due to traffic as we arrived during rush hour). Once there, we settled in and fought off the urge to nap because the jet lag was REAL. (It definitely took some time to remember that while it was middle of the day for us in Thailand, it was like 2am for our loved ones back home in the states.) Luckily, there was the ICONSIAM mall right around the corner - this mall not only had plenty of stores, but there was a huge section that was packed full of local cuisine and handmade shops. To be honest we never even left this section to explore the rest of the mall because it had everything you needed and was fun to peruse! We spent a lot of time here trying different foods and getting souvenirs for everyone back home. And you can imagine, once we finally returned to our accommodation, we understandably passed out.
My husband, Chad, and I woke up so early the following morning that it was still dark outside. We only had one full day in the city, so initially we were only going to explore as far as we could on foot. However, our previously mentioned taxi driver had told us that there are several hop-on/hop-off riverboat day-tours that take you to see several of the temples. Thank goodness we took his advice, otherwise we would have missed out on SO much. With how far away the temples can be from one another, you do not want to spend the day getting lost on foot or stuck in traffic. I highly recommend participating in these tours. They are self-led as well, so you do not have to remain with a group/guide. One of these stops for getting onto a boat can actually be found behind the ICONSIAM mall along the river and you can purchase your tickets there. You will receive a map that shows the stops and what is located at each place as well.
We chose to stop at Wat Arun, Wat Pho, and the Grand Palace. Each temple was full of architecture that had some of the most intricate details I have ever seen. You could even go inside nearly all of them (keep an eye out for signs that state to take your shoes off). Remember to be respectful and visit these areas dressed in modest clothing: no shorts is a big one. If you accidentally forget, they do have garments to tie around your waist to help! I had bought elephant pants from one of the shops in ICONSIAM the day before and found that a lot of other people did the same thing for these locations. Here are just some of the photos below that I took while visiting these temples:
Wat Arun
Grand Palace (this is just one wall of only one of the many buildings)
Wat Pho (Reclining Buddha)
The last stop of the boat tour (this is also a bit of a walk from the river dock compared to the previous stops, so I would recommend grabbing a taxi if you're short on time) was Khao San Road.
This was a place I had really wanted to see as I had always heard of other travelers visiting there. The road was full of shops and restaurants, but you need to be careful of the constant flow of traffic going through. It did not seem as busy as I had initially expected either, but I would possibly try visiting here at night as it may be more lively at night.
After walking Khao San Road, we trekked back to the river and road the boat all the way back to the beginning. We, of course, went back to the market at ICONSIAM to enjoy some Pad Thai before returning to the hotel to sleep. Our stay in Bangkok was short, but it was an incredible place to see that is full of life as well as history and culture. I wish we could've stayed longer!
"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places."
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