After a tropical time in Bali Alec and I headed to our next adventure: big-city Bangkok!

The capital of Thailand, Bangkok has been named as the world’s most visited city, and unsurprisingly so. It’s a sprawling metropolis with lots of tourist attractions: great street food, incredible temples, and a wild nightlife scene, just to name a few.

We spent 2 days exploring the famous Buddhist temples and eating amazing food.

Overview

Bangkok’s population is 8+ million people, out of ~70 million total in Thailand. Officially know as the Kingdom of Thailand (and previously called Siam), Thailand is the 21st most populous country in the world.

A constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country to avoid direct Western rule. It’s also a major ally of the US and played a key anti-communist role in the region during the Cold War.

While Thailand’s political structure is unstable with sporadic changes in leadership, the country has a high level of human development. Thailand’s newly industrialized economy is driven mainly by manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism.

Sounds like a nice place, but how did Thailand come to dominate the tourism industry? It all began in the 1960s. As a US military-approved R&R (rest and recuperation) spot, the country experienced an influx of American troops during the Vietnam war. As tourism became a global trend (with improved standards of living + new air travel technologies), the food and nightlife scene that originally sprung up to entertain GIs began to grow to meet new international demand.

Tourism in Thailand has since grown into a massive industry, yielding $71 billion in 2016 alone. Interestingly enough I saw many Chinese and Russian tourists during my stay; in 2017, 27% of all tourists in Thailand had arrived from China, and the majority of Western tourists came from Russia (more than 2x the amount from the US).

Arrival

Alec and I landed in the late afternoon and the first thing we noticed was the insane Bangkok traffic. It was probably the worst I had ever seen; worse than any city in the US for sure. There is always traffic, no matter what time of day, and the drivers are quite aggressive.

The bad traffic is a result of the city’s rapid growth combined with an inadequate road network (due to little urban planning). Things here are a stark contrast with Singapore where the traffic is better but the vehicle taxes are much higher.

The roads are filled with motorbikes and tuk tuks; the tuk tuks are awesome to ride and are the most common mode of transportation among tourists.

Given the popularity of tuk tuks it makes sense that 50% of all vehicles bought in Thailand are pickup trucks. Thailand is the second biggest market for pickup trucks, only behind the United States of course.

After checking in to our hotel we were craving some Western food so we walked to a nearby Italian pizza place. Of course, to get there we had to cross the street, which was an adventure in its own right.

Crossing the street is intense. There is lots of traffic coming in either direction and there often isn’t a nearby stop light. You have to just start walking when there’s a gap in traffic and cars generally slow down. Once you get used to it it’s actually quite reasonable towards pedestrians – you can just start walking and the cars will slow down and go around you.

Grand Palace

The next day we headed to the Grand Palace, the top Bangkok attraction according to Google. The Grand Palace has been the official residence of Thai Kings since 1782, though the kings usually live in Dusit Palace, with the Grand Palace used only for official events.

Our Uber dropped us off on the wrong side of the palace so we had to walk around the large perimeter to get to the entrance; we hadn’t seen any tourists yet so we started to think that maybe the palace was closed. We walked by a local who came up and told us that the palace was closed after noon today, but that he could help us rent a tuk tuk to a few other attractions instead. I thought he was legit but the cautious Alec figured it was probably a scam so we kept walking. Turns out the guy shamelessly lied and the palace was not closed – there were tons of tourists entering as soon as we turned the corner!

The crowd was mostly Asian tour groups with families. The line to enter was pretty rowdy and there were many interesting characters around us. A girl blatantly tried to cut us in line but the security guard blocked her and let me go. We weren’t even in the palace and things were already getting serious.

Alec and I walked around and took lots of photos, though the unruly crowd at times made it challenging to get a good shot. During one photo a guy kept poking Alec in the side so he would give him space for his photo.

There was a shrine in the middle where you have to take off your shoes before going in. Alec and I were trying to stuff our shoes into our jackets so that we wouldn’t have to leave them in the bins (we thought the shoes might get stolen). Some other tourists saw this and laughed at us. Eventually we succeeded and were able to enter without the guards noticing and without losing our shoes. Who’s laughing now!

There were some one-way stairs to the shrine and a few tourists tried to go up the wrong way; the guard pushed them away. One older guy wouldn’t take no for an answer and tried to argue with the guard. The guard just ignored him.

Wat Pho

After the palace we walked next door to Wat Pho, The Temple of the Reclining Buddha.  

The main attraction here was of course the giant statue of Buddha, resting in the pose of a sleeping lion.

15m high and 46m long, the gilded sculpture represents Buddha’s entry into nirvana (the realization of non-self and emptiness) and the end of all rebirth and associated suffering. Buddha is believed to have realized 2 types of nirvana, one at enlightenment and one at his death. According to Buddhist texts, nirvana is “the object of the knowledge” of the Buddhist path.

After the Buddha statue we walked around the temple grounds.

Afterwards we headed to a Thai restaurant that was highly rated on TripAdvisor.

Indeed, 5 stars!

Wat Arun

After dinner we took a ferry across the Chao Phraya river to Wat Arun temple, beautifully lit at night.

Built in the 17th century Wat Arun gets its name from the Hindu god Aruna, often portrayed as the radiations of the rising sun.

The temple was closed but it was nice to walk around the grounds at night. There were (almost) no tourists but lots of cats; two cats were viciously fighting in a tree, making dog sounds.

After a peaceful walk Arund Wat Arun we headed back to the hotel to hang with the adventurous fox.

We rested up and then headed to a rooftop bar on top of Banyan Tree Hotel. The view was incredible and we spent a long time taking photos on the roof. It was, view-wise, the best rooftop bar I’ve ever been to.

Wat Arun (round 2)

The next day we decided to return to the now-open Wat Arun. There were more tourists today but not nearly as crowded as the crazy Grand Palace.

Afterwards we took a ferry back across the river and headed to dinner.

After dinner we went home to rest up and prepare for our last night in Bangkok.

We headed to Club Onyx on Royal City Avenue (RCA), a popular nightlife district and the epicenter of Bangkok’s clubbing scene.

Entry was 500 baht (~$17 USD) each and this included 2 drinks. The service was really good. The music was super rowdy EDM but interestingly there wasn’t a real dance floor. Instead the whole club was filled with small tables; most people seemed like they were just hanging out with their friends and no one was dancing. Exhausted after a day of exploring and not feeling super rowdy we got one drink each and left after 30 mins.

And with this little adventure our time in Bangkok came to an end. Next, we headed south to Phuket!