I’m currently in Siem Reap using the ridiculously slow internet after a long day of driving (will post about it later) and trying to recover from what was an incredible One Night in Bangkok.
The flight to Bangkok was great. Scored an exit row seat and had an epic breakfast of nasi lemak, cake, chocolates, 2 types of juice and magnums. Getting to the hotel on the train was super easy and then all that was left to do was explore.
I jumped in a taxi to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. The Grand Palace is amazing I have never seen so much gold in my entire life and the Emerald Buddha was terrific. The Buddha was left wrapped in plaster for many years before it cracked open and it is now highly revered.
Before seeing it you had to cleanse yourself with holy water and the room was dead silent with people meditating. After that I wandered around the guards and saw the Royal Thai Guards which are like the Buckingham Guards but with pith helmets after which I walked down to Wat Pho.
Wat Pho is home to a massive reclining Buddha and while in the temple you had to put 1 baht coins in 108 copper pots and there was more temples covered in gold which in the afternoon Bangkok sun was
all a bit too much so I hopped in the tuk tuk to head to the MRT station onwards to Siam Paragon.
Siam Paragon is a ridiculously large mall (I think 6+ floors) including a floor with a Lamborghini dealership and many other luxury brands. When I ventured to the bottom floor it appeared all the Buddhist rituals had paid off as I found food nirvana. I always think you can judge a city by its supermarkets and this one was incredible. Every type of food imaginable, huge organic section and heaps of imported products I could have stayed there for hours.
The public transport in Bangkok was really easy. I caught the sky train and MRT everywhere (except the temples) and was feeling like I’d conquered the city in the afternoon when someone asked if I lived there. Until I started to feel a bit too confident and proceeded to get on the wrong train. Two stops later I was confused as all hell and the Thai guy next to me said “You don’t know where you are supposed to be do you?” I jumped onto the platform embarrassed and sprinted onto another train and back to where I started eventually making my way back to the hotel to meet my tour.
After a welcome dinner a few of us decided to venture out to the night markets at Khao San Road. For those of you who don’t know what this is it’s the super seedy backpacker area of town and no shopping was done. The quiet trip to the markets turned into a few bars, a lot of singing, buckets and sampling some bugs from a vendor. I tried crickets and meal worms and was cringing at the memory of them all day today. It was an absolutely manic place with several tattoo parlours packed with tourists (Don’t worry I didn’t get one) and several offers for ping pong shows.
That’s it for now. I’m off to Angkor Wat at 4:30 tomorrow morning!
Courts xx
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