We sweated through 4 days in Bangkok. I will highlight the notable times when we braved the heat and stepped out of our air conditioned hotel room.
King’s Coronation
As we shuttled from the airport to our hotel via public bus, we noticed a lot of yellow in the city. Yellow material was decoratively draped on storefronts, yellow lights hung from the trees, and 95% of the humans on the street had on yellow t-shirts. Unbeknownst to us, the new Thai King’s coronation was going to be held on Saturday, followed by a parade on Sunday, and Monday declared a National Holiday. The previous King, RamaIX, had passed in October 2017. His passing was followed by a year of mourning where locals wore black. His son, Rama X, had been the acting King since his father died, but there are certain duties a King can not do until he’s crowned during the coronation. Visiting during the Coronation was unplanned but exciting, since Rama IX ruled for 70 years making this was a once in a lifetime event. However, it dd not affect our stay drastically. Along with the color of royalty strewn everywhere, there were people constantly sweeping streets and picking up trash, so we probably experienced the cleanest version of Bangkok anyone has ever seen. The Grand Palace, one of the top attractions on our to see list, was closed during our time there, which was unfortunate. On six different occasions, we were instructed to stand still on the side of the busy road by a security guard (there was often a security guard every 20 ft during the celebrations), as a brigade of police cars and red sedans drove through the temporarily empty street. We were sent to our hotel room from our rooftop pool on Thursday afternoon; the pool had to close for one hour while the royal family was transported on the streets below. The pool actually remained closed on Saturday and Sunday during the festivities because it overlooked the main road and the Grand Palace. Since we decided to vacate Bangkok on Sunday, we experienced a few challenges in leaving the city, but not as many as the travel agents made us believe we would encounter with 40 main road closures planned during the parade.
Khao San Road
Hesitantly, we booked a hotel on Khao San Road. Khao San Road is the Bourbon Street of Bangkok, and we’re just too old for that scene. However, the booking page’s images of the hotel’s rooftop pool and quick access to the best street food swayed our decision. We walked the street the first night in search of the cheapest Pad Thai we could find, and were blasted with Ludacris from multiple rooftop bars, tattoo artists with 3 ring binders showcasing their work, bar signs advertising laughing gas, and one man handing out cards for a ping pong show. Every few buildings is a tailor’s shop, with a well dressed local standing out front asking you if you need a new suit. My favorite was when they would ask the budget traveler, with a full pack on his back of all his belongings, and in desperate need of a shower, if he needed a hand tailored suit. We dusted the rust off our reactions implying that we don’t speak English, and found the street food that we craved. A Chang beer and mojito were enjoyed at a later stop that first evening, with a mix of English and Latin music along with people watching to entertain us. Most of the meals during our Bangkok stay were found on Khao San Road or the streets surrounding. And the party scene quieted down a bit during the King’s celebrations.
Food Scene
Sadly, you may notice our dumpling count will not increase with this blog post. We didn’t try as hard as we could have to consume gyozo, Thai dumplings. But we filled ourselves with rice and noodle dishes and fresh, tropical fruits. On Friday night, we took the water taxi and the train to central Bangkok to meet a friend of Micah’s from the OSU dorms for drinks and dinner. Jamie has been teaching art in Bangkok for two years and we were looking forward to seeing where the locals (local expats) eat and drink. We socialized over beer and ciders at Brewski, the rooftop bar of the Radisson Hotel, while the sun sat over the sky scrapers. I failed to do the money conversion math when grazing the menu but it wouldn’t have changed anything; my lemon cider was delicious and Jamie sipped on a Portland native beer. The bill for our 4 drinks was the exact same amount that we spent per day in Kathmandu for all expenses, but the company, the view, and refreshing beverages had a high value in our book.
After drinks, we walked down a few alleys in search of Jamie’s choice dinner spot. We were pleased to see busy tables, menus with pictures, and few white people in sight. We chose to family style our dinner with orders of garlic oysters, Pandan leaf chicken, and green shrimp curry, washed down with a pitcher of Thai beer.
Our other meal worth mentioning was Saturday night. After exploring the streets near our hotel for a few days, we spotted the most local joint we felt we had seen and knew we had to experience it. There was a young female and male that seemed to be the servers, one woman working a single burner, a man who appeared to own the place, and roughly 20 tables packed with people. After sitting for 10 minutes, we placed our order, and then painfully realized that all the food coming out of the kitchen was made on that one burner. In the hour it took to get our food, the table next to us made two runs to the store across the street for a pint of liquor, mixing it with coke at their table after asking the servers help to open it. The potential owner, who must have made all the administrative decisions, turned the restaurant into a karaoke bar. He would turn up the music on his computer, belt out a few Thai words to the song, and then walk away to make change for a server or greet a friend walking by. Then he’d return to the computer, start the song over, and repeat. There was only one other singer that night; a friend of his who he stood close to, swaying to the tunes, and then would clap loudly and cheer after his song was finished. I think the food was ok, it’s definitely not as memorable as the experience.
We have not eaten any fried insects yet, but there will be more opportunities in Thailand.
Thai Massages
We had to. Micah had never gotten a massage and I dreamt about it during the trek, so it was bound to happen. With a little uncertainty of what to expect, I did search for reviews and found a reputable place in a garden setting. For 250 Baht each ($7.85), we were tormented for an hour. My masseuse was close to my age, a little taller; Micah’s was possibly 55 years old and (obviously) smaller than him. They twisted us, swung our bodies around, sat between our legs and kicked us in the thigh, and every few minutes they’d throw a punch into your thigh or foot in case you were getting too comfortable. My masseuse would ask every 10 minutes if I was ok, which I was. I exaggerated my grimaces when needed but for the most part, it felt great. Micah’s masseuse communicated less with him and more with me. She’d wink before she pushed his knee all the way to his ear. She’d groan as she was trying to lift his heavy leg straight up in the air to stretch him. And she’d go cross-eyed when she was working her hardest and he was wincing most. It was all in good humor and I was thoroughly entertained. After that experience, I remember why relaxing massages are in fact my favorite. If I could, I would get a Thai massage once a month; that sounds like the right amount to get stretched and twisted but enough recovery for the bruises to fade.
Chatuchak Weekend Market
Micah visited Thailand 9.5 years ago and remembered the market for the food and the impressive size. The market is supposedly one of the biggest in the world. It is well organized and divided into sections for antiques, clothing, housewares, and pets (some illegal wildlife sales, although that has become more regulated). We headed there on Saturday morning, after a decently long journey consisting of walking 1km, hopping on the water taxi, and taking the train a few stops. We beelined right to the food section and cooled down with iced coffee and lemonade, along with coconut pancakes on a stick for dessert. Like most days, the temperature was in the high 90’s but humid and with an intense sun, making the real feel over 110. We wove in and out of well assembled stalls that were under many large roofs, impressed with the permanence of the market and the decorations of the shops to appear more like boutiques than weekend stalls. I began to sweat in places I didn’t know sweat, so our eyes were constantly on the lookout for cold drinks to cool off. On a cooler day, I could have easily spent more than a day there. And if not carrying all our belongings on our backs for the next 3 months, could have had a new wardrobe.
After the market, we took the train back to the MBK Mall stop and enjoyed watching Avengers: Endgame in the air conditioned theater. After 45 minutes of advertisements, there was a short tribute to the King. Everyone stood during the tribute, so we did too, glancing behind us every few seconds to observe the others in the theater to be sure we were being respectful and participating.
Sunday morning, we packed up and planned to leave Bangkok. As previously mentioned, we weren’t sure that we’d make it out of town. In our research on buses and departure times, we spoke with two travel agents. Both implied that we may not be able to get to the train station because of road closures and that tickets to Sukhothai would cost 750 Baht. We thanked them and knew we’d do it on our own instead. We left the hotel at 8:30am, walked 2+ kms to the second water taxi station as the first was closed due to the parade taking place later that day. After a 5 minute water taxi, train ride for 20 minutes, walked 1 km across the park, and flagged a taxi for the last tricky section, we were to the bus station. Purchased bus tickets for 338 Baht ($10.64) for the 8 hour bus ride to Sukhothai and settled for some sketchy bus terminal breakfast.
The bus was a double decker and we had the front seats in the covered top, which was pleasant for leg room and good line of sight. Our bus driver vacillated between driving cautiously slow and speeding past others, especially once it became dark out. There were tvs in the bus but we’re not positive they worked. The bus did provide water and a muffin for a snack, a welcome surprise. Otherwise, it was a quiet, long ride.
We arrived in Sukhothai past sunset and followed our map to one of the accommodations we had chose. Micah had chose, based on the description of the room including TVs, in hopes that he could catch the new Game Of Thrones episode on Monday morning. We encountered a few road blocks of stray, howling dogs that we felt best not to try to sneak by, but eventually had a bungalow room at 4T Guesthouse. We found a quick meal that night, Micah caught a ginormous spider in our room while I guided him in its location from the safety of the bed, and we called it a night.
Yesterday morning started with breakfast at our hotel, then a short walk to the town center to catch the local bus. The “bus” was a tractor that had renovated a long truck bed into three rows of seating, but it got us to Sukhothai Historic Park just fine. We rented bikes from the shop across the street and set out to explore. Sukhothai ruins was another stop on Micah’s trip a decade ago, and we were looking forward to seeing ruins much different than the Mayan Ruins we felt more accustomed to.
The long bed of the tractor that served as seating
The park includes the remains of 21 historical sites and 4 large ponds within the city walls, and an additional 70 sites within a 5 km radius. We spent most of our time in the central zone, walking through the authentic temple ruins (we appreciated that they didn’t appear to be restored), and standing next to the original massive Buddha figures. The majority of the temples, or Wáts, built in the 12th and 13th century were Buddhist temples, although some were originally built as Hindu temples and later converted when Buddhism dominated.
We took our bikes a few kms away from the center to explore the other ruins located outside the walls. They weren’t quite as impressive in size or intricacy as the wáts in the central zone, but interesting to see a lot with 800 year old ruins next to a lot with a Thai home that is currently lived in.
They drive on the left side of the road here
Drank some refreshing beverages and ate mango sticky rice on our way back into the park, rode the perimeter to be sure we saw what we came for, and jumped on the tractor bus back into town.
We spent the next hour in our guesthouse’ pool to soothe our sun kissed skin. Our night was capped with noodle dishes, including Sukhothai’s famous glass noodles, from the original Sukhothai noodle restaurant.
Today, Tuesday, we are in another bus that will eventually terminate in Chiang Mai. We have a place booked for a few nights, ideas of activities to enrich us in Chiang Mai, and have even begun talking about planning out more of our trip. Nearly four months of travel is such a rare blessing, and although it seems like plenty of time, we are continually reminded of how much there is to see on this side of the world, and will try to fit it all in. And keep you informed.
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