Days 67-70: Bangkok
The Skinny - if you're just here for the highlights: We nearly burnt a hole in our stomachs with Southern Thai food, survived Bangkok's wonderfully chaotic streets, got Sean custom suits, shopped far more than Sean would have preferred, watched Muay Thai, visited the Grand Palace, and developed a serious appreciation for Thai 7-Elevens. Bangkok was loud, hot, hectic, sophisticated, and a lot of fun.
Scroll down for pictures.
A Spicy Start
By the time we landed in Bangkok and got to our hotel, it was past dinner time. Though we were pretty tired, with only a few days at this stop, we dropped off our bags and immediately ventured out to Kajohn Authentic Southern Thai. We had of course known that the food in Thailand is spicy, and we even knew that Southern Thai cuisine is known to be especially spicy. Yet still, we walked ourselves (literally) right into the most classic trap of Thai tourism and made the mistake of saying “little spicy” hoping to still have a kick to our meal. We learned the hard way that we really should have said “no spicy” and still might have walked out of there with burning tummies. That said, the meal was outrageously delicious. We had a crab yellow curry, prawns with giant beans, and fried cuttlefish. It hurt so good. They gave us a dish of cucumbers to cool off our mouths… little good that did.
From here we walked over to one of Bangkok's numerous famous night life streets, Khao San Road, and tried to wash down the spice with a few drinks. This did the trick… temporarily. We were still tired so we only hung around for just enough time to walk the length of the street and take in the chaos. Competing music was booming out of every bar, in front of which salesmen and women aggressively attempted to usher you inside, while also trying to sell laughing gas, pingpong shows, weed, hookers, and more. The streets are lined with vendors of junk, counterfeit goods, and all kinds of food, ranging from freshly cut fruit and pancakes, to raw chicken, seafood, and even snake kabobs, large bugs and small alligators waiting to be grilled right there on the street. I can only imagine how many times a tourist has woken up after a regrettable night only to be informed that he (yes he) had accepted a dare to eat a freshly grilled snake on a stick… Luckily that was not the case for Sean, this trip.
The people watching was spectacular, and there was quite a range too. Besides the usual suspects, we also saw several large families with young kids as well as older couples. We capped the night off with a classic tuktuk ride back to our hotel. We have become quite fond of tuktuks in our time in Asia, and agreed that Bangkok takes the cake for best tuktuks. You could take a nap in those things! For longer rides, instead of Uber, Thailand has an app called Grab (uber sold all Southeast Asia business to grab in 2018, so the two are very similar anyways). And while there is some serious traffic in Bangkok, especially at rush hour, it was only ever a few dollars for a Grab ride.
Shopaholics
The next morning we had made an appointment at Giri’s Custom Tailor so Sean could be fitted for suits– another classic Bangkok experience as they have tailors the way New York has bodegas and can fit and finish custom suits in a matter of two-three days for far cheaper than you can get off-the-rack nearly anywhere else. With law school in his future, we figured having a well-fitting black suit couldn’t hurt. They took his measurements and he picked out the fabrics for two suits and two shirts, as well as the suit coat liner which, incredibly, they happened to have discrete map of the world patterns, immediately making Sean much more enthusiastic about this whole experience. The next day, we returned for a fitting to hone in the measurements, and 24 hours later, the six pieces were ready along with two new ties.
7-Eleven was at least as prolific in Bangkok as mom and pop tailors, and is like a rite of passage in Thailand. I think the only thing American locations have in common with these beloved Thai shops are cigarettes. Everything else is uniquely Thai, and the internet is chock-full of must-buy items, which I was thankful for because everything was written in Thai, which while beautiful to look at is of course illegible to me. Some winners included lava cake (Sean, like my mom I am positive will agree, thought it was gross that I tried it but the people insisted and they were right it was delicious), a verrrry effective anti-acid drink, hair mask, lipgloss, the best Le Mer knockoff Nivea face cream, and my all-time favorite was bugspray! They have this product that comes in a pink spray bottle, and while it has 12% deet and works exceptionally well, it still somehow smells good. I had to buy extras to take home.
Knowing its well-regarded reputation for vintage fashion, I had warned Sean months ago that I was planning to do some serious shopping in Bangkok, so after the tailor we headed to Union Mall– a pretty unremarkable mall that sells mostly cheap fast fashion. However, the first floor was home to a pop-up vintage sale which was a treasure trove. We also wandered around the centralwOrld and Siam Paragon malls, which as far as malls go were actually pretty impressive. They had really great stores ranging from designer shops, to Pull and Bear, great little restaurants and coffee shops, including a Dolce & Gabbana Cafe. The Siam mall also housed a mega grocery market offering nearly every fresh grocery item you could imagine. It made me long for a kitchen.
Muay Thai Monday Night Out
Later that night, we had tickets to a Muay Thai fight. I had never heard of this before but as my dad keenly pointed out, Muay Thai is the style of fighting Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son does, apparently. I put on makeup for the first time in months and we headed to the famous, 80 year old Rajadamnern Stadium. Given Bangkok’s general affordability plus the fact that it was a Monday, we splurged for second row seats, which luckily came with access to a line-free, floor section bar. The Muay Thai was an experience. They showed a video explaining the history of the fighting style which provided some context for the beginning of each fight, during which the opponents spent a few minutes doing a sort of spiritual slow dance around the ring.
I found the fighting pretty ridiculous. I will be the first to admit I know nothing about martial arts, but I was expecting some pretty skilled, tactical dueling and what we saw reminded me very precisely of how my brother and I “got physical” with one another (as my parents called it) when we were aged upper single digits. It was full of random jabs and attempted dodges, sloppy kicking and catching the opponent's legs, and they all seemed pretty out of shape to me, tiring very quickly. The cherry on top was that the stadium boasts an 80% knockout rate, so we were picturing some pretty intense battles ending in unconsciousness… well, in Muay Thai, a knockout is defined as when one guy (or gal, there was one gal on gal fight) is just too tired to continue. So to me the whole thing felt like a WWE sham, but it was still fun and entertaining, definitely a good cultural experience. The star event was towards the end of the nine fights when an American battled a Chinese guy. This was actually the only real knockout we saw, where early into round two (out of three) the Chinese man actually did collapse unconscious. Our section was full of Americans so naturally the crowd was going wild.
Afterwards we headed to Patpong, the birthplace of Bangkok's famous ping-pong shows, for a night out. It was the same exact set up and scenery as the first night on Khao San Road, though a little less people given the weekday (but not quieter).
Seeing the Sights
A visit full of the classic Bangkok experiences would not be complete without a sightseeing day, so we headed through Chinatown (which we wish we could have spent more time exploring, it was insane) to the impressive Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. We hadn’t realized there was a dress code, so Sean had to purchase some elephant pants. The glittering Wat Phra Kaew is home to Thailand's most sacred Buddhist temple, the revered Emerald Buddha statue, surrounded by seemingly endless buildings adorned in colored glass and mirrored mosaic set into stucco and gilded surfaces. The whole grounds were beautiful and impressive, but I was actually most blown away by the murals that decorated the perimeter and temple walls. They were so well preserved and detailed. Even though they covered a vast amount of real estate, each and every one told a different story. The Palace was neat, though a good portion of it was blocked off for a memorial service for the queen mother.
We briefly stopped into a museum on the history of Thai textile and dress before heading to our next stop, Wat Pho. Famous for its 46-meter Reclining Buddha and traditional Thai massage school, we learned a lot about the philosophies that support traditional Thai wellness. We made the mistake of doing these visits in the middle of the day, which we knew would be a problem with the heat but we only had so much time, and after this second stop, we began to fade. We crossed the street towards the docks where we grabbed a quick lunch and smoothie before boarding a little river boat to our final sight, Wat Arun. We didn't even make it inside the grounds. Once we crossed the river we figured that was good enough, and concluded our day of sightseeing. I think having a drink across the way at a place like Eagle Nest Rooftop Bar at night when Wat Arun is all lit up would have been the best way to experience it.
Final Wanderings
That evening we checked out the famous Chatuchak Weekend market. We were not expecting much considering it was not the weekend, but when we arrived the only open stands were a couple of shops selling potted plants. Still, it was neat to see and we could easily imagine just how wild that place must be in its full weekend glory. Across the street was another cool vintage mall called Bang Sue Junction. For dinner we ventured out to one more well known street– Ram Buttri Alley. It was a pretty typical Bangkok alley. We had a great dinner and did some last minute street shopping. I finally replaced my Nepal speed sunglasses with a pair of canal street Raybans. We also had custom passport holders made for a couple of dollars.
Generally, we thought Bangkok was really cool. It is such a big city and while some areas are certainly dense and chaotic, it's also still very spread out. There is a great diversity of personalities across the city's various neighborhoods and sectors. The city doesn't seem to choose between grit and luxury. One block is counterfeit Ray-Bans, tuktuks, and grilled scorpions. The next is Louis Vuitton, Michelin-worthy food, and immaculate malls. And everything in between was super affordable but still offered great quality. It was a pretty typical, touristy few days, but we enjoyed every aspect.
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