Bangkok, Thailand

I think I might possibly be the worst blogger ever. This post is a thousand years overdue, partially my fault for being too lazy to write but also I didn't have a laptop like I was supposed to... I'll get to that in a second. I wanted to write about my experiences and people I've met while traveling for everyone at home to read about but if anyone is interested; I was thinking about writing a post after this trip with tips and suggestions about backpacking SE Asia from my point of view. Before this trip I tried to do some research and I could never tell if the sources/blogs where targeted towards people my age, with the same interests, and expectations as me. There were a lot of contradicting pieces of advice I found on the internet and I would love to share mine and Harrison's point of view on certain topics if anyone would like to hear it! Let me know if you would find that sort of post interesting or helpful. If not I don't wanna waste time writing it haha. I think since we've done soooo much since the start of the trip I'll post based on each city so that they can be quick reads, and I'll post really frequently now! Let's take this all the way back to the beginning of the trip...

April 30th:

I arrived in Bangkok around 7pm after a quick 10-hour plane ride from Sydney. After getting lost in airport, I found my way through customs I figured out how to buy a train ticket, took it to the city where I got off at the last stop, and started walking the streets to find a cab. I'm not sure why Harrison & I hadn't picked a hostel before arriving to Bangkok cause now I was alone, headed nowhere in a country I wasn't familiar with, and in the middle of the city without cell service. A local on the train suggested I go where all the tourists are “Khao San Road”.

Khao San Road in the Evening

I was in panic mode and I totally got ripped off for a Tuk Tuk ride because I just wanted to get to Khao San Road ASAP and accepted the first price they offered me. When I got to Khao San Road I walked up and down the strip overwhelmed by the lights, noise, music, crowds, and the fact that I didn’t know where I wanted to go. After 20 minutes of pointlessly walking around. I sat down defeated at an Irish bar to have a “I’m scared and lost” beer. After I ordered they handed me a tiny slip of paper with the WiFi password and I think I just about cried tears of joy. For some reason before this trip began I was convinced that I would be without wifi except for at the hostels, I was wrong. EVERY establishment has wifi and as far as I've seen it's always free. I found a place to stay that was right around the corner from Khao San Road called Tales Khao San, I mainly picked it because I was in no mood to walk very far. It was super nice and reminded me of the inside of an airstream or shipping container, very hip. After I checked in, I asked the front desk where to get some good food and they pointed me down the road that runs parallel to Khao San, on Rambuttri Road for 127baht(~$4.10USD) I got a Big Chang’s and a Pad Thai for dinner.

They had live music and it was nice to just take a moment to take it all in. I hadn't eaten in a long time, I had my lost and scared beer at the Irish pub before, I was sipping on the Changs before my food came and I was already feeling kinda buzzed. I was adjusting to the heat and humidity, and I was unsuccessfully trying to put away all thoughts related to the movie Taken. I thought I was gonna throw up on that table...

Harrison didn’t get to Tales until 1am! And if you don’t already know, his checked bag got lost in transit. All he had on him was a tiny drawstring bag with his laptop, headphones, a book, and the clothes on his back. Apparently it’s not common knowledge so I’m gonna say it here: ALWAYS travel with things you can’t afford to lose (contacts, DSLR cameras, gopros, my brand new MacBook Air that I ordered and had sent to Harry to deliver to me cause it’s way more expensive in Oz than the states), and a change of clothes on your carry on.

We ended up staying at Tales Khao San for way longer than expected because the front desk was being so helpful with calling the Bangkok airport and speaking in Thai to try to find his baggage. The airlines said that it could have been lost during one of his connecting flights either in Chicago or Tokyo. For the next few days, while we anxiously waited for news on the bag, Harrison and I just walked around Bangkok and did all the touristy stuff you’re supposed to do. 

Tried street food:

Tastes like crunchy soy sauce

Took rides on the canals in Bangkok

All the houses looked like they were going to fall into the water at any second

Visited temples, monuments, and palaces.

On top of Golden Mount

OMG, we were blown away by the 360 degree view of Bangkok. It is CRAZY that in every direction you look, skyscrapers, more skyscrapers, and more skyscrapers.

They originally told us that his bag would be delivered to the hostel the day after he arrived, then they said the next day, then the next, and by this point we said f*** it, we can't wait for it anymore. Tales helped us book overnight trains from Bangkok to Chiang Mai which cost about $30USD each. 

On our last night in Bangkok we met a really nice Polish couple (Martyna & Rafel ), they shared their wasabi peas with us and we hit it off and spent the rest of the night with them!

May 3rd:

Our overnight train wasn't leaving till about 6pm so Harry and I decided to nurse our hangovers at the MBK center. In my head I never had any doubts about wanting to do a fish pedicure spa... until we went to this mall. We paid for 15 minutes and I couldn't get the picture of tiny black leeches out of my head and ruined the whole thing. For the 30 seconds that I forced my feet to stay in the water it just felt like when your legs get pins and needles the whole time. If you can look past the leech-look-a-likes I'm sure that it's a great way to get rid of dead skin. I was squealing the whole time, yelling at Harrison to quickly take a picture to prove I did it, and got my feet out as quickly as I could without making more of a scene than I already had. ALSO THIS MALL IS MASSIVE. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even the biggest one in Bangkok but it was 8 levels over 2,000 stores you could spend days in there.

The overnight train was more pleasant than I expected but even with that, I still didn't get great sleep and I was cold AF being on the top bunk next to the AC.

After a long series of unfortunate events, Harrison and I were ready to GTFO of Bangkok. Overall, we think we spent too much time there, 2 days would have been enough. It was amazing to see how big the city was because we had nooo idea how massive it was, and also we learned early in our trip that you can't order VRBs all night because you will be on your death bed the next day. Asian RedBull is basically like crack compared to the RedBull we have at home.

Next Stop: Chiang Mai