Exploring Asia: Bangkok - Thailand

On Sunday me and Adaora left Taipei heading for Thailand's capital Bangkok. The plane was delayed by almost one hour, and when we finally arrived it was already late.

At first we were a bit sceptical to the place we were staying at: arriving late at night the area seemed kind of suspicious. Not to mention that our hostel, called New Road Guesthouse, was situated in what seemed like a dark back-alley. However, in the morning time on Moday the empty streets had turned into nice food markets, and in the area there was also a lot of small stores and things to see.

Adaora checking out local food at a nearby market.

Our hotel had an infomeeting in the morning, so after getting some tips about the area we headed out by Tuk-tuk (ตุ๊กตุ๊ก), which is a three-wheeled vehicle looking like a motorbike with seats for passengers.

This is an easy and cheap way to travel; tuk-tuks are basically everywhere, and they will NOT hesitate to try to convince you to take a ride with them. However, most of them has so-called "sponsers": souvenir- and tailor-shops gives them free petrol cards if they bring new customers to their store. so don't get confused if you end up in places you originally didn't plan to go.

Me and Adaora also experienced tuk-tuk drivers who did not want to drive us to a tailors store, because I had already already ordered the dress and was going back only for the fittings, which meant that the tuk-tuk driver would not get free patrol cards.. 

And yeah, as previously mentioned I ended up buying a new dress at one of the tailor stores. In addition to being pretty cheap (at least compared to what it would have costed back in Norway) it is an interesting experience as well.

Me being measured at the tailor-store.

After spending most of my dollars buying the dress me and Adaora continued our sightseeing-trip, heading for some of the smaller temples in the area. First stop was Wat Thepthidaram, a small temple in the west-side of the city.

Me and Adaora inside the temple.

 And the temple from the outside.

Wat Benchamabophit

 From the first temple we headed off to see the second for the day: Wat Benchamabophit. This temple was more interesting than the first one, not only because of it size but also because of the surroundings of the temple. Luckily the weather was nice (the only day in Thailand we had good weather), so we went for a stroll in the park there and just chilled out.

 And here are some more pictures of the temple..!

 .. Aaand a little close-up!

 Picture of the temple taken from the other side of a small river in the temple area.

 There were not that many tourists in the area either, so it was so nice and peaceful there.

 After finishing the last temple visit we walked down to Chinatown, which was somewhere between the temples and our hotel.

The gate to Chinatown with a more traditional Thai temple in the background.

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.