Our time in Bangkok was fairly low-key but it was nice to take a breather from the constant excitement we had in Chiang Mai. To be honest, we had heard from many travelers that Bangkok was simply a big city and wasn’t anything too special. That being said, we set the bar very low… and we were pleasantly surprised!

Wandering the colorful streets of Bangkok:

To get to Bangkok, we took an eight-hour train ride from Chiang Mai. The air conditioning was sub-par and the food served was hardly edible so we spent most of the ride reading, sleeping, and taking in the sights of the Thailand countryside (which honestly all look the same after 8 hours). Before we knew it, we arrived in Bangkok. Unbeknownst to us, we arrived on their “labor day” which meant that finding dinner food was more of a challenge than expected because everywhere was closed!

So after checking into our hostel, and meeting a kid named Eric from Montreal, the three of us wandered around in search of food. We ended up at this super tiny Indian food spot, located in an alley…off of another alley. It was truly off the beaten path, but the food… absolutely DELICIOUS (we ended up eating there two nights in a row).

The ambiance may have been similar to a dungeon, but it was the best Indian food we’ve had:

Our walk back to the hostel was also very interesting because we were staying in a part of town know as the flower district. On top of that, the new king’s coronation was in just a few days, so the flower district was QUITE the place to see. Flower shops lined the streets as far as you could see and hundreds of people were lugging giant baskets of flowers around. It certainly wasn’t a huge tourist neighborhood, and that’s why we liked it.

The entire neighborhood looked and smelled amazing (minus the random piles of trash or the occasional smell of urine):

We stayed in Bangkok for two days and most of the time was spent either in the sanctuary of an air conditioned restaurant or a coffee shop because again, the temperatures were in the triple digits and aimlessly walking around was out of the question. But honestly, spending the day reading in a coffee shop is one of our favorite things to do back home anyway, so it was great to just chill out for once instead of running around.

Since Bangkok is on a river, we decided to pay $6 and take the ferry through the city to see it from the water. Plus, our tickets allowed us to hop on and off whenever we wanted to, which was a great way to explore. The first place we checked out was a Buddhist temple named “Wat Arun” (short for Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan). It pretty much looked like the candy land board game but in real life. We also went there at sunset which made the colors of the temples even more amazing.

Our second night, we planned to go out to dinner then head to bed early before our flight to Vietnam the next day. Funny thing about us planning to go to bed early… it almost never happens because we end up meeting a new friend, which is precisely how our night went! We were walking back to our hotel and wanted to grab a few beers. Instead of going to 7/11, we opted to support a local business instead. So we stopped at this tiny little hole in the wall of a restaurant that sold beer and was only occupied by other Thai people.

We got some beers (and a few interested stares from the other patrons). Hardly five minutes later, a young Thai kid about our age came over to our table and in broken English started to ask where we were from and if he could join us. We said of course, and before long, we were a few bottles of beer deep with our new best friend, Jock.

The coolest part about the experience was the fact that we couldn’t speak a lick of Thai and Jock couldn’t speak any English. So our entire conversation consisted of us taking turns talking into his phone on google translate. Needless to say, there were certainly still some translation issues, even with google, but it was such a great experience. We now have a new friend in Thailand!

Cheers to google translate for helping to create this wonderful cross-cultural friendship:

Jock’s reaction when we told him he was our favorite Thai person:

The pinky promise to solidify that we will be best friends forever:

The next morning, we took a cab to the airport and hopped our flight over to Vietnam. It was sad to say goodbye to Thailand after such a jam-packed two weeks but we will always remember our time here, and the delicious food (even if we couldn’t read what anything on the menu meant sometimes).

A prime example of us not being able to read anything on the menu, so instead just writing “pad thai” on a notepad and hoping for the best:

Now we are on to Vietnam!

Until next time, love T&T