I went to Bangkok with the girls last year, but just got the chance to post the story now (ah yes, very very late indeed).

Anyway, Í’d like to share because it was really fun! The trip had been planned few months before because we booked on Air Asia promo flight

We were staying at Bangkok from 19 – 23 May 2009. We arrived at night and checked in at Suk 11 hostel at 1/13 Sukhumvit 11. The hostel was nice, affordable and most importantly, it was clean.  The hotel location was walking distance from the Skytrain (BTS) station, the nearest one is Nana station. Four of us staying at family room which is quite large.

Arrived at Bangkok and checked in at Suk 11. The hostel has traditional style and dominated by wood.

This is the room where we were staying (family room type) -  1 double and 3 single beds

The next day, our first destination was to explore all the temples in Bangkok. We traveled by BTS to the boat station then continue by the long-tail boat to the Grand Palace. I think this would be the easiest way if you want to see the temples, because the temples were located along the Chao Phraya River and boat/ferries can be used to cross the river at various points.

The long-tail boat or locally called as hang yao. You don’t have to buy admission ticket (like a package ticket, some local people will offer this to you) instead you can treat it like bus (you pay based on your pier destination)

It wasn’t hard to travel in Bangkok compared to Jakarta. I found it much more convenient and organized. It didn’t take long until we arrived at the pier to the Grand Palace. We need to walked only few minutes to reach the Grand Palace gate. Please bare in mind Grand Palace is a huge temples area, so you need to wear comfortable clothes and shoes. Consider bringing hat as well to protect your head from the heat. You better go early because it opens from 8:30 to 3:30, daily and do dress properly (covered shoulders, no bare legs, shoulders or feet – both men & women). They checked you at the entrance and will deny entry. There was a place near the entrance you can borrow (I think around 200 baht deposit) proper clothing (similar to some places in Bali).

View not far from the entrance gate. The temples are really beautiful. You’ll see gold everywhere. We took so much photos at Grand Palace

You can see many temples in Grand Palace, and then you can also travel by long-tail boat the the surrounding temples such as Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) or the famous Wat Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha). This is must-visited spot in Bangkok, especially for the first time trip.

Wat Pho (Temple of Reclining Buddha)

Done with the temples, we went to Khao San Road. This Road is famous as a  backpacker area, so you can see many tourist here. There are lots of hostel and restaurants. We just had drinks and chat for a while here and then continued our journey to the Suan Lum Night Market.

Khao San Road – a small road located about a block from the Chao Phraya River. Known as famous “backpacker ghetto”. Khao San Road is Bangkok’s main backpacker guesthouse centre and you can find  plenty of shops and diverse food selections

Suan Lum Night Bazaar. We had dinner here and of course did some shopping! It sells gifts, clothing, jewelery, hand-made products like tapestries and fine arts, such as paintings and sculptures. Price are negotiable.

So that’s it for the first day! So happy and tired.

Next day, we woke up early, quickly had breakfast at hostel then off to Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall.  It was a museum and the building in Italian Renaissance and Neo Classic style. The building itself is really cool but no picture are allowed inside. Inside the museum you can see scluptures and I think some jewelry collections. It was not so interesting to me so I didn’t remember it well.

Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. No pictures are allowed inside.

To my suprise, Ananta Samakhon Throne Hall is not the only museum in the complex. It is actually a wide area where you can see other museums. We visited Vimanmek Palace which is much more memorable for me. Visitors divided into groups and the tour guide explained the history of each area of the palace. The palace is pretty and each area has different colors such as pink, blue, green etc.  The rooms are so beautiful, with all the details inside such as cups, tables, bed, carpet and so on. Well, no picture allowed as well however.

After palace, we went to Baiyoke Sky Hotel, which was said as the tallest building in Bangkok.  You need to pay certain amount of baht (not remember) and then you can go to the upper building by direct lift (it made me shiver). We were having drinks there and taking pictures from the rooftop where we can see all the Bangkok city landscape.

Baiyoke Sky Hotel. See Bangkok landscape from the tallest building in town.

After Baiyoke, we decided to go back to the hotel because we planned to watch Cabaret show at night. Looking for Cabaret ticket is easy,  just go the travel, they usually sell it or alternatively you can buy directly on the venue. There are few Cabaret shows you can pick, the one that I saw, which is great is Calypso Cabaret. The performers are pretty (yes they are all male) and the show was great!

With one of the Cabaret performers at Calypso Cabaret Show

We ended the day by having dinner at Banyan Tree Rooftop. This is a place for roof-top fine dining.  The view was magnificent. There’s also a bar where you can spend the whole night long.  Very very recommended!

The Banyan Tree Roof-top bar. The view was magnificent from up here. Perfect to spend the whole night long

Us at The Banyan Tree Roof-Top

So that’s all for the second day!

The next day was the whole day of a shopping day. Platinum is a must-visit shopping place for every woman. The price is cheap and the clothes are nice. We also went to Siam Paragon, having waffle there after shopping. Done with all the shopping we went back to the hotel and went out for dinner. Curious of Pat Pong area, we went there – walk once into the street, buying Thai Ice Tea on the mini market in the neighbourhood then left because we afraid of some guys inviting us to the show.

On the last day, we went to Chatu Chak until noon because we need to be in the airport around 5pm. You can find almost everything in here, I bought foods, old bands T-shirts, leather shoes,  gift for people at home. The market is so big but divided into sections (food, clothes, gift etc).  It’s nice eventhough the weather was so hot that I got dizzy.

Some antiques at Chatu Chak market. Wear your most comfortable clothes and shoes.

So I think that’s all for our trip to Bangkok!
It was fun and great. I saw new things and beautiful places.

Can’t wait for my next trip exploring new areas!