It's Not Me, It's Bangkok

It isn’t often that I go somewhere and really don’t like it, but it was bound to happen on our Asia adventure. The location happened to be Bangkok where we spent about five days. I had read that it takes several visits here to really get a likening for it, and I can’t say whether that’s true or not. I’d rather not risk it. Anywho, I’ll attempt to not be so negative and point out some of the positives of our time in Bangkok. But who am I kidding, it’ll be mostly negative.

The Transportation

I had the Grab app, similar to Uber, and quickly got a driver when we landed for just under 400 baht (~$12). The taxi service attempted to charge us 850 baht (~$28), and we realized this theme of overcharging tourists was standard across Bangkok. The issue with Grab was that they wouldn’t pick us up most of the time, mainly due to traffic. And there was pretty much traffic all of the time. That’s why it was important that we stayed near a metro station. The metro in Bangkok was surprisingly clean, considering the city is really dirty. It was also really efficient and straightforward to navigate. Though it did tend to be crowded at times, once so much that we waited for the next one. Overall, the metro was absolutely vital for getting around because traffic is unbelievable.

The Hotel

We decided on the Key Premier Sukhumvit Hotel and couldn’t have been happier with the stay. The staff were extremely friendly, there was a rooftop pool and bar, and it was located right by the Nana metro station. The area had a lot of food options near it. Though I will say that Bangkok seemed to have an extremely high number of ladies (and ladyboys) of the night. And Sukhumvit isn’t even the red light district.

Banrak Food Tour

We did a half day Bangkok Food Tour of Bangrak, one of the areas in Bangkok. Though we didn’t like much of the selection, we were happy to find a couple things that we really enjoyed. We sampled some street food including Miang Kham, these delicious leaf snack packets filled with ginger, coconut, lime, shrimp, onion and tamarind sauce. Our middle stop at Yum Rod Sab was the highlight for us. We learned about a new dish of fried chicken with fried lemon grass. It was crispy and different than anything we had had prior to the tour. We also had something similar to Tom Kha Ga, our favorite. Our next stop was a bakery with some oddly stuffed buns (pork floss) and our last stop was at Kalpapruek for green curry (not good) and ice cream (quite good). I’m glad we did this tour but wish it would’ve had some better options.

Floating Markets Tour

For our second day I made the mistake of signing us up for an all day Klook Floating Markets Tour. Although we were happy to see the floating markets, we were disappointed in how absolutely crowded and touristy it was. Our guide was very nice and the $30 tour was essentially to pay for her and the van to each spot. We were supposed to see three markets, but ended up missing out on the train market because of the insane crowdedness. We didn’t mind though, because being on a packed hot train for 15 minutes didn’t sound appealing. Plus we were seriously hungry by 3pm after being told we’d be eating at 1pm. At least the boat rides were fun.

Other Stuff

The rest of our time in Bangkok was spent mostly at the hotel pool. We did venture out for a quick morning at Wat Pho, a crowded but colorful wat along the river. Speaking of the river, it was terribly dirty. There are many fancy hotels along the river, one being the Mandarin Oriental where we spent a solid thirty minutes to cool off. We also walked by the Grand Palace, but decided not to go in due to the crowds and unbearable heat.

More Food

Yes, fine I’ll be positive now. We enjoyed several good meals and happy hours while in Bangkok. The first, and best, was the Dosa King. An all-vegetarian Indian restaurant in Sukhumvit, Dosa King had the best and largest masala dosas we’ve ever had. We went there twice and also dabbled in the samosas and mango lassis. I’m glad we found this spot and it was an easy walk from our hotel.

Bangkok had many more non-Thai options than most places we had been to. Though we did have some really good thai at May Kaidee’s. They also do a cooking class, though we didn’t go that route. We decided on the papaya salad, tom kha soup and red curry. It too is all veggie and we were pretty much veggied out by the time we finished up that meal.

So therefore we were ready for some meat! Down the street from our favorite Dosa King was Firehouse, a burger joint that we desperately needed after all of the vegetarian and Asian food. We felt right at home in the cosy burger joint serving up Thai beef, fries and ice cold beers.

The Drinks

As for happy hour, our hotel was the spot to be. We enjoyed several 2-for-1 specials during our stay, our favorite being the margarita. But we also did venture about a mile away to another rooftop bar, RedSky, for sunset drinks. On the 53rd floor, this spot was much higher than our 7th floor rooftop bar. Unfortunately, our sunset was cloudy and not terribly exciting. Plus the smog. So much smog. Luckily they had 2-for-1 happy hour from 5-6pm, which ended up being about $40 in total.

Sayonara, Bangkok!

Our time in Bangkok, thankfully, came to an end. But not before some farewell traffic and lack of drivers to the airport. Fortunately, we are off to Bali next and I’ve heard great things about Ubud. I’m sure I haven’t given Bangkok a fair shake and there’s certainly more I would enjoy. But for now, I’ll keep it to a “it’s not me, it’s you” and call it a day.