The View Down Under: Round the world Trip: Thailand- Bangkok

The Philippines was such a unique experience for us that I knew straight away it was going to be tough to beat. However, after all the reviews about Thailand we were really excited for weeks 3 thru 4 and country number 2 of our trip.

Our trip to Thailand was essentially 3 parts. First, Bangkok Second, Chiang Mai and Third, Krabi. With this strategy we were going to see and experience all the different teraine of Thailand: City, Mountains and Beach.

Bangkok

A good piece of advice: Before any international trip definitely be sure to check all national holidays. We arrived in Bangkok fairly late in the evening and were quickly informed by our taxi driver that we arrived just in time for the Thai New Year festival of Songkran. It was good luck, he told us. Many know this holiday as the Water Festival and we quickly found out why. The next three days most businesses were closed but people of all ages flooded the streets with super soaker guns and buckets of water, drenching any and all passersby. At first we were pretty entertained by this but after the first day of walking the city and getting wet we were ready for the water festival to end. And we were ready for half the city to reopen.

Bangkok is a bustling city with lots to see. Our days consisted of Thai massages, visiting palaces and Wats, also known as temples, and doing lots of walking. We visited The Jim Thompson House, which was very interesting. Jim Thompson was an American in Thailand and while there fell in love with the country which led him to eventually move there and create the well known Thai silk industry that still exists today. The interesting part to all this is that Jim Thompson disappeared one day never to return. His disappearance is still a mystery today.

Through our hotel, we scheduled a tour guide to take us around to the main tourist spots of Bangkok. We saw the famous Grand Palace and -- even with thousands of other tourists -- it is still a sight be see. We also visited a temple called Sukothai Traimit which also has an interesting history. One thing you will see a lot of in Thailand is Buddha and Gold! Prepare yourself!

We also got to see visit Wat Pho, which is one of the largest and oldest reclining Buddhas in Bangkok. It it also home to over 1000 Buddha images. Here are just a few to give you an idea.

During out time in Bangkok we designated one whole day to travel away to the ancient royal city of Ayuthya, which at one point was believed to have been the biggest city in the world. Originally, we intended to take a cab to the train station and the train for an hour to the Ancient City. Our plan was pleasantly interrupted when the driver offered to be our “driver” for the entire day for a flat rate. We quickly did the math and thought YES. So off we went private cab driver in hand. Our driver chauffeured us around the entire day through Ayuthya where we saw the Bang Pa-In Palace and tons of ruined temples. As well as locating us some decent cheap Thai food for lunch he also helped us to end the day with a couple of Thai massages. (Our massages were usually priced around $5 for and hour and these were $25 so we obviously got caught in a tourist trap).

Our days in Bangkok were pretty busy but we always seemed to manage to end the day with a nice dip in the hotel pool. It was a great habit since it was pretty hot and humid during the days.

With 4 days of Bangkok now behind us we were very ready to head up north to the mountainous area of Chiang Mai.