Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, is a vibrant urbanized city located in the delta of the Chao Phraya River. This city is BIG! Like over 10 million people big. But don’t let this bustling city fool you, it is also rich with tradition and culture. Originally we had a scheduled layover in Thailand on our trip from Australia to Portugal. Wanting to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the city we added a few nights to the trip.
Because we are traveling with extra suitcases ( our scuba dive gear) we have started booking a driver to pick us up when we land. With 4 large suitcases and 2 carryons we can’t take the chance on not having a car that will fit everything. It also makes things a lot less stressful, especially after a long flight. Once we landed in Bangkok, our driver was there to meet us and getting through security was a breeze. And boy am I glad we had a driver because the traffic in Bangkok is no joke! Also, if you plan on visiting Bangkok we would recommend downloading the Grab App (this is the same app we used in Bali). It is similar to Uber but worked well for us while we were visiting the city.
Where we stayed
We stayed at the Sukhothai Hotel which is a luxury hotel in the heart of Bangkok. The hotel is named after Sukhothai, a town and historical capital of a former kingdom of north-central Thailand. This place was georgeous!
The first night we ventured out on foot and found a great hotel rooftop bar within walking distance. We couldn’t have picked a better way to start our stay in Bangkok!
Full Day Tour of Bangkok
The first day we booked a full day tour of Bangkok with a private guide. He picked us up from our hotel with a driver and the first stop was to visit the flower market. I had no idea how big the flower business was until we entered this market. We got to tour the entire market and even got to make my own flower bracelet.
Next stop was the Grand Palace. We knew you had to wear long pants but Pete wanted to wear shorts the remainder of the day so we had already planned for him to buy some elephant pants when we arrived to the temple. They are cheap and we thought it would be a fun souvenir.
The Grand Palace compound is massive and is in the heart of Bangkok and dates back to 1782. At one time this was the official residence of the king but now is only used for ceremonial purposes. I can’t even begin to explain how massive this compound was.
We visited other temples as well. We saw the Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple). We also visited the Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Ratchaworamahawihan (Wat Pho). Wat Arun Ratchawararam (Temple of Dawn), and the Traimit Withayaram Worawihan. Honestly it was reallly hard to keep track of all the names but I just know we got to see some amazing places. We saw the Golden Buddha, the Reclining Buddha, and our guide was very informative and throughout the day we learned so much history about the different kings and the background on every temple we visited.
The fun part about our day with him is that, because we had a separate driver, we started the day in a vehicle, we took a boat through the canals to see the other temples and the car picked us up later in the day.
We also learned a lot about the canals through the city. The canals became the major form of transportation in the 19th century. Many of them are still being used today and when you travel on them there are even street signs. As Bangkok became more urbanized, some of the canals have been filled. Even the street our hotel was on was once a canal.
Bangkok Street Food Tour
The second day we had a Bangkok Street Food Tour. We met our guide in the afternoon and visited two separate street food markets and even took a TUKTUK for part of the tour. You definitely want a guide for this because there is no health department monitoring this street food situation. And while our guide seemed to steer us in the right direction, I was not feeling my chipper self by the end of the day. So even if you don’t want to eat the food, i would still recommend going to check out these street food markets! And disclaimer, Pete ate the same thing I did but he must have a stomach of steel.
The Bangkok Markets
The last day we called our driver from day one back and he gave us a half day tour of the famous Train Market and Floating Markets. I have read where some people have been scammed and had difficulty getting to these markets so you want to definitely plan ahead. These markets are only active in the morning and you want to make sure you book with reputable guides. To get to these markets you will need to leave Bangkok as early at 6:30 in the morning!
Our first stop Maeklong Railway Market is a traditional Thai market located about a hour southwest of Bangkok. While it may seem like somewhat of a tourist attraction, this market which has been around since the early 1900’s is still a thriving market and the livelihood of the locals that live there. What makes the market unique is that it is setup along a train track. A few times a day, a train runs directly through the market. I was amazed at how fast the vendors move out of the way for the train and then set their shop back up after it passes.
The next stop was the Floating Market. This was such a fun experience. They actually have food vendors cooking and selling food directly from their boats, similar to a food truck park but just on the water. It took about another 30 minutes to get out to this market but it was definitely worth it. We spent about 45 minutes floating through the canals and checking out alll the vendors, we even had lunch while we were there. Oh, and got to hold a python. One thing to note, most of the boats are manually paddled through the canals here at the floating market. There are some that are mechanical but what I found is that many of these boats come in from outside of town. Some people had over a 30 minute boat ride just to get to the market. So I would suggest making sure your driver is taking you all the way to the market.
We had another full day but our flight was in the evening so we used the day to just relax at our hotel and get packed up for our overnight trip to Portugal.
The Modern Nomads 
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