Day 2: Big airport, small neighbourhood

Only writing this 5 days later, I can totally remember everything...wait no I can’t...frantically scrolls through camera roll to see what I did in my jetlagged state…

My second plane, from Dubai to Bangkok, was remarkably better than my first. To be honest, the plane could do no wrong as it was an Airbus 380, and my inner six year old was excited to be on a double-decker plane. They also served Japanese for breakfast (unsure why...but I’m not complaining) and ice cream during the night. Miraculously, I slept for much of the flight, and felt fairly functioning for the rest of the day.

We landed in Bangkok at midday, and after navigating the huge Suvarnabhumi International Airport (where distances are measured in hundreds of metres, and sometimes kilometres), I walked through immigration and baggage reclaim in less than 10 minutes.

The travelators in Suvarnabhumi go on to eternity.

In the midst of forcing my travel bag into my big rucksack, I spotted these chaps dozing in the middle of the airport.

Actually looks like quite a nice place to nap.

Once I’d sourced a local SIM card, and an iced coffee, I grabbed the Airport link into the city, and then the BTS Skytrain to my guesthouse. Even if my guesthouse wasn’t located near a skytrain station, I would still have used it, as you can see so much 30ft above the ground, and you appreciate the sights that much more whilst sitting in powerful Aircon.

By the time I’d travelled across the huge spread out city, checked in, and made dinner plans with some dormmates, there was too little time to see any major sights, so I was content to just explore a few of the local backlanes of Bangrak (the suburb where I stayed). Whilst rambling, I stumbled upon a crumbling colonial-era customs house by the river. Cue the insta-photos:

The crumbling customs house wouldn't be complete without a cafe.

The best abandoned houses come with off-street parking.

This wooden mosque was also really beautiful. And all of this was less than 200 metres from my hostel, tucked away down backlanes. Bangrak has a slightly sleepy, dilapidated charm to it that was a perfect contrast to the crazy city around it.

The wooden mosque behind the hostel.

In the evening, a group of five of us from the dorm headed out to Bangkok’s Chinatown to eat. I don’t believe it is an area particularly famed for its street food, and certainly I’ve had better meals sat on a plastic stool underneath a BTS station, but the whole area around Thanon Yaowarat (the main thoroughfare in the enclave) had a carnival vibe with street stalls cluttering the streets and people thronging the back alleys talking around great mouthfuls of prawn and squid.

Street Carnival in Thanon Yaowarat, Bangkok

We all eventually settled got hassled into sitting at a seafood stall just off the main street, much to the disgust of several of us who didn’t want seafood. I chose Squid with Oyster Sauce with Morning Glory (a local cabbage-like vegetable), and after some initial problems with the server confusing chicken and squid (an easy mistake to make), it was all delicious. Chinatown is famous for its seafood, and it was a very good choice, though I found my tentacles a little too salty for my liking….there’s an innuendo there somewhere, you can make the leap yourself.

The delicious squid that turned out to be Philip's 'chicken'.

The group I had found in my dorm were a slightly odd bunch. There was me, the Brit; Erlend (‘Alan’) the Norwegian; Philip the Dutch guy; Merle (‘Helen’) the German; and Sasquatch the Finnish guy (no-one could remember his name, so this became his nickname). A really odd group, but great company. However, no matter how great the company, it couldn’t compete with my building exhaustion as a result of not really sleeping for almost 40 hours, and so we soon headed back to the hostel, and I crashed out, in my clothes, on top of all my cables and clothes I’d strewn across my bunk. I was a long few days...

Tomorrow the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha, and Wat Pho. :D

DSP