Bangkok, Thailand: Glittering temples, China Town and the world's best pad thai
- Esther
- Dec 12, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2020
I’ll be honest - before we arrived in Bangkok, I wasn’t expecting it to be that nice! But when we actually got here, I was really happy to discover how many amazing things there are to do and see here in Thailand's fast-paced, busy capital.
The last time we were in this city, it was only as a quick stop for the night before we flew down to Phuket and Phi Phi. This time around, we had a few days to properly explore some of Bangkok's best bits - from its ornate temples and colourful markets to the busy streets of China Town.
The Grand Palace and Bangkok's most beautiful temples
At the top of our list of things to see in Bangkok was its famous Grand Palace; a famous complex of jewelled buildings which make up the city's most sacred site.
When we finally made it inside (along with a huge crowd of other tourists!), we found giant golden pagodas, gem-studded walls and smiling statues in the palace's Central Court.
After we'd spent a couple of hours exploring the palace's grounds, we moved on to Wat Pho; a colourful and mosaic-covered temple complex nearby.
Inside Wat Pho, the gigantic (46km long!) Reclining Buddha was even more impressive - and even bigger - than it had looked in pictures!
After a really nice lunch at The Sixth restaurant and café, we took a little boat across the water to visit the famous riverside temple Wat Arun - and got there just in time to see the sunset behind it.
Unfortunately, the day before all this, we did fall for the ‘Lucky Buddha’ scam! A man right outside the Grand Palace (who told us he was a monk in training) told us we couldn’t go in because it was a national Buddhist holiday that day, meaning that apparently only Thai people were allowed in. He then had a nearby tuk tuk driver (who he pretended not to know) take us on a stupidly affordable tour of some of Bangkok's smaller attractions before bringing to us to his friend's tailor shop, where we were of course encouraged to spend money on lots of their things. Since then, we’ve known to steer clear of anyone who gets too talkative around touristy landmarks!
Still, the silver lining of being scammed was that the tuk tuk driver ended up dropping us off at Bangkok's famous Golden Mountain Temple, where we got an amazing panoramic view of the city once we'd climbed to the top.
Eating and shopping in Bangkok
We finished off our second day of sightseeing by trying the pad thai from Thipsamai restaurant, which was apparently voted the best pad thai restaurant in the world. Its walls were covered with five star reviews, press clippings and pictures of celebrity visits, but the layout of the restaurant was very simple and humble and the prices were still really cheap.
Afterwards, we went back to our hostel near the busy Khao San road (where every backpacker in Bangkok seems to end up at night) to have some drinks and enjoy the atmosphere.
Another place in Bangkok that I loved exploring at night was its busy China Town, which was bright, crowded and full of street vendors selling a mix of Chinese and Thai food.
Unfortunately, neither Ben or I were brave enough to try any of the insects on sticks that were being sold around there! Instead, we had lots of dim sum, sugar cane juice and noodles - which all tasted amazing.
After we'd done lots of sightseeing in Bangkok, we also had time to get some Christmas shopping done.
We started in the city's enormous Chatuchak Weekend Market (which has over 15,000 stalls inside it!) but also spent ages looking around some of the city’s biggest malls; Iconsiam, MBK and Central World. Inside all of them, there were cinemas, restaurants and literally anything you could be looking to buy - on any kind of budget.
We’ve also booked a trip to Japan (which I'm super excited for) later this month, where it'll probably be freezing cold, so luckily we found some good last-minute Winter clothes deals in Bangkok as well.
We definitely won’t be needing the new coats or jeans for our next destination, though, because we’re currently travelling to Koh Chang island for a few more beachy, sunny days!
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