48 Hours in Old City Bangkok
The Temple of the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho (Bangkok, Thailand)
Deciding Where to Stay
There are probably as many ways to experience Bangkok as there are travelers, which is why it is one of the most visited cities in the world. It’s got charming hotels, innovative dining, and incredibly maintained historic landmarks. For my first time in the city, and with only a couple of days to dedicate, I decided to stay in old city Bangkok so that I would have immediate access to the historic sites. I know from prior travels that I can sometimes get overwhelmed when I’m in a new place and instantly have to figure out transportation to get anywhere. So it was wonderful to be able to simply walk out the door and come back for a mid-day break.
I also wanted to be outside of the main tourist areas and see where thai people live and work. It’s common in developing countries for there to be a hard distinction between areas for foreigners and areas for locals. Our place was on the west bank of the Chao Praya river area (Thornburi side), down a side street and then another side street, and finally an alley the size of a sidewalk. Our Airbnb, adorably named Baan Tom Yum, was right in a middle of a working class neighborhood. And I must say we were a bit of spectacle there! More than once we saw a female face peering through the back gate to the patio to see the white girls staying on the block, but we didn’t mind and actually enjoyed these little interactions with people.
Because of where we stayed we got to see how they take their trash out and dry their laundry, what their homes look like, and what is in their convenience stores and markets made for locals.
Day 1
We arrived very early in Bangkok and morning rush hour might have contributed to the long-ish taxi ride. When we finally found got to Airbnb, we spent a little time just settling in and decompressing from a LONG 27+ hours of travel. We resisted the urge to nap, and instead made our way to our first temple, which would end up being our favorite, Wat Arun “The Temple of the Dawn”.
The spires were decorated with intricately laid patterns of colored glass and Chinese porcelain and featured warriors and animals ‘holding up’ the structure. We were allowed to walk about halfway up one of them, which gave us some awesome first views of Bangkok!
We made our way inside the hall where a line of people were giving offerings and receiving kwan strings from a monk. I wanted to do it, but I was feeling a bit shy. Then, we got to kneel in front of a beautiful altar of golden Buddha statues and bow for the first time in Thailand! In that moment, I really had the sense of coming full circle since starting my Thai studies almost 6 years prior.
Outside of the temple, there was a concession stand where we grabbed thai milk teas. I wasn’t thinking to ask for coconut milk and only drank about 1/3 of when I realized it was probably regular milk in there, which I can’t have. This was the first of MANY thai milk teas and boba drinks.
We continued to walk around the campus and I loved the topiaries and massive statues of Chinese warriors.
Just down the street was the Wang Lang Market and as we walked through, we were once again the only white girls in sight. We realized very quickly that the food at this market was not for our sensitive western digestive systems, but we were happy to observe and watch people leaving with with bagged up soups and even caged birds.