Hello, welcome to my five part series where I tell you all about my solo travel experiences in South East Asia, starting with the first city I went to: Bangkok, Thailand!!
Bangkok
I'm not really sure if I have a favorite place, because every single city I visited was unique in its own way and offered different things, however if I had to pick, it would probably be Bangkok. It could have been my favorite just because I had the most energy and I was the most excited because it was my first stop on the trip, or because my friend Pann (who I met in Japan) lives there and I got a tour from a local and met his friends, or maybe it was because I made so many amazing friends at my hostel. Regardless of the reason, Bangkok will always have a special place in my heart.
My first night:
When I first landed in Bangkok, it was a bit of a culture shock. After coming from the order and predictability of Japan, landing in the chaotic and loud city of Bangkok was a bit overwhelming. I was filled with so many emotions on the bus ride to my hostel as I took in the city around me. I was so proud of myself for deciding to do this trip by myself, grateful of the opprotunity, and just so happy I had finally made it to the trip that I had saved money for two years for.
My hostel was a party hostel. It was called Mad Monkey, and was probably 70% men. I stayed in all female rooms for sleeping in all of the hostels I stayed in, and I'm very grateful I paid a couple extra dollars for those accomodations at each of my hostels. The first night I didn't have any roommates so after showering and hyping myself up, I decided to walk downstairs and try and make friends, because there was a trivia night organized by the hostel happening that night.
When I first walked downstairs, one of the hostel workers was standing on top of the bar screaming everyone take a shot and it was a group of around 30 young men all shouting and music blasting. I immediately lost all confidence and went right back up to my room. I called one of my best friends and told her to hype me up and tell me I was an extrovert. After taking a bit of time, I went back downstairs and it was a bit calmer and I joined a group of Swedish girls doing the trivia. I made some friends that night, but went to bed early because I was meeting my friend Pann early in the morning for a city tour.
First Full Day with my Thai friend!
Pann had a jam packed itinerary which started at 8:30am and ended after dinnertime. I met him at a mall and then we went to meet his friends at his University, which is the #1University in Thailand, and located in the center of Bangkok!
After getting a tour of his university and meeting his friends we took the metro to the Big Bhudda Temple, which is a famous temple in Chinatown.
We were all feeling kind of hungry after that so we went to a local market and walked around, and then got some lunch. I got some soup with fish balls, chicken, noodles, and some other things that I do not know inside of it but it was delicious so I didn't care.
After that we went to a mall (or two or three) I'm not really sure. They all connect on the inside and are like endless mazes with an infinite amount of things to do. Bangkok is very polluted in the winter, hot in the summer, and rainy in the rainy season, so outside activities can be hard to organize sometimes for locals. Malls are the main 3rd place (or place outside of school/work or home), where Thai locals go to hang out. They aren't like malls in the U.S. or any country I've every been to, and they are also EVERYWHERE. We went to a mall with an art installation inside of it and then walked around a recreation of the floating markets (a famous town located 2 hours away from Bangkok) in another mall's basement.
After going to the malls, we rode on a ferry and went to a famous temple called Wat Arun. I think it was my favorite temple in the entire trip. After we saw the temple we went across the river again and took some photos of the temple with the sun setting in the distance.
After we saw Wat Arun we went to get dinner in a place in Chinatown.
Next Day
The next day I went to a floating market about a 30 minute uber drive away from the hostel, with 4 other people I met the night before at my hostel. I made friends with Michelle, a Irish primary school teacher, Alex, Canadian psychology student, "The Captain" (He told us his name and we all forgot and called him the Captain instead) Turkish captain of a ship, and Junias, a German who just graduated high school.
Here are some photos of the floating market:
After hanging out with Pann I met back up with some friends from the hostel and we went to a local bar. There was karaoke and we played Uno!
Next Day
The next day I hung out with my friend Alex, we walked around a market, got Thai Massages (which were wonderful), and had a generally lazy day. For dinner we met up with our other friend "The Captain" in China Town. We explored the area after we ate and then went to a pub crawl with the rest of our hostel when we got back.
The next day I flew to Siem Reap Cambodia, which I will talk about in the next blog!
