We knew Bali would be a tough weekend to follow, so we headed to Bangkok that Friday! The direct flights from Manila made it an easy destination for us, and we stayed at a great SPG property, Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit. Since we’ve racked up so many points, they upgraded us to a top floor suite that was HUGE!! Complete with a marble entryway, two bathrooms, a sitting room, a massive bedroom and a 5-star bathroom (with a TV in the mirror!), this suite took the cake. My photos don’t do it justice, so I’ll only share our bedroom and the morning view.
On Saturday morning, we took our breakfast in the garden by the pool and mapped out our day. Rather than book a tour, we decided to explore Bangkok on our own. Since Ben had visited weeks earlier, we felt pretty comfortable doing this sans-tour guide. (Also… we do A LOT of tours. It’s good to change things up sometimes!)
We caught the Sky Train from our hotel down to the riverfront. I have never seen such clean and efficient public transportation! MARTA, you could learn a lot…
From the port, we hired a boat to take us up the river to the Grand Palace. The water looked pretty murky, with some greenery floating around in it. However, it felt so nice to be on the water on such a hot day!
When we got off the boat, we walked to our destinations: the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho). Here’s where things got weird! Thankfully, our friends prepared us for the locals’ behavior, but it was still startling: all the tuk-tuk drivers and street vendors stopped us to tell us that the Grand Palace and temples were closed and that we were dressed inappropriately for our visit. The tuk-tuk drivers do this so that you’ll catch a ride with them to other locations, and the vendors do it so you’ll buy clothes. If we didn’t know better, we might have turned back; but we marched on in the heat.
From the moment we entered the Wat Pho complex, the details of the architecture overwhelmed us! No aspect was overlooked; every single tiny inch contained intricate beauty.
We quickly made our way in to see the famous reclining Buddha, which is 46 meters long. It’s one of the largest Buddha statues in Thailand. Frankly, we couldn’t believe how large it was, and we struggled to capture the entire statue in one photo!
We continued exploring the grounds, mesmerized by the brilliant gold and the insane tile work. The spires are call stupas, and there are over 90 inside the complex!
Meadows and I could hardly believe that the temple wasn’t more crowded. We were able to get beautiful photos of the architecture (and some solo pics of each other) without anyone else around! I even captured the monks walking through the complex.
This phenomenon was short-lived. We walked from Wat Pho to the Grand Palace, and crowds engulfed us. And yes, this meant a lot of umbrellas protecting visitors from the sun.
Knowing that the crowds were crazy, we walked very deliberately to Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The building itself sparkled with gold and colorful tiles!
Now, you’re not supposed to take photos inside the temple. But I couldn’t resist. The Buddha cut out of a single piece of jade and the incredible décor around it (like the painting on the wall!) captivated me and I had to document it.
Meadows left feeling pretty excited about the emerald Buddha. Or maybe he was just digging his gray canvas rental pants (no shorts in the palace!).
The Grand Palace houses so much more than just Wat Phra Kaew. We fought through the crowds to see the other buildings. One of them contained the most amazing paintings all down the wall.
The gates to the palace might have been my favorite part.
We walked around for quite a while (and took some more selfies) before beginning our departure.
The original construction of the palace began in 1782. Despite the fact that the current monarch does not live there, the Grand Palace continues to be used for official events.
Hot and exhausted after a full day of touring, Meadows and I boated and skytrained back to our hotel. We cooled down and showered up for a super fun evening – late night tuk-tuk food tour!
If you visit Bangkok, I highly recommend Bangkok Food Tours – we had the best time! We met up with our group at 8pm and introduced ourselves. Two Americans from Denver, a German guy about our age and our tour guide (a cute Thai girl named Sunny) accompanied us. We loved that we had such a small group. Like that, we were off!
Our first stop was to a Northern Thai restaurant. We had a spicy soup, some delicious pork, a whole fish, and a duck dish. Meadows and I loved everything, but we annihilated the pork. I had to remind myself that we had lots more food on the way!
The tuk-tuk zoomed off to our second stop, a true hole-in-the-wall. We got to go out back to the “kitchen,” which was really just some folding tables set up behind the restaurant! They perfectly fry the fat noodles and cook the egg. SO YUMMY!
Side note: I loved our tuk-tuk, decked out with neon lights and pink and blue striped seats. With our three tuk-tuks rolling through town together, we were like a little gang!
Before eating more food, we stopped at the Bangkok Flower Market. It’s the fourth largest flower market in the world, and third largest for orchids.
Sunny walked us down the street to a fruit stand. Here, she taught us about the local fruits. We don’t have any of these in America! They were so juicy and tropical tasting.
We loaded back up in the tuk-tuks and headed back to Wat Pho. The opportunity to see the temple at twilight was incredible. I will never forget it! The way the light hits the stupas and the ornate buildings made for beautiful photos.
From the temple, we rode to a secret location. When we arrived, we went up four or five flights of stairs and found ourselves on a rooftop bar. But not just any rooftop bar! It overlooked Wat Arun, the Temple of the Rising Sun. Unfortunately, the temple is undergoing maintenance, so the scaffolding inhibited our view.
So I went to the back of the bar and documented Wat Pho from above!
As the clock approached midnight, our tuk-tuks drove us to our final stop. Time for pad thai! Sunny explained that 1938, the head of Thailand (Siam at the time) sought to create a national dish. Pad thai encouraged the purchase of the country’s major export, rice; and it promoted nationalism by providing an alternative to Chinese rice dishes. The rest is history!
I entirely forgot about all the other food we had eaten as I watched the cooks prepare the pad thai. Many food critics have deemed this restaurant the best pad thai in Thailand …which also must mean in the world, right?! It lived up to the hype, and more!
The egg casing around the noodle was perfection. The shrimp and tofu were phenomenal. I added chilis and squeezed a fresh lime on it. O-M-G. All I have to say is: no pad thai left behind. I’m still dreaming about it.
As if the pad thai wasn’t enough, Sunny introduced us to these great desserts. It was like a warm, sweet taco.
Very full and extremely happy, Meadows and I took our final tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel.
We enjoyed another breakfast by the pool before making our way back to Manila. Until next time, Bangkok!
Wow–pictures and narration!!!
Hugs to you both!
Becky
This gets more exciting with every post. And I get hungry every time I read one of these notes. Glad everything has gone so well on the last several trips, and that you and Meadows are enjoying these places safely. Much love to both of you. Dad