We were ready for something new after spending a few days, including NYE in Dubai. We took the flight to Bangkok, which kicked off our official start of exploring south-east Asia.
We arrived early and had to spend some time before we were allowed to check in to our Airbnb – so I started right away exploring some cool coffee shops and getting some work done:
The first day
The first day was all about exploring the city. In the early afternoon (after some much-needed sleep), we went to Chinatown to get a first taste of Bangkok and the street food culture.
It’s a fascinating city – you’ll find many indie hackers building their apps and trying to make a living, a phenomenal street food culture, and many contrasts, especially if you get out of the historic city center.
We chose the Metro for transport because it’s cheap and fast. We’ve been pretty tired from shit-chatting with taxi drivers in Dubai, so having decent public transport is a nice breath of fresh air.
Metro
You can’t pay with your credit card to get Metro tickets; it’s either cash or you have a Metro card, but don’t worry, there are ATMs everywhere.
One thing to note is that the transaction fees from these ATMs are ridiculous – so you better make a few significant transactions than get more diminutive amounts.
There are ways to get the fee back, such as claiming the illegal fee with your credit card company, but honestly, I haven’t bothered too much about it.
Wat Arun
We wandered around the city in the evening and explored a little park near the city center.
We also took a longer ride with the Metro to see the Wat Arun Temple at sunset. It’s a fight to get a decent picture because of all the TikTok tourists from China and these weird boats permanently interrupting the view for a quick buck (it’s a tourist attraction).
Second Day
Ancient City
We took a taxi and headed out to the Ancient City of Bangkok – that was the only thing we had planned to do in the first place.
I don’t want to spoil you too much, but it’s worth visiting.
Golf Cart
How about the funniest way to get around the Ancient City? Take the golf cart.
Sure, bicycles are free and probably better for your health, but I couldn’t help myself:
360° video
We also recorded our obligatory 360° video to give you a much better impression of how big this place is, so there you go:
Last Day
On the last day, we decided to relax and went on a short round-trip to the most popular temples in Bangkok.
While impressive, I can’t help but see the massive commercialization of those places. Sure, they need money for maintenance and all the people working there, but at the same time, it does feel pretty optimized to get the most amount of cash out of tourists (Who can blame them!):
Temple Speed Run
I also chose the temple visit to do a little 360-speedrun of the temple area so you get a better idea of how it feels walking around:
Our next destination
That’s a wrap, guys. We are already in Laos (I’m a little late on publishing due to work).
The following post will show you some hidden Southeast Asian gems with fewer tourists and lesser-known areas, so stay tuned!
See ya!
