8th Week: Weekend in Bangkok

Sawadii ka, everyone!

My 8th weekend was spent in Bangkok. On our first weekend there we were staying near Khaosan Road, the great palace, the river and all those touristy places. This time we were staying near Lumphini park, since we wanted to see monitor lizards, go to a skybar and a pool party, which both were part of hotels near Lumphini park as well. We stayed at "The Cube Hostel" which was really really nice and I'd recommend it, if you ever plan on visiting that part of Bangkok as well. This weekend turned out to be one of the best experiences here, so far, since we had just so much fun the whole time. 

Friday 

We left at 1 o'clock on Friday, right after sports coaching. We took a minivan from Singburi bus station to Mo Chit, the main bus station in Bangkok. There we had to wait in a queue for a taxi and when it was finally our turn to get into one, we weren't that lucky. Our taxi driver knew no English at all and obviously didn't understand where we wanted to go, even though we showed him the address in Thai aswell.

Instead of trying to guide him directly to our hostel, we said he should just bring us to Lumphini park since that was near our hostel. Apparently he didn't know this major landmark of Bangkok and we had to find someone who could translate to him where we wanted to go. Thankfully a thai women could explain everything to him and we could finally start driving. 

I don't even know if you could call that driving since there was so much traffic again that we barely even drove. After one and a half hours (usually it wouldn't even take 30 minutes) we finally arrived near Lumphini park ,so we got out of the taxi and tried to find our hostel via Google maps.

It was about 5 minutes away from Lumphini park and, at first glance, looked amazing. It was really modern, had a great lobby and a nice receptionist. We checked in at about 5 o'clock and went to our rooms to relax a bit before going to Khaosan road.

At 6:30pm we decided to leave the hostel and look for a taxi or a tuk tuk which could bring us to the mentioned road. This turned out to be quite a difficult task since there were no tuk tuks at all and the taxis wouldn't take us due to traffic. We finally could get a tuk tuk to come to the side of the road and took it. The drive to Khaosan road was pretty fast, even though the traffic was so bad that day, but tuk tuks fit between the cars most of the time and could overtake them easily.

At Khaosan road we went straight to a little side road where there were lots of little shops. The main reason, why we went to Khaosan road again, was that I still needed to buy lots of souvenirs for my friends an family and remembered that this side road was the perfect place for that. 

In between all that shopping we also got some really cheap but really good spring rolls and I bought a box of sticky rice with mango for the first time. I promised a friend that I would try it in Thailand because he loves it so much and it, indeed, was delicious.

We went back to our  hostel at 9 o'clock and just changed and got ready before leaving to the Vertigo Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree Hotel. We really wanted to go to a skybar this weekend to see Bangkok from another perspective and since this one was quite near our hostel and, in addition to that, the second highest skybar in Bangkok (it's on the 61st floor), we decided to go there.

As expected, the view was simply amazing. We could see so many fancy hotels, massive buildings and simple streets, all lit up, from a birds eye view. We even got a table directly at the railing, after a few minutes, so that made the whole experience even better. 

Since it was a skybar and they don't charge entry, the drinks were extremely expensive. I paid 360B (9€) for a simple coke and that was the cheapest drink you could get there. The view made up for that price, though. If we would've had to pay entrance, that wouldn't have been a reasonable price, but, since we didn't, it was worth it.

We stayed at the skybar until midnight and then decided to go back to our hostels already, since we wanted to get up pretty early the next day to see Lumphini park.

Saturday 

Saturday morning we went to Lumphini park. I really wanted to see a monitor lizard there since this park was famous for being the habitat for lots and lots of monitors.

After a few minutes we finally spotted the first one, which was a quite large one, though. It let me come quite close actually and so I could take some nice pictures of it. We, of course, saw many other lizards after the first one and some of them were huge! 

The park itself was really beautiful as well. Especially with those little lakes and the skyscrapers in the background.

Here and there we also spotted some little egret birds which stood at the shore and waited for fish, they could eat. There was a good amount of people in the park, even though it was quite early in the morning, and most of them were running or cycling and a few were practicing Tai Chi. 

After going back to the hostel, where I changed and packed for the pool party, we went for lunch in a quite western restaurant.

Felicity, the girl I was spending the weekend with, and I both got mac'n'cheese, which was super delicious and finally something other than rice. We then went to seven eleven to buy some drinks and snacks since we were going to stay at the SO Sofitel the whole day.

When we arrived at the Hotel, we went straight to the hotel room of two fellow volunteers who booked it just for the pool party. We spent an hour or so playing card games and enjoying the beautiful view over Lumphini park and Bangkok in general. 

At about 3pm we decided to go down to the party. There we got a free drink and since the event was sponsored by Moët, the drink was a glass of champagne.

The ambience was so nice at the party and so was the pool and, of course, the view. We decided to go for a swim in the infinity pool and even managed to get sunbeds directly at it.

Since the weather wasn't that great for a pool party and the water wasn't warm either, we got cold quite quickly but it was worth the view. We were at the pool for a few hours before deciding to go back to the hotel room for a bit until the actual party was going to start.

We went down again at half past five and the party was already in progress. There were lots of people there who danced to the music, swam in the pool and simply had fun.

The party was only until 9pm but after 8 hours of drinking, dancing and having fun, we were pretty tired anyways. After the party has ended, we went up to the room one last time for a few minutes and let the evening come to an end. 


Felicity and I then went back to the hostel and were there at about eleven, which meant, we were going to get a good amount of sleep this night, I won't be tired at the way back to Singburi and Felicity had time to pack the next day, since she was going to go back home to England on Monday.

Sunday

On Sunday I had to go back to Singburi already. But before I left with two other girls, who were going to go back as well, I went for breakfast with Felicity.

We went to a bakery/self-service shop near our hostel, called Au Bon Pain, where we got some pastries. I got one chocolate and one strawberry crossaint pocket thingy and, let me tell you, they were delicious.

After breakfast we went back to the hostel and I packed my stuff since I had to check out before 12 o'clock. After checking out, me and the two other girls left the hostel (and Felicity) and started looking for a taxi.

We eventually found one and only paid 150B (3,70€) for a half an hour drive to Mo Chit bus station. There we had to wait an hour for the bus to Singburi. On the bus we met other volunteers who just arrived in Thailand for the Greenway projects.

Back at Twinhouse it was already dinner time so we obviously ate something. After dinner I talked a bit with some "new people" and went to my room quite early because of the mosquitos and because I still needed to pack for the next weeks program, which was Forestry Conservation in Nakhon Ratchasima.

September 29th - October 1st 2017