Day 1: My first day (29/01/2019)
Before starting my trip I was very excited with the decision that I had taken of going for the solo mode adventure, but at the same a bit scared of ending up alone with no idea of what to do. As we learned in “Into the wild”:
-Happiness is only real when shared.
During the flight from Moscow to Thailand I could not sleep and the plane was quite crappy. However, it may have been for the better, because that helped me to meet who would soon become my first travel buddy , Tessa, even before having to reach Thailand. The excitement didn’t allow me to sleep much the first night (neither the 2th or 3th, so maybe the jet lag also had a bit to do with it). At 6am I was ready to start solo exploring the city. From the very first moment that I put a foot on the street (especially around the infamous area of #KhaoSan Rd) tens of “tuk-tuk” drivers smell my fresh Bahts and attempt to catch my attention for an overpriced drive to the main sightseeing spots. Unfortunately for them I was well aware of their scamming strategies (or that is what I thought… Just wait for a couple of days)
First place I reached was the spectacular Grand Palace (#Wat Phra Kaew). One of the most famous landmarks of the city, which is as full of shiny and detailed “buildings”(chedais, prangs? I still cannot tell the correct name of these pointy things. I love them tho) as of tourists taking pictures. It was when I was trying to sneak my phone into the no-camera allowed temple of the Emerald Buddha, when I met a super friendly Turkish girl , Meliha. That means no video, but together we started our private photo-tour around the golden temples.
We walked toward the river, and Tess joined us for a boat tour. We passed by the majestic Wat Arum and stopped in China Town. After a good walk around the nicely decorated (chinese new year is coming) but overwhelming streets packed with small business where there is no room for pedestrians and still motorbikes manage to find a way through the crowds, we stopped for our first Thai street food. And in an attempt to spice things up I accidentally dropped a full spoon of chilly leaves…
After completing our tour through China Town we left the crowded streets and took another boat (for the ridiculous price of 0.2€) to cross the river and delight our senses with what it is my favorite temple so far, Wat Arum! It received the name after the Hindu God Aruna (God of the Sun), and it is really stunning how the detailed craftsmanship of the main “parang” glimmer reflecting the sunshine.
Despite this was my first day of what it is going to be a long traveling experience, my mindset is still that of a short vacation in which I cannot waste anytime. Therefore, the rest of the afternoon we kept going from one temple to the next one. Some of the places to remark are the colorful setupas from Wat Pho and a 46 m reclining Buddha (longest in Thailand, maybe the world?).
After exhausting most of the temples of Rattanakosin, we walked through Sananrom park direction to our hostels when we found a group of elderly Thai people dancing. I couldn’t help myself and spontaneously jumped to dance with them. Unfortunately, when we were leaving they played the Gangnam Style, which would have been TOP to dance!!
Once it was dark we said byebye to Meliha and went back to KhaoSan Rd where I saw a guy selling fried bugs and I couldn’t wait to try some. The big scorpion was 100 baths which I reduced to 50 (1.3€) using my underdeveloped haggling skills (I could have gotten a better price, but I’m still working on it). If you wonder how it tastes… Quite tasteless, just crunchy and some kind of sandy texture. . So before calling it a day we met 2 friends of Tessa and ate the typical and delicious Pad Thai with some drinks while we planned what was next in day 2.
BONUS: FAMILY in my backpack
You can call me crazy, and probably you will be right. But after all their dedication and support, I wanted to share this big trip with my family. They couldn’t leave Spain but I decided to bring them with me… in an unorthodox fashion.
I have their souls under the protection of my backpack, always close to me. And in some of the most remarkable landmarks of my trip, I ask to my travel buddies or random people that there may be around, to become my family, so I can share with them these nice memories.
Day 3: The Lucky Day (1/02/2019)
After a futile attempt of making friends at my hostel, I decided to wander alone around the streets of Bangkok.
At some point,a friendly Thai guy approached me, and even though my Spider-senses were tingling, we engaged in a nice conversation. He told me about how today was “the lucky day” due to the anniversary of the King and something related to Buddha. Reason of all the yellow flags around the city. And to celebrate, all the temples were entry-free+there were specific tuk-tuks (with a yellow flag) subsidized to move people around the temples for only 40 Baht(~1€).
Before I could realize of what was going on, I was in one of this tuk-tuks heading towards an isolated area of the city where a “lucky-Buddha” was supposed to be.
During the ride I was able to realize that something was off and I was in the middle of being scammed. My brain was racing to find a way to get out of there, when I just see another foreigner approaching.
The idea was to befriend him to have an excuse and leave the place without my tuk-tuk driver, when I realize this person was @jonnnyse the german guy that I just met the night before. It turns out he was in the middle of the same scam, and together we managed to figure out a way of escaping without upsetting our drivers.
Once we were out of the this tricky situation we went to visit more temples (which btw were not free), while laughing about what just happened to us and how odd had been to meet there.
We stop and chilled for a bit at the top of the Golden Mount where we met a group of friendly young people, gathered for a “United World” convention, who were very interested on talking to us.
To give end to our last day in Bangkok, Jonnie and I met with Tess and her friends to enjoy a red sky at the pier illuminated by the sunset, and we crossed the river for a last visit of Wat Arum at night.
We grabbed some dinner and went to the house by the river of a Western family that had invited us to drink with them. We played cards, took a dip at midnight in their outdoor swimming pool and said goodbye to each other as our paths separated next day.