Bold and Beautiful Bangkok

My amazing trip to Thailand started at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Bangkok. It is huge, artistic and cultured. Bangkok is the capital city of Thailand and a royal city as his holiness king of the country lives here.

Bangkok Airport

Bangkok Airport

Bangkok is the city of skyscrapers, shopping malls and street food. There are so many Hotels for your comfortable stay at Bangkok, widely available for all kinds of budget and requirements.

Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Bangkok

One of the sky scrappers, Bangkok

Public Transport: You can roam around the city by all means of public transport. Mainly people travels by Bangkok bus, Metro trains or Sky trains. Tuktuks (Auto Rickshaw) are also available. We tried all these options in our 3 days of stay, and found that for Tuktuk, you should be aware of the distance and rates, otherwise you may get cheated. Sky trains are fastest option for long distance travel. City buses are good if you need more frequency for your route.

Sky train, Bangkok

Tuktuk, Bangkok

The curvy Chao Phraya river flows across the city, also so many canals from it makes the city beautiful. There is also a floating market in the canal.

Canal, Bangkok

Shopping Malls: Bangkok is the paradise for shopping lovers, as it has wide number of shopping malls to suit all kinds of lifestyles and budgets. Most popular shopping centres include, MBK, Siam paragon, Central world, Central Plaza Rama 9, Paradise Park, Indra wholesale shopping market. I just loved Siam Paragon mall because of all the branded showrooms, and The Indra market as you get the things at very low rate. Bangkok streets are also popular for shopping, but you have to bargain hard, otherwise you will get cheated.

Central world mall, Bangkok

Heart of the City: This is the royal area of Bangkok city. The roads are beautifully decorated by huge status of Thai culture and art. Various government buildings, Ministry offices, Army schools and buildings and also the famous tourist attractions like The Royal Palace, Wat Pho temple are situated in this area. The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Thailand since 1782 and it is the major architectural symbol of The Thai Royal Family.

Decorated cross roads in the heart of the city, Bangkok

Decorated road side in the heart of the city, Bangkok

Wat Pho Temple complex: The temple is also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This temple complex was a centre of education for religion, science and literature, and there are statues created showing yoga and massage positions. The complex contains more than 1000 Buddha statues. There are many small and big temples of Buddha, and each statue inside is different from the other. The most elegant and beautiful one is the Emerald Buddha statue, that one can feel the spirituality emerging from the heart while looking at it.

Wat Pho temple

Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho temple

Emerald Buddha, Wat Pho temple

If you are a non vegetarian, Bangkok streets have all kinds of food you would love to have. If you are in Thailand, you should not miss the Thai massage. There is a huge number of massage parlors and price ranges from 200Baht to 1000Baht, depending on the parlor, duration and type of massage. You will find the famous 7-11 shops at many places, where you can buy some packed food, snacks, chocolates, drinking water bottles, etc. They also provide balance refill facility if you have a local SIM card. The people of Bangkok are very friendly and helpful to the tourists. You would face some language problems as not many people can speak good English, but they can understand you if you try it word by word.

Colorful bus, Bangkok

For our stay in Thailand, we chose to buy a local dtac mobile SIM card at the airport itself. The charges were fairly reasonable (local calls 1 baht per min, calls to India at 3 baht per min). For currency exchange, we preferred the local exchange shops and banks inside the city as we found that they give good rates compared to airport booths. You get better rates for 100$ notes compared to smaller notes. If you are traveling from India, it is advisable to buy USD and then convert them to Baht after reaching Thailand.

Check out the this post for The Safari World, Bangkok