One night in Bangkok

This blog is off to bit of a slow start. But here a description of day one in Bangkok...

Well, Bangkok was definitely a success!  We arrived here shortly after midnight Saturday night, early Sunday morning, if you want to get precise. As promised, we were met at the airport by a representative from our airport hotel, the BS Residence Suvarnabhumi.  From there, we took a quick shuttle ride to an air-conditioned room, showered and slept easily for several hours.

Mid-morning Sunday we took the airport shuttle back to the airport were could find rail transportation in to the city. This was relatively simple.  Unfortunately, getting our bearings once off the train was not. We cracked and took a taxi the rest of the way to our hostel.  Nap Park Hostel, just off Khaosan road was home for two nights.

We arrived shortly before check-in time so we left our bags and headed out to find some lunch.  We found a friendly spot nearby with small dishes and Chang beer.  It was perfect.  After checking in to the Hostel we asked for directions to the Grand Palace. The girl at the desk informed us we would not be visiting the Palace today, we would be going to the Chatuchak Market and could go to the palace tomorrow. Okay!  We opted to take the tuk tuk to the market.  It’s a bit of a scary ride, but something everyone should do at last once when visiting Bangkok.   Chatuchak Market was unbelievable,  a maze of vendors selling everything from food to furniture, pencils to house pets.  I bought a bracelet, coconut milk and an ice cream cone.  We walked around for several hours mostly people watching and “window shopping” and think we saw only a fraction of the whole place.

After the market we took a tuk tuk back to Nap Park because it had been so much fun the first time! After returning we thought we would go hang out in the common area and try to make some new friends.  It did not take long.  We met three guys, two from Canada, and one from Northern Ireland. One solo Canadian traveler, G.P. and pair of friends studying in Australia who were on holiday in Southeast Asia for a while, Conrad and Glen.  For those three it was their last night in Bangkok, for us it was our first, so the five us decided to enjoy the evening together.  Several plates of pad thai and several Chang’s later, day one in Bangkok and of the entire trip had become a success.  I think this is going to be a good trip.