Robin & Karen Living the Dream: In the Heart of Bangkok Chinatown

We arrived to Bangkok from Siem Reap on March 21 after a comfortable 8.5 hr bus ride & were dropped off “somewhere” near Khao San Road. We used our handy Bolt taxi app & secured a ride to our hotel in Chinatown for $4.10. He dropped us off on a street & pointed down an alley so off we went. A bit nervous, not sure where we were going & no signs - but after a couple minutes we spotted our next hotel - Arawana Express Chinatown. Not much to look at, small lobby but it had an elevator so we were happy. The room was nicer than we expected from the exterior, roomy, kitchenette, balcony, big windows with a view of a nearby Wat. Home for 6 nights.

View from our balcony

The alley to the hotel

We left the hotel going the opposite direction down the alley & we popped out on to Yaowarat Road, smack dab in the middle of Chinatown! Neon lights, busy traffic, noisy, people everywhere & back to cars driving on the opposite side. Supper from a street food stand - pad Thai, a short walkabout & a stop at a very close Lotus grocery store & we called it a night.

Just out of the alley & here we were!

Looking the other direction when we got to Yaorawat Rd

Having supper on at the roadside stand

Literally on the road

We headed out to the Chatuchak Weekend Market via the MRT (subway) from a nearby stop - cost $3.81 total, took almost 1 hour. The place is massive, divided into sections, with over 15,000 stalls! Started our souvenir shopping & spent time scoping out ideas for our kids, grandkids & us. The plan still is to purchase a suitcase before we head home that will be used for souvenirs. Hot - 35C, we headed to the nearby JJ mall for some A/C & pizza.

Time for beer in the food court

Despite the crazy heat, the lows are still mid 20’s, I started going for a daily run/walk in the mornings & loved it. I chose to run on the sidewalks of the streets of Chinatown with no route planned - if the sidewalk got too busy then I headed a different direction down a side street. When I got tired I used Google maps to get me back “home”. Great fun seeing the shops open up, smelling the street food stalls, watching people going about their day.

A small canal

Getting ready for Songkran & the water fights

Never sure what’s in the bags - soup, curry, drinks??

My Fitbit map of one of my runs

We hadn’t visited any of the malls on our first stop in Bangkok so we took the water taxi to Icon Siam mall - a huge 10 story place full of luxury brands with outdoor terraces overlooking the Chao Phraya River. Not for us but interesting & well air conditioned, even saw a bunch of camping gear that seemed out of place.

Icon Siam Mall

View from the outdoor terraces

Strange to see camping gear

Next stop, via the water taxi was back to Khao San Road - a touristy strip of souvenirs, eateries, bars - good people watching while drinking Chang beer. We foolishly decided to walk back to Chinatown & our hotel, took 45 minutes in the heat, at the end of a long day - 23,000 step day!

River taxi

Khao San Road

The “Giant Swing” beside a temple, on our walk home

One of the gates to Chinatown

We needed to top up the data on the phone that Robin carries so we headed to another mall, MBK mall - 50 Gb data for 30 days, $4. Only 8 levels to this mall, not as fancy but an impressive sign with all the dining options per floor, including 2 Tim Horton’s!

MBK Mall

Chinatown is known for having excellent street food with countless options, so we spent a couple days eating as many different things as we could. Started with sticky rice toast wrapped in banana leaves, won ton soup with crab, fritters with corn, purple potatoes, red bean & taro - all drizzled with peanut sauce, pork satay & more peanut sauce, salted egg dumplings, chive cakes, coconut pancakes & the occasional beer. And that was all in one day!!

Fritters

Dumplings

Won ton soup

Soup place

Satay

Satay cart

Chive cakes

Doing laundry is never an issue, this hotel had a washer & a dryer just outside the front door of the hotel so handy, or there was always the option to have someone do it for you.

We had been to Lumphini Park on our first stop in Bangkok but decided to go again for a shady walkabout. We took the MRT (subway), easy to navigate, cost for both $2.10. Visited the resident moniter lizards, saw a new bird & got some steps in. From there we thought that taking the BTS (sky train) might give us a different view of the city so we rode to one end of a line, $4.63, but sadly the windows are covered in advertising with a sunscreen so very difficult to see out of. But it had good air conditioning so that was nice & we got a photo of the Giant Buddha now poking out above scaffolding. In the fall when we went to see it, it was totally covered up.

Egret

Monitor lizard

Black-collared starling

Lumphini Park

BTS train

Giant Buddha

We spent time just wandering the streets of Chinatown enjoying people watching.

Narrow lanes, lots of shops

Tuk tuk taxis

Chinese herbal shops

Big covered markets - we always thought the bags of crispy yellow things were made from flour, turns out they are dried fish stomachs!

Wheel barrel ice delivery

Locals shopping with their wheeled carts

And temples everywhere

And gold shops everywhere as well

Very well reviewed vegetarian restaurant down our little alley

Eating at the vegetarian restaurant

Condiments on every table in Thailand - dry chillies, sugar, fish sauce & vinegar with chillies

We left Bangkok March 27 & took a private transfer via car to Hua Hin, 3 hours south. We had considered the train but were finding it difficult to get tickets so we opted to be pampered a bit - cost 2000 Baht, $81.