I arrived at 6 o clock in the morning at the international airport Suvarnabhumi in Bangkok. The first thing I did was find a toilet to change clothes. Time to say goodbye to these warm jeans, sweater and sneakers. With +30°C, a short, T-shirt and flip-flops would do 😉
I also bought myself an AIS SIM-card. These travellers SIM-card are very inexpensive. I got myself a 250 GB prepaid SIM-card for 30 days for only 800 Baht (around 22 euro at this time). Internet speed is better than most WiFi hotspots so this was a no-brainer.
Getting to my hotel
For the first few nights in Bangkok, I stayed at Paragon One Residence. This hotel is very close to the famous Khasan Road. A walking street with lots of street food stand, little shops, tattoo shops and bars and restaurants. A must-see for every backpacker.
To get around in Bangkok I use the taxi app Grab. It’s an alternative to Uber that is widely used in Thailand. Pricing is fairly cheap and it gives you the luxury to be dropped off right by the place where you want to go. You can also take a taxi at the airport, however, always make sure they turn on the meter. If they don’t, you’ll definitely pay more.
After a 30-minute drive, I eventually arrived at the hotel. After an almost 20-hour travel, first thing I did was take a shower and get some sleep. By the time I woke up, Poppy would arrive. I met Poppy in Koh Chang in 2019 and if it wasn’t for this Corona virus thing, we would’ve travelled together to Bali.
However, because we had to cancel our trip to Bali, we decided to stay in Bangkok for a few days and then to go South of Thailand to take a vacation there.
Exploring Bangkok
Except for the airport, I’ve never been in Bangkok before. It’s a (really) big city, with a lot things to do. As the central hub of South-East Asia, at every hour of the day/night there are so many things to discover.
So our first full day in Bangkok, we decided to visit Khaosan Road. As it was only a few minutes walk, we walked there with some help of Google Maps.
I was excited to see one of the most famous walking streets of Bangkok until we arrived. There was soo little people, a lot of bars were closed, no music playing… By that time, most tourists had gone home because of COVID-19. Every now and then I’d see a backpacker saunter through the street, and that was about it. Khaosan Road did not have the atmosphere I was hoping for at that time.
