eighteenpromises : Bangkok Travelogue: Day 1 // Traveling to BKK, Chatuchak Market & Local Thai Cuisine

It is now (finally) time for my BKK travelogue posts. I went to BKK in January, it's now August and I'm only blogging about it now. Crazy haha.

Would you believe that I've never been to BKK prior to this trip before? Well neither can I! No one believes me when I say that I've never been to BKK before because well, I love to shop and BKK is a well-known shopping paradise.

So when my best friends decided to plan a trip overseas, I jumped up at the idea of going to BKK.

We got up really early because our flight was at an insanely early time (7.05am) and we had to reach the airport at like 5am so all of us look tired, albeit excited.

We took the Bangkok Airport Rail Link to our hotel because it was the cheapest and fastest way.

We stayed at Bangkok City Hotel which is located along Petchaburi Road so the nearest station is Ratchathewi Station.

Bangkok City Hotel

Address:

| 268 Soi Petchburi, 10-12 Petchaburi Road, Ratchathewi, Bangkok 10400, Thailand |

How to get here:

1. From Suvarnabhumi Airport, take the Airport Rail Link and alight at the last stop, Phaya Thai Station

2. At Phaya Thai Station, change over to the BTS Skytrain Sukhumvit Line and get off at the next stop, Rachathewi Station

3. Take the Asia Hotel exit and walk along Phaya Thai Road

4. When you reach the first cross junction, turn left onto Petchaburi Road and walk for about 5 minutes. Bangkok City Hotel will be on your left

Since the day we arrived at BKK was a Sunday, my friends thought we should head over to Chatuchak Weekend Market because I've never been to Chatuchak before.

Just a few words of caution though. Chatuchak is filled with pickpockets so be sure to carry a sling bag and sling the bag on your chest to prevent any one from picking your bag or slashing it. The pickpocketing situation at Chatuchak is so bad that the PA system periodically warns foreigners and locals alike in multiple languages to be careful of their belongings, policemen stationed at Chatuchak will always approach people to make sure their bags are slung at the front, and in the toilets, there's a whole book with pictures of the faces of pickpockets. It's that crazy.

Also, Chatuchak is open air, with no shelter along the main shopping streets which means you will probably be under the crazy hot sun as you attempt to explore the place. Be sure to bring a hat to protect yourself from the heat, bring water to hydrate yourself constantly, and wear light, airy clothing. I nearly died of the heat there.

The first thing we did when we arrived at Chatuchak was to have lunch and since Chatuchak is famous for their chicken noodle soup, that was what we went in search of. Since there were quite a few stalls selling chicken noodle soup, we tried our luck at this one.

Two cups of ice-cold cha yen (Thai Iced Milk Tea) to quench our thirst and to cool ourselves down from the insane heat.

One thing to note about cha yen in general is that the Thais do it pretty sweet. I love sweet drinks but in Thailand, everything is just too much. Their cha yen is too sweet, their food is too salty or too spicy. Even though I find Singapore's food pretty flavourful and savoury in general, the flavours of the Thai food in Thailand is just too much.

And our food finally arrived! 3 bowls of noodle soup with chicken! As I said above, this dish was really flavourful but way too salty for my taste buds to take. I had to continuously gulp down cha yen to flush the saltiness away, but the cha yen was way too sweet. #firstworldpains

Although the portion was pretty small, I think the reason why I felt full afterwards was because of all the liquids I drank haha. But since everyone says the chicken noodles at Chatuchak is a must-try, that was what we did.

Another must-try at Chatuchak is their coconut ice cream.

Now, I don't know if it's just me but I didn't find this that great at all? I mean I really dislike coconut and more often than not, I absolutely balk at having anything with coconut inside (except for coconut milk cause you can't taste the coconut). Although the ice cream didn't have a strong coconut flavour, I didn't find it rave-worthy at all. Either the coconut ice cream is overhyped, or maybe we just didn't go to the stall which sells really good ice cream.

How to get here:
1. Take the BTS Skytrain Sukhumvit Line to Mo Chit Station (last stop)

After a few hours, the early flight, the heat and the constant vigilance got the better of me and I felt really unwell so we decided to head back to the hotel for a nap before venturing out for dinner.

I'm not very sure which mall we went to but we took a cab over and had Thai food for dinner. Apparently this place sells pretty good Thai food.

Since we reached the mall pretty late, most of the shops were closing when we were done with dinner so we went back to our hotel and stopped by at a 7-Eleven to pick up some food and drinks.

If you're in Thailand, I highly recommend everyone to get this drink! it tastes exactly like the original flavoured Yakult in Singapore, just in a huge ass bottle (they have 3 sizes). I had this every single day I was in Thailand and I wish I some back with me because it is sooo good.

One good thing about staying at Bangkok City Hotel is that at night, there are many stalls along the road side selling food at really decent prices. We basically had supper every single night since it was so convenient and the food was pretty good (albeit too salty as usual).

We ordered a bottle of beer to share and this was probably $3 only? Leo Beer is pretty light and smooth which I was pleasantly surprised because I've always thought cheap beers usually aren't that good (sorry Tiger Beer).