I began my day with a visit to Rang Hill viewpoint and once I was done with that, I decided to walk down the hill.
How I got down and walked to Old Town is in my vlog* (video blog), which you can watch at the end of this blog post. But it is possible to walk from Rang Hill viewpoint to Old Town in around 30 minutes.
Phuket island used to have a rich history in tin-mining and many who came to work in the mines in the 18th century were from China, Malaysia and India. Then the Europeans came and the result of all these influences is what you see in Old Town’s architecture.
This trip began because earlier in the year I won a contest organized by Thailand Tourism where the prize was a two-night stay at a luxury resort in Phuket. I initially kept it thinking me and my brother could treat the rest of my family to an international vacation but when those plans did not pan out, I decided to make use of the prize myself.
I took advantage of Go Air’s direct flight from Bengaluru to Phuket. A ticket I got for Rs. 9k.
It was my first time flying a budget airline to Thailand from Bangalore. I had exclusively flown Thai Airways up until now.
I had downloaded the visa on arrival form, printed it out and filled it up in advance. The queue at the visa on arrival counter was mostly all Indians who had landed along with me and as usual, many had not filled up the form in advance, nor did they fill up the arrival card given to every passenger on the flight. I did both. Since I was also alone, I got my form inspected and done with everything in less than five minutes. After that, immigration didn’t take long.
Today was my last day in Bangkok. Being a short layover from my Japan trip, I still managed to go to the Maeklong Train Market and Amphawa Floating Market — two attractions I hadn’t been to before. I wondered what else to see before leaving Bangkok. And so I looked at the map and decided to head to Lumphini Gardens, Bangkok’s largest public park.
The easiest way to get to Lumpini park is to take a BTS to Sala Daeng Station and leave via Exit No.6.
But before entering the park, I stopped by Burger King to have lunch.
Lumphini Gardens isn’t much of a tourist attraction but if you want to see some greenery away from Bangkok’s concrete city center, or if you want a quiet place to cycle or skateboard around, then this public garden is worth visiting. I took the subway and went to a mall just to kill time before I headed to the airport to catch my flight back to Bangalore.