Yesterday, I most spent my time photographing famous Buddhist temples — first Wat Saket, and later Wat Arun. Today, after finishing my work, I decided to visit yet another popular Bangkok destination I had yet to explore — the famous Khao San Road.
After that I decided to take the BTS.
I got down at Chit Lom BTS station, walked through Gaysorn Village mall, and reached Pratunam Pier.
You can watch a video I made about my visit to Wat Saket, to get an idea about the canal boat ride:
The boat taxi is the quickest and cheapest way from Sukhumvit to the Old Bangkok quarters. You can take the canal boat taxi to the stop for Wat Saket, and just walk a kilometre to get to Khao San Road.
I had read that Wat Pho was close to the Grand Palace so after asking for a few directions from the local police, I began my 15-minute walk to the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
Walking through what some people refer to as ‘Old Bangkok,’ one comes across decades old remnants and descendants of the Chinese community in Bangkok.
After passing by shops selling traditional Chinese medicine and an assortment of dried fish, you reach the lane that leads to Wat Pho.
There was no entrance fee, or at least I didn’t come across any, so I just went in and began clicking photos.
And with that, ended the last of my sight-seeing in Thailand.
I took a taxi back to Sukhumvit but man, can the traffic in Bangkok get on your nerves. Coming from India, I’m used to bad traffic — and even though Bangkok traffic isn’t noisy or haphazard like in any major Indian city — it just moves at a snail’s pace.
I pity the taxi drivers who have to work through this every day. It isn’t calming I can assure you. It’s frustrating — and I’m an extremely patient guy.
As it neared 3pm, I finally got fed up and got down near Siam Center. It’s not that I was getting late or anything, I just got irritated moving at snail pace and staring at the traffic in front me. I didn’t even bother asking the taxi driver for the change, instead, I told him to keep it. 90% of them will not fleece you so you can be extra nice to them if you wish.
Since I had some time to kill, I went to Siam Paragon and had lunch from KFC. Yeah, KFC… I know. But I didn’t have the usual. KFC Thailand had introduced a Hot’N’Spicy variant which I thought I’d try out. I went in for the combo meal which packed 2 pieces of chicken, mashed potato in gravy, salad and a drink. The mashed potato looked and tasted so artificial, it was scary to even look at. As for the Hot’N’Spicy chicken, it was essentially the KFC flavour with a lot of MSG thrown in. Tasted a lot like the flavouring that you get with a regular pack of Maggi noodles Masala. Just about okay.
After lunch, I took the BTS (for the last time) and went back to the Thai House Inn. Collected my bags, took a taxi and headed for Suvarnabhumi via the elevated highway (cost 400 baht/Rs. 560).
I was at the airport by 5:30pm for my 8:35pm Thai Airways flight back to Bangalore. Got my VAT refund forms stamped, checked in my bags, and collected my VAT refund money from the counter after the security check. I had an hour and half to kill before my flight, so I got myself a Dairy Queen Blizzard with whatever change I had left that I didn’t want in my wallet and then sat by my gate thinking about the last 10 days.
Despite all the planning, things didn’t go the way I wanted to. I ended up taking more flights than I thought, a lot of mishaps, and couldn’t see everything I had hoped on seeing…
… but all I could really think about was how I wanted to quit my job and wanted to be back to do it right, a second time.