Time for day two in Thailand! If this is your first time reading about Thailand on my site, I recommend starting with Day One – Temples, Tourism and Tuk Tuks. At the same time, feel free to jump right in to day two… don’t let me hold you back from your dreams. And make sure to keep an eye out for more Thai tips and tricks as you read!
We started off day two in Thailand bright and early with a 6:30am wake up call, which brings me to my first Thai tip from day two of our South East Asia adventures: Wake up early! This tip is hotly contested among my travel companions who love sleep, but I am a firm believer in waking up early. Every morning is beautiful and when in Thailand I would easily trade one extra hour of sleep for one extra hour of Tuk Tuk fueled tourism.
Travel Tip #6
Wake up early!
Waking up early also helps you beat some of the Thailand summer heat and get in a few activities before the sun begins to boil the whole city. Which brings us to the second Thai tip to start off the day: wear sunscreen! This tip extends to all types of travel, but it is especially important when you will be outside all day in the hot Thailand sun.
Bathe in sunscreen
Travel Tip #7
After our early morning wake up we quickly bathed in sunscreen, packed up our bags, stored them in the hostel storage room and scarfed down a free breakfast in the lobby. Once we were sufficiently stuffed on toast and jam we decided to walk off the meal with a quick trip to the Chatuchak Market – a weekend market with over 8,000 shop stalls. This market is outside the Mo Chit train station and it is open starting at 9am on Saturdays and Sundays. If you’re in Bangkok over the weekend and you are looking for some fun shopping spots in the city, Chatuchak Market is your best bet. The market has everything you could ever possibly want, the real challenge is if you can actually find what you’re looking for in the maze of shop stalls.
After popping over to Mo Chit station we swung back by the hostel to meet up with our new travelling buddies and head out on our day trip to the historic city of Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is roughly 100km outside of Bangkok and is easily accessible by train, bus or taxi depending on your budget – making it a great day trip option if you’re visiting Bangkok. Our plan was to take a minibus from the Mo Chit train station, which is generally priced at 100 baht per person, but we couldn’t find any buses that weren’t already packed. Instead we found a taxi driver who agreed to take all 5 of us out to the old city for only 800 baht. We had read online that a normal taxi trip to Ayutthaya from Mo Chit is about 1000 baht, but we were able to haggle the price down to 800 baht.
Travel Tip #8
Know how much something is worth and when in doubt, haggle.
After an hour long drive crammed in the air conditioned compact car, the five of us (and our lovely driver) arrived at the main gates of the old city. We were immediately shocked by the expansiveness of the city, which consists of 6 square miles of picturesque landscapes and towering temples. The main options for navigating around the city are renting a Tuk Tuk, walking or biking. We planned on spending the whole day in the city so we opted to rent bikes, but if you’re in a time crunch – Tuk Tuks are your best best.
It’s also important to keep in mind that while a majority of the sites are free, the main temples do require a small fee of 50 baht. If you’re only planning to see one or two temples, paying the small 50 baht fee per temple makes sense. However, if you’re planning to travel all over the city in one day – like we did- I would highly recommend the 220 baht day pass that gets you into all of the main temples.
We started of our tour of Ayutthaya at Wat Ratchaburana, which has a large prang that contains two crypts in the lower sections of the structure. This section of the city is also a great place to begin your day because Wat Ratchaburana is next to another vast complex of prangs that you can wander through – Wat Mahathat. The main draw of Wat Mahathat, and my favorite part of the site, is the stone Buddha face that is growing out of the base of a tree.
After exploring Wat Ratchaburana and our quick photo shoot with the stone Buddha face of Wat Mahathat, we moved on to Wat Phra Ram and then biked over to Wat Phra Si Sanphet. Wat Phra Si Sanphet, also known as King’s temple, is one of the biggest temples in Ayutthaya and is comprised of three large structures and numerous smaller prangs surrounding the base. The Grand Palace is also near Wat Phra Si Sanphet and it is the first temple that was built in the city of Ayutthaya – definitely a must see stop.
We biked around to different temples for four hours before the heat started to get to us (And by get to us, I mean we were all puddles at this point). So at around 4pm we crawled our way to a street food stand that had popsicles and sat in the shaded tent for 30 minutes bringing our body temperatures back down to normal.
Once we had a taste of food in our stomachs we all realized how famished we were from our 4 hour bike ride in 100 degree sunshine. We decided it would be best to head out of the temple complex and find food at a local restaurant. We leisurely biked back to where we originally started, dropped off our bikes and dove into the first Thai spot we saw.
When in Thailand, eat as much Thai food as you possibly can
Travel Tip #9
I don’t know if we got lucky or if all Thai food is this delicious (most likely the case from my experience), but our meal was absolutely amazing. As soon as the food came out we all stuffed our faces and chugged water, slowly regaining our strength, as acoustic American pop music filled the silence in between our bites. It was an amazing meal and well deserved after out tiny trek around the temples.
After the miraculous Thai meal that brought us back to life we headed back out into the heat to find a way home. We walked around for awhile, but eventually found a minubus with tons of space that only cost 60 baht per person, a total steal compared to our morning taxi ride. We quickly jumped into the van and all fell asleep for an hour on the drive back to Bangkok.
The minibus dropped us off at Mo Chit train station and we took the Skytrain straight to the hostel to immediately shower off a days worth of 100 degree Thailand heat. The shower restored everyone’s energy and afterwards we all grabbed our packs and caught a taxi to our second hostel – Bodega Bangkok. We were moving hostels because we wanted to spend one night at Bed Station hostel in the middle of the city and one night at Bodega Bangkok – the main party hostel located next to all the major clubs. Bodega Bangkok was definitely a different vibe than Bed Station hostel, and in all the best ways possible. The lobby of the hostel was a bar with ping pong tables, TVs and couches and when we showed up everyone who stayed at the hostel was in the lobby and on the patio pre-gaming before going out on the town.
Once we were all settled in to our new hostel room we threw on our club clothes and joined the rest of the hostel in the lobby for ping pong tournaments and rainbow road shots. After shotgunning several beers for our country and adding a few tallies to America’s count on the hostel leaderboard, we all mobilized to go out to bars. One of the best parts about staying at Bodega Bangkok is that the owner of the hostel organizes a giant group of people to all go to the same club together, which made going out in a new city extremely easy and fun!
Most of the major clubs are all in the same place, so the entire hostel pregame group split taxis and met up at RCA – Royal City Avenue. RCA is home to many bars, but the most popular spots are Route 66 and Onyx. We started off the night at Route 66, which is a club with tons of rooms ranging from hip hop to pop and techno to house. Basically it has a little bit of everything. And shockingly to me, there is even a live band in the bathroom. A live classical band… Needless to say, it was the most relaxed bathroom visit I have ever had.
After busting a move on the techno dance floor at Route 66, with my blue Hawaiian drink in hand, we all decided to move on to Onyx. Onyx is the even bigger club on RCA with one large DJ room and walls lined in Grey Goose bottles.
We all danced until 2am when Onyx closed and then we followed the crowd to 7/11 for late night snacks. The 7/11 had so many options for snacks I was overwhelmed and unfortunately, despite the protests from my friends, I made the mistake of getting microwavable Thai food as my late night snack.
Travel Tip #10
Don’t eat microwavable Thai food from a 7/11 at 2am
This tip doesn’t really need much explanation. Just don’t do it. I’ve learned this lesson for the both of us.
After our late night meal and taxi ride home we hung out in the common area with everyone for awhile before I fell asleep on the couch – signaling to me it was time to call it a day. We squeezed so much in to day two, making me even more sure of my early wake up motto, and now it was time to rest up for our flight to Chang Mai on day three!
Day three coming soon!
