This post is a continuation when I traveled across Asia, including Thailand. In this post, I want to review my time spent in Bangkok, when I spent one night in Bangkok!

First of all, I want to say that I loved Bangkok. The vibe, the food, the people. Bangkok is all kind of a cliche at this point, but there is always some truth in the stereotypes, and Bangkok certainly delivers.

There is just so much to do in Bangkok, and unfortunately, we did not have time to complete everything we would have liked to do. So we focused on the highlights, and we certainly saw the major highlights.

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All the major places we visited while in Bangkok! It’s a vast city and traveling can take a significant amount of time. Luckily Bangkok transit is clean and efficient.

Video of my time in Bangkok! This was filmed with my iPhone and a GoPro.

If you read my other posts, you would know that we came by a cruise and that the port for Bangkok is far from the downtown area. Knowing this cruise lines usually give passengers an extra night to explore downtown Bangkok and a chance to stay for a night. That’s what we did, renting a hotel room for one night in Bangkok!

Cruise ships dock at Laem Chabang some 2 hours south of Bangkok. We booked a rental car service that was prompt and picked us up right at the port. The service was a tad expensive, but we had our private car with wifi, water, and leather seats. Not bad for a long ride into downtown Bangkok.

It’s about two hours from Laem Chabang, but that’s not always true. Bangkok traffic is notorious so that it may take longer than that, but once you get into Bangkok, expect traffic. Our ride was mostly empty, but once into Bangkok, it was indeed very trafficky.

We stayed at The Salil Hotel Sukhumvit, a highly rated 5-star hotel in downtown Bangkok. The primary benefit of this hotel is that it’s close to the famous Skytrain making it much easier to get around Bangkok. When we got to Bangkok, we checked in, dropped our luggage off, and explored the most important parts of Bangkok.

The best way to get around Bangkok is by far the Skytrain and the metro. The Skytrain runs above ground and is clean, fast, and efficient. During rush hours in the morning, it does get super packed, so it’s best to get breakfast first and then wait for rush hour. We went during rush hour, and it was packed!

The metro is also clean and efficient, and this runs mostly underground. We had to that you must buy two separate tickets as these are two separate entities. We were confused at first thinking our tickets on the Skytrain would work on the metro, and that is not the case. Buying tickets is not hard, but you should be aware of that. Also, beware that there are day passes if you’re staying a while in Bangkok.

Our first stop was the Wat Arun or Temple of Dawn, perhaps the most famous Wat in Bangkok. When I first saw it, I thought it was just so visually striking and gorgeous. War Arun is in the Yai District on the west bank of Chao Phaya River. If it’s your first time in Bangkok, you’ll spend plenty of time seeing sights along this river.

I’m not going to give you the full history of this Wat, but it is important in Thai culture and has existed in some form since the 17th century. You should know that Buddhism is significant, and you’ll see Buddhist symbols everywhere in Thailand. Wat Arun is famous because of the reflecting tiles making it truly sparkle and glitter in the sunlight.

What I like to do when I visit a new site is to explore the area and get to know it on a personal level. Of course, I like to learn history, but I want to be visually experiencing it while I learn. There are many things to learn from this Wat, but the main feature is that the original was made from colorful porcelain and has a long history in Thailand. It’s interesting to know that its tiles and colors have been replaced several times, but the current 2017 version was done to reflect the temple’s original appearance.

It’s a great place to take high-quality photos and selfies, and because the area is so massive, it’s easy to spend a couple of hours. I think it’s better to go as early as possible as people don’t come that early and the sun gets super hot during midday. Many people instead come at night, but this could still be busy as the Wat is lit up beautifully.

Take time to explore the grounds as they are stunning and manicured very well. Next to the Wat Arun, but still, a part of Wat Arun is Ordination Hall. Ordination Hall is a beautiful building with a central spire and decorated ceramic roof with stunning Buddha images. There is a fee to get in, but it’s low. Make sure you always carry Thai money around with you!

We then decided to cross the Chao Phaya River for our next stop, which is easy and pretty cheap to get to some other famous sites on the other side. You’ll find the famous Wat Pho, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and the Grand Palace, which are all worth a visit. Here once you get off the boats crossing the river, you’ll find a market and some other souvenir shops in the adjacent streets.

Approaching lunchtime, we decided to eat at a traditional Thai restaurant that overlooks Wat Arun called The Deck. Apparently, during the night time, this place is trendy because it offers incredible views of light up Wat Arun. It provides cheap Thai food and beer.

After lunch, we first decided to visit Wat Pho, perhaps the other most famous Wat in all of Thailand. Here we found the famous reclining Buddha and saw the crowds more here than at Wat Arun. It’s also a tad pricier to get in, and it’s required you take off your shoes once inside. Have a bag, or they’ll give you one! Better yet, you can have someone watch your stuff while you enjoy yourself admiring the Buddha.

Some background of Wat Pho to know is that it’s one of the oldest temples in Bangkok and was a temple before Bangkok was even a capital. It’s rated as one of the highest grades of the first-class royal temples. Wat Pho is associated with King Rama I, who rebuilt the temple complex on an earlier temple site. It became his main temple and is where some of his ashes are enshrined. 

The temple complex houses the most extensive collection of Buddha images in Thailand, including a 46 m long reclining Buddha. The temple is considered the earliest center for public education in Thailand. UNESCO has recognized the marble illustrations and inscriptions placed in the temple for public instruction in its Memory of the World Programme. It houses a school of Thai medicine and is also known as the birthplace of traditional Thai massage, which is still taught and practiced at the temple.

We had a blast at the Wat Pho, and for me, it was the Wat I wanted to see the most. Although it was super busy, the reclining Buddha itself is so impressive. It’s beautiful and certainly worth a visit.

Next to Wat Pho is The Grand Temple and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which lie in the same complex. 

Now you have to have long pants to get in, so you’ll see many vendors selling traditional Thai pants. We ended up buying some since we were wearing shorts and they made for an excellent cheap souvenir. 

So the grounds are massive and beautiful, and there is no way you’ll cover them all and see everything. However, if you take your time, especially in the heat of the day, there are plenty of paintings, statues, and plants to admire. You can also buy some flowers and incense if you feel like taking part in the prayers.

Back outside the walls, we made our way through the streets into the large metro to our next destination, Jim Thompson House Museum. This beautiful house is located on a small river in the middle of Bangkok.

Jim Thompson constructed the house entirely on his own and designed it in a way that was based on Thai-style. He was an eccentric person and collected beautiful paintings and works of art from all over Asia. Today they are on display with a souvenir shop as well as a restaurant.

We had a great time at Jim Thompson’s house, and I even bought some scarves that are handmade in Thailand. I think the souvenir shop is also worth visiting if you do not want to take a tour of the house. There are great unique souvenirs that would be great to take home.

As night fell, we went to a mall called the MBK Center near Jim Thompson’s House. Now this mall is enormous and all indoors, which is a good idea if you’re hot and need a break inside. For me, the only downside is that it doesn’t feel like authentic Thai goods, which is kind of what we wanted. However, they do have a lot of interesting products on sale.

This mall is enormous and is separated on every floor by different products. So on one level, there is a tech level, clothes level, etc. It’s a great place to look around or sit and eat for food in comfortable air conditioning. We ended up not buying anything but still a great visit.

Okay, so I named this post one night in Bangkok, but that’s literally what we did. And so we planned to take advantage of spending one night in Bangkok by going to a gay area of Bangkok called Patpong Night Market near the Sala Daeng sky tram. 

Now, if you’ve researched or heard about Bangkok, then you may know about the night scene in Bangkok. For me, it was surprising to see that most of what I heard was undoubtedly true. Ping-pong shows are real, and that surprised me, to be honest.

As for the gay scene, there is a ton of gay bars throughout Bangkok. However, they are spread out, and they typically are in seedy areas of Bangkok. But for us, that was what we wanted to experience after experiencing a different side of Bangkok all day.

So I’ll talk about what we do know, and that was Patpong. Patpong is perhaps the best area for gay bars and gay massage bathhouses. 

We wanted to try a massage that was a lot of fun and very relaxing. After an hour or so, we crossed the street and went to a local gay bar. It was kind of a mix of gay western men along with Thai men, some mingling with each other. It’s kind of right the stereotype where older gay men with younger gay Thai men but no judgment here. Overall we liked the colorful drunken experience.

After a whole day traveling around Bangkok, we slept hard. One thing about traveling that I’ve learned over the years is that you can only push yourself so far, and we did the first day. It was nice to wake up and spend some time getting cleaned up and having a gorgeous meal.

The Salil Hotel Sukhumvit was a great choice. It’s a beautiful hotel and delivers on a 5-star service. Breakfast is included, and we enjoyed the wide variety and quality of food. 

The Salil Hotel Sukhumvit is not precisely in the heart of downtown Bangkok, but it is in a quiet enough street. Nearby we heard there were local bars, but we didn’t partake. One thing I can say is that you should be careful about getting too drunk in Bangkok because it could lead to problems.

Okay, to be honest, the last day, we didn’t do too much, but we did go to a Starbucks. Now we didn’t plan on going, but we needed some wifi, and you know the great thing about Starbucks is that they always offer wifi at their locations.

Another thing we learned about Thai Starbucks is that it offers different types of drinks unique to Thailand. And for us, that one of interest in going to Starbucks in Thailand is that they are different. I ended up with a green tea and coffee mix.

Okay, I have to tell you that the amount of Wat’s in Bangkok is excellent about Thailand. Now Wat’s don’t have to be like Wat Pho or Wat Arun, they can be local and small. So when we stumbled on Wat Pathum near the Siam Skytrain stop, we knew it was a good find. 

One of the things I love about Wat’s in Bangkok is that most of them you can enter as long as you take your shoes off. And you’re free to enter as long as you are respectful. Wat Pathum is pretty old, as old as 1857. At the time it was built was surrounded by rice fields and today surrounded by shopping centers.

For our very last moment in Bangkok, we did a very Bangkok thing. At many of the metro and Skytrain stops, there is little tea stand where you can buy a drink. The one at Thong Lor sky tram stop there were several small Thai tea stands, and we got that tea on the go! It’s something cute and original, cheap and a lot of fun.

This trip was my first time in Thailand and Bangkok, and I enjoyed my experience. Bangkok is everything people have told me over the years and felt really to come to see it for myself. I don’t think anything surprised me pursy, but Bangkok feels alive when you’re there, and that’s exciting.

Just a couple of travel gear items for your upcoming trip to Bangkok.