Thailand 2024 - Bangkok Part 3

We grabbed a tuk tuk from our hotel, to the Jodd Fairs night market. This market is located next to the Central Rama 9 Department Store (top tip - we used the toilets in the Department store which were free and incredibly nice). The market is huge and literally had anything you could have wanted to eat, drink or purchase. Sam even had her nails redone at one of the stalls, whilst Lee struggled to choose one of the many local beers to try. It is open daily from 4pm until 12am. 

Lee decided to barter the tuk tuk home, and the driver decided to take us for the ride of our lives. We were doing wheelies, banging out tunes, and lit up with so much neon, even the space station could see us. It was a lot of fun, if a little scary, but he made up for the bartered rate with a very big tip. We asked the driver to drop us off at our favourite bar, Orange Bar for one last night cap. The employees had remembered it was Sam's birthday and had organised a special surprise, as you'll see from our video. 

The next day, we headed to the MRT to Lumphini Park. We wish we could say it was to take in the beauty of the park, or to escape the city, it was actually to see the giant monitor lizards (or dragons as Sam likes to call them). They really were pretty scary, especially when you turn around and there is one coming towards you! 

We walked through the park and out the other side, which took us to an Japanese area of the city. We headed into one of the shopping centres to purchase a new memory card for the camera, having left our spare ones at the hotel, and ended up in the food court enjoying a Japanese lunch. 

Fuelled up and with a fresh memory card, we headed onto the BTS (sky train) to our next stop, the Mahanakhon SkyWalk. The SkyWalk is located at the top of the King Power Mahanakhon tower, in the heart of the business district. It is 78 storeys high and is Thailand's highest observation deck with absolutely amazing views of the entire city. What we really liked is that there is a bar and café on the deck so you can relax, take your time, and enjoy the view. There is an opportunity to walk over a glass walkway which looks straight down. It was a weird feeling walking over the glass, made more weird by the special protectors you had to wear on your feet to ensure you didn't make the glass dirty. 

We had planned to visit a couple more places but we decided to instead head back to the hotel for some relaxing by the pool so we could ready ourselves for exploring in the evening. 

In the evening, we ordered a Lyft (which was actually cheaper than a tuk tuk) and headed to Khaosan Road. This place was the other end of the city so not particularly easy or quick to get to in rush hour traffic, but it is a must do in Thailand. Khaosan Road is the famous back packer party road but actually it's more than that. We started off in the next road along, Ram Buttri Road. There wasn't a back packers party bar in sight here. It was mostly families enjoying street food, western restaurants, massage parlours (and not the dodgy type), and chilled out bars. There was a really nice vibe here, it was really a good place to start. It also had the most amazing Pad Thai, the best we have ever had made by a street vendor. 

We'd reached the end of the road but we continued down some smaller streets, which led to market stalls, more street food, and really cool and interesting bars. We even found a short cut through the back of some houses with signs leading us back to Khaosan Road. 

We eventually made it to Khaosan Road and it was an experience. It wasn't seedy like Soi Cowboy, it was a party street with every bar banging out tunes louder than the one before. Hopefully the video will give you a taste of just how unique this road is. 

We partied.... lots. And eventually got back to out hotel at 4am, not ideal when we had an early flight the next day to Chang Mai!