Home » Thailand » Bangkok

2001

Bangkok

Jeremy Koh
2005-11-03 20:13:42

Displayed times (last time: )

This is my third visit to Bangkok (fourth actually if you consider a transit at the airport) but it might as well been my first because the last time i was here was in 1992 and i can't really remember much except for the heat and the pollution. Thankfully this time around, the experience was better.

Day 1- Hualamphong and Chatuchak

Upon arrival at the airport at around 11am, we decided to head down to Hualamphong train station to buy our tickets to Nong Khai where we'll cross the border to Laos. We decided to take a bus to save some money. The airport express counter told us to take bus no. 11 at a bus stop around 300m from the airport so we decided to follow their advice. When we boarded the bus, we were told that the bus didn't go to Hualamphong and they didn't really understand what we were saying anyway so we disembarked from the bus. Since we didn't really know how to get there, we decided to hail a cab. It wasn't easy trying to get the driver to understand us either. It took quite a bit of gesturing before he knew what we were talking about. The route to Hualamphong took us past a couple of toll-booths where we had to pay toll fees.

At the train station, it was relatively hassle-free getting the tickets. We got an air-conditioned second-class overnight train to Nong Khai which costs around 600 baht. But it set off only at 8pm which meant we had quite a bit of time to spare. Thus we decided to head for Chatuchak Market. This market is located just south of the new Northern bus terminal and is open all day Saturday and Sunday. This meant it was quite far from the train station. Anyway when we reached there, it turned out to be this huge marketplace which sells almost everything, even opium pipes. We took some time walking around and got lost in this enormous labyrinth. There are lots of paths and turns you could take and at every corner, there's bound ...