Day 112! Today was another nice day of “relaxing” in Bangkok! I ended up spending a lot of it in a great city park… but walking about 2 hours in the heat to get back to my hostel. Enough spoilers though, let’s dive into the day!

I decided to sleep in a bit today and started my day around 10am where I set off solo to get breakfast.

I didn’t have to wander far because I knew the alleyway I’ve been frequenting would hopefully be open by now. Sure enough, it was open and I sat down to enjoy another great, cheap meal here.

I began my day with a lot of spice and got a Tom Yum noodle soup! Last year, when I was in Bangkok, I had a not so great experience with a very spicy Tom Yom dish… but now, I really like them! Maybe my spice tolerance has gone up, but there’s something about this dish I really enjoy.

I’m also more game to have soup in the intense heat, thanks to Vietnam!

After walking back to the hostel post breakfast, I decided to go on a bit of an adventure and explore a part of Bangkok I hadn’t been to yet.

So I hopped on a Bolt scooter for 80 Baht and made my way across the city on a wild motorbike ride.

I arrived safe and sound, with very windswept hair, to my destination for the morning. I saw on Google maps that there was a large park with ponds, called Lumphini Park, and thought it’d be a great place to sit in the shade and enjoy the rest of the book I’ve been reading!

After walking around the beautiful park for a bit, I found a nice bench in the shade overlooking one of the ponds.

I plopped down here to read and ended up sitting here for about two and a half hours.

While sitting here I was met with many birds and their wonderful singing. A monitor lizard also popped out of the pond to say hello too! Thankfully it decided to not make any moves to come closer.

Even though I didn’t end up finishing my book yet (I got close), I felt like I had spent long enough sitting in the park. I was also getting hungry so I walked through the rest of the park and started making my way back to the hostel.

It was very hot out, which is one of the reasons I motorbiked to the park. But I felt compelled to walk back and conquer the almost 2 hour walk. I was also hoping to find a new cheap restaurant on my way back too!

On my walk back I passed through a hospital’s campus, then the campus of Chulalongkorn University, and I walked by a mega mall (which I thought about going in for the AC but decided to keep walking). It was pretty cool seeing more of what the city had to offer and not just stick to the touristy areas.

Take away the different language and driving on the opposite side of the road and Bangkok isn’t much different than any city in the US!

I got to an hour into my 2 hour walk and I still hadn’t found a restaurant to eat at. So I stopped into the nearest 7-eleven for a big bottle of water and a cheese toasty!

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve had a cheese toasty. Luckily I’ve had so much cheap food around me that I haven’t been hungry enough for one!

After scarfing down this delicious treat, I kept on walking.

Just under an hour later, I had walked through busy city streets and past a truck shipping yard and a train yard. I was really getting to see the nitty gritty of the city.

I had also just realized where I was. I caught the old swing standing at the end of one of the streets which oriented me and I didn’t need Google maps anymore.

And around this time I finally found what I was looking for! A really cheap side of the road place to eat.

I enjoyed a large mango smoothie for 45 Baht and a delicious plate of stir fried chicken with lemon grass, cashews, and rice for 50 Baht… under $3 for this meal.

After eating, I thanked the owners for the lovely meal and continued onto the last 20ish minute leg of my walk.

I passed by a statue of King Rama III, who was the third king of Siam, which sits infront of the gorgeous temple called Wat Ratchanatdaram Worawihan.

When I finally arrived at my hostel I had been out in the heat for the past 5 hours… so I plopped down in a beanbag of our air conditioned lobby and spent the next 2 hours devouring the rest of my book.

While I was reading, the owner of the hostel, Yaz, offered me and another traveler a samosa from the ones he just got. They were really good!

I have to say, the owner of this hostel is such a nice guy and a great hostel owner. This might not be the most luxurious hostel I’ve ever stayed at, but Yaz has been over the top friendly and helpful. I’m very happy I ended up staying here for as long as I did!

I finished up reading my book and was starting to get hungry. So I set back out into the heat of the night on the hunt for a feast.

And a feast is what I found!

I started by ordering a coconut and kiwi smoothie, the fruit stand was closed yesterday and I was very happy to see it open again! It’s very nice, the guys working there remember I don’t want sugar in my smoothies, the fruits are already so sweet!

I then walked a few steps over to a food stand I went to the other day for more of their fried chicken and rice.

As good as this all was, I was still very hungry. I think all the walking and sweating I did worked up a big appetite. So I ordered another cheap plate of food.

A side note, ever since I sold my motorbike I’ve been averaging over 10,000 steps a day! I was looking back at my phones statistics and I went from doing not a lot of walking in Laos, to doing a ton of walking in Thailand!

My second dinner was a chicken with basil and rice, and of course a fried egg.

I was pretty full at this point but I didn’t really feel like heading back to my hostel yet. So I went on a walk around the busy streets and ended up walking through Khaosan Road again. It’s such a good place to people watch and have a sensory overload with the loud music, food and street vendors, and the bar reps constantly pestering you to come into their bar.

I made it through the entire road and decided… yeah, I’d like some desert, there’s always room for desert. I remembered that the place I had had lunch offered mango sticky rice. And on the Google reviews, it said many times that it was “the best mango sticky rice (insert person) had ever had.”

I had to put this to the test and see if it would change my opinion on mango sticky rice. I haven’t had it too many times, but I personally think it’s overrated.

But I’m still open minded and game to try! The owner made it sound like there wasn’t much of the sticky rice left. I was still down to try it and she brought out a big plate of mango with some sticky rice covered witch crispy bits.

Was it the best mango sticky rice ever? I’m not super sure since I haven’t had it many times. But it was the best I’ve had for sure! Usually you don’t see it with a full mango and I do love mango. I honestly thought it was the perfect amount of sweet sticky rice too.

The sign said the dish was 60 Baht, but the owner only had me pay 40 Baht. I’m assuming this was because of the amount of sticky rice they gave me.

On my walk back home my friend Dan called and we caught up on the past 2 days that we haven’t hung out. He was chilling on the beach by himself and it worked out perfectly because I was in the city by myself too. I think there’s a bit of an adjustment period between having a crew of people to be around and then going back to being solo. We’re all comfortable being solo and enjoy it, but it’s easy to get used to having others there to make decisions and to hang out with!

I guess I’ll have the perfect amount of time to adjust back to being alone just in time to have another group to hang out with for a couple weeks… my cousins!

While I walked back, the democracy monument was fully lit up against the black sky. It’s a pretty impressive structure.

I got back to my hostel and took a much needed shower. I then laid down in bed enjoying the AC and watching some TV shows which I haven’t made the time to do in quite awhile.

My day ended up being quite filled for having no plans. I was a bit nervous spending so much time in Bangkok because when I was here last I didn’t like the city that much. But that was because I didn’t give it a chance! I’m not sure I’d ever want to live in this city (kind of like living in New York), but I definitely could see myself spending more time here in the future!

Good news is, I’m not leaving anytime soon! I still have about a week left here! Tomorrow I’ll be leaving the hostel and heading to a new friend’s house to sleep there… but more on that tomorrow!

– Elie