Day 117! Today was fairly chill, but I left Khaosan Road again, hopped on some busses (more than necessary), and made my way to my new home for the next couple of days… a fancy hotel! As the title says, my cousins got here today too and I’m so freaking excited! It’s going to be a fun 2 weeks!

It was… a late start to the day today. But it was a fun night the night before so I wasn’t too upset. Also I didn’t have anything to do today until around 2pm so I wasn’t in a rush.

But that all being said, I rolled out of bed around 11am and headed over to check out of my hostel just before noon.

NapPark is such a great hostel. One of the best things is their lobby to hang out in (and one of the reasons I decided to stay there this time around). You can leave your backpack after you check out and it’s a perfect spot to relax and escape the heat until it’s time to head out.

But I wasn’t relaxing yet, as it was time for breakfast… maybe brunch?

I grabbed a smoothie from my favorite smoothie stand. While I was waiting, I got a text from my new friend Sam, from Australia. He was wanting to grab food and had already walked to my hostel!

I didn’t know that, so I had already left. But he walked the minute or two over to where I was. I then introduced him to the alleyway restaurant I was eating at before going to Nico’s house.

Not only did I introduce him to this new restaurant, but I also introduced him to the incredible soup, Yen Ta Fo (pink noodle soup). It’s so mouthwateringly good.

After breakfast, I needed to swing by the hostel I stayed at previously. I had forgotten a pair of underwear hanging up on the drying rack… too much of an important clothing item to forget! But it wasn’t too far out of the way since we were eating right next door. The owner, Yaz, was happy to see me again and hopefully I’ll get a chance to stay there again in the future!

Sam was planning on exploring Bangkok, since he hadn’t seen the sights yet. I would have probably joined him because I’ve really enjoyed his company. But I’ll be checking these sights out with my cousins soon enough (and I didn’t feel the need to see them more than twice).

So we parted ways and hopefully I’ll be seeing him in the future! Either in the south of Thailand or when I go to Australia.

I then spent the next couple hours playing the hostels guitar (this didn’t last super long since I started dripping sweat sitting outside) and reading more of The Hobbit.

I started getting hungry again and wanted another cheap meal in the area before heading out. So I messaged the girls from Switzerland that I met the night before and asked if they were down to grab lunch.

They were in, but it turned out they had slept until 1pm… so I guess this was their breakfast.

We went to the same restaurant I had dinner at the night before and I ended up having the same meal. It’s a really good dish, but the chicken options were really this or pad Thai so I went with the rice dish.

After eating, we sat and chatted for probably another hour before getting up and leaving. They were looking for things to do today before they had something at 6pm so I suggested that they go to the Chatuchak weekend market.

(I got a message later in the day saying they went and thoroughly enjoyed the market, which was lovely to hear!)

I went back to my hostel to grab my things. But before I left, I chatted with one of the workers that remembered me and thanked her again for doing so! It really meant a lot and shows how good this hostel is.

This is where the fun part of the day begins…

It was time to catch more public busses. I felt really confident I had this down from the past couple of rides I went on. But this time around ended up proving to be a bit of a challenge.

There was a bus stop a couple of minutes down the street and I waited… and waited… and waited. But the bus that Google maps said I needed to take just never came. I later found out this bus was out of service (thanks Google).

Thankfully, a friendly Thai woman with good English was there to help! I showed her which bus I needed and she would tell me yes or no when they showed up, obviously they were all no.

This luck ran out when she said goodbye and hopped on a bus!! I thought she was going to help me, but she needed to get home, so I wasn’t too upset. Soon after her bus, a blue line bus with AC arrived and I thought it was one I needed. But after paying the bus fare (15 Baht), the ticket man told me that I needed to get off at the next stop and get on the 47 bus, which would take me to the correct bus stop to then hop on a bus that would take me all the way to the hotel.

I was hot and sweaty from standing outside, so I wasn’t too thrilled to leave the AC. But I listened and hopped off the bus and waited. I was checking Google maps again and saw that this bus stop could potentially take me all the way to the hotel… but I wasn’t going to risk it since not long after I got off a 47 bus rolled up and I hopped on, hoping I was steered in the right direction. I paid 8 Baht for this bus ride.

The bus in fact took me to the correct bus stop! I got off at Soi Man Si, which wasn’t super far from where I started, but saved me walking in the heat with my backpack. Also, the ticket woman on this bus was super helpful! She made sure I was going to the right stop and told me when it was coming up. The locals are almost always looking out for the Farang (what they call foreigners).

By this point, we were 45 minutes in to the journey… when I should’ve been almost to the hotel by then.

I wasn’t too worried about it, I wasn’t in any sort of rush. 2pm was the earliest I could check in, but I’m glad I spent more time relaxing and with my friends before setting out to be on my own for the rest of the day.

Three minutes after I got off the bus, the bus I needed pulled in! A wonderful air conditioned bus to take me all the way to the hotel, and for only 20 Baht too. So in total this journey cost me 43 Baht or $1.16. Since I wasn’t in a rush, I think this was totally worth it!

This last ride took around 40 minutes. It started out very empty and I dove into more reading. But soon the bus started to fill up and get very cramped. So much so, that when I was getting close to my stop and preparing to put my bag back on for a quick exit, a local out of nowhere helped me put it on! It was very nice of him and I thanked him many times.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over how nice Thai locals are. It’s one of the many things I love about this country and SE Asia!

I got off the bus in one of the more bougie parts of the city, but this stop was a quick 7 minute walk from the hotel!

I felt a little out of place in my tank top, shorts, and solo traveler backpack. But I was excited to check in and see what an upscale Bangkok hotel had in store!

Even though the reservation was under my cousin Ben’s name, it was easy for me to check in. Because we had a new addition to our trip, my cousin Mina, I needed to see if we could get a cot. Originally it was just Ben, Sam, and I and we were planning on sharing a king bed for the three of us… but four in a king bed seemed to be a bit excessive.

They were more than happy to put a cot in the room. So I headed up the elevator to the 11th floor and was met with the nicest room I had seen since the start of my travels.

Not only was it an incredible room, but it also had an amazing view of the city! I was feeling a bit peckish after arriving, so I decided to test out the mangosteens that I got a couple days ago… to of course make sure they were good for my cousins… and not poisonous or anything (it was really good and dare I say, perfect). I’m excited to see what they think of this new fruit!

20 minutes later, the hotel staff arrived with a cot and rearranged the beds to fit better in the room. We had our compound ready to go!

Now this hotel had something perfect for a hot day like today. It has a swimming pool looking over the city! Since everything in the room was sorted, I threw on my swim trunks and headed down to the 4th floor to check out the pool.

I wasn’t the only one with this idea (surprise surprise) and joined a number of families all hanging out by the pool. I got in for a short amount of time, but the water was unfortunately warm. I got back out and let the air dry me off, which cooled me down, and enjoyed reading more of The Hobbit while I watched the sunset over the city!

It’s been a while since I’ve had a nice view for the sunset. I got to watch them all the time in Laos, but have been slacking a bit in Thailand, so I’ll hopefully get some good viewpoint spots in soon, especially when I get to the south!

The sun set and I was exhausted from the night before and the heat. So I went back to my room to shower and take a quick power nap.

I woke up feeling refreshed and set out to the busy streets of downtown Bangkok. I had done a quick google search for some cheap restaurants in this expensive part of town and was met with a few options. I went on a 10 minute walk to the first two… and they both were closed. Again, thanks Google.

I kept on walking to another restaurant that looked really good from my search, but was a further walk from my hotel. From the hotel it was a 18 minute walk… but from the path I took, it took over 30 minutes. It was a lot nicer walking around with the sun down though!

I arrived at the restaurant which had one of the largest menus I had seen since coming to SE Asia. It was filled with just about every non-regional specific Thai dish there was.

I ended up ordering a dish I really enjoy but haven’t had too many times since being back in SE Asia.

I got a stir fried sukiyaki with chicken and it was delicious! It also came with a spicy sauce that tasted fairly tomato based. This was probably the biggest portion of food I’ve gotten of sukiyaki and I definitely was not complaining. I enjoyed my meal and then set back on a walk back to my hotel.

On my way back I stopped by a 7-eleven to grab a few more tasty treats for my cousins so that there was plenty of snacks for when they arrived!

And then… at 9:54pm, I received the text I’ve been waiting MONTHS to see!

It took them 2 hours to get from the plane, through the airport, into a Grab, and to the hotel. But we were finally all together in freaking Thailand!

After they arrived and settled in I shared all the fun snacks I had waiting for them. They really enjoyed the mangosteen which made me very happy (confirms I’m unbiased about how good they are too 😉).

They weren’t tired yet, so we went on a nice long walk through the city. But before we set off we made their first 7-eleven run for some water!

We called it a night after that!

We’ll see what we get up to tomorrow, but I’m excited for anything. I’m with three of my favorite people so whatever we get up to will be a blast. It’s pretty crazy that they are here, but it feels right that they are! I’m seriously so pumped that they came.

– Elie