Arrival in Bangkok & Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn)

The Journey Begins:

Booked a Bus from Bangalore to Chennai which departed from Madivala (Bangalore) at 11:45 PM to catch my flight from Anna International Airport Chennai which is scheduled at 10:30 PM. As usual the bus got delayed and left finally by 1:00 PM from Bangalore. I chose the day journey to save my hotel cost, tried to take little nap as I was sure that coming 5 days I should certainly compromise on my sleep, as exploring 3 places in 5 days was too tight. Hence I got some sleep and the bus reached Koyambedu (Chennai) by 7:30 pm which was a close call, but I still got 3 hours and I had to travel to the airport. I asked the officials in the bus terminal and after all the wrong guidance from many people, I finally got the exact bus number to the airport. The bus reached by 8:30 pm, and I rushed in for check-in skipping my dinner, knowing the fact that it’s quite expensive to buy food in airport, but have to pay for it rather than missing a flight. I still had half an hour for final check-in call, so I quickly took my brunch and waited for the flight to depart. Finally it was in the air. My adjacent seats were shared by a Belgium lady (Griet) and my Indian friend (Pritam). We got introduced to each other and both offered a lot to learn. Each one had got distinct characteristics, so this is the best thing of traveling alone; you are forced to talk to someone and in the mean course you learn a lot from them.

My flight finally reached Bangkok by 3:30 am. I took a meter taxi from airport desk to my hostel which was in Bangrak road and the taxi fellow was very obedient, never took advantage of the fact that I was a foreigner. The landmark to the hostel was hotel Manohra and taxi driver dropped me at right place, even though the hostel was just few steps away, I was searching for an hour to find it. It was 4:30 am, and I found it very challenging to manage with few people awake and even more challenging was they cannot speak/understand English. After several rounds, I was embarrassed to see that the hostel was just next to me. I went inside and found the receptionist sleeping, after several shouts he woke up, after completing few formalities he told me to get settle in the last dorm room, but the beds were full, but was super lucky to get a private room instead of the dorm I had booked and I dozed off by putting alarm after 4 hours.

Day 1- The Bangkok

9:00 am is when the alarm started ringing, I woke up, took a bath, packed my bag and left to the reception for check out. It was 10:00 am and I was asking the receptionist for the places to look around, but unfortunately she didn't understand English either. She just showed me the local bus numbers which will take you to the tourist attractions, I noted some and then left the hostel seeking a proper vegetarian Restaurant to have my breakfast. I was damn hungry as previous day my appetite was not proper, was lucky to find an Indian restaurant nearby. To my rotten luck it was just opened and he told it will take another hour to serve the food. I had already lost time, so took some suggestions from him ab the places? He advised to take bus no. 115 and get down at the last stop which will take me to some zoo. I obeyed him and had some pieces of the pineapple on the street and waited for the bus to come. Finally the bus arrived and I told the lady conductor to take me to the last stop. She asked me to relax as it would take 1 and a half hour to reach the destination. Finally around 12:00 pm I reached the destination. The conductor did not take any money from me, she just smiled at me and asked me to get down. When I got down, surprise surprise, there was nothing apart from one amusement park. I traveled 35 kms to the extreme east of Bangkok to find one amusement park?

 It was named Siam park, I just went inside to check the park. It had many  rides but I was in no mood to try it, neither I had time; so I came out and was dying from hunger. All the street food offered was non-veg, but I am a veggie and struggling to find a proper veg stall since morning. Taxi drivers stopped me and asked whether I would be interested in checking out the safaris nearby. Yeah it was the great safari world they were talking about, which is known for its orangutan shows, but I ignored as this was not in my itinerary at all. The lady conductor was right their chit chatting with few bunch of other local bus drivers/conductors, I told them I found nothing and she started laughing on my luck. It was then everyone started interacting with me and that’s the moment I found out how polite, well behaved and helping Thai’s are. They fought with the English language to decipher what actually I need, then I showed them the places in the map and it was “Wat Arun” – The temple of dawn.

They suggested me to take bus no 70 which will take me to Wat Arun, and then I asked them for some veggi food stalls, they asked one of the bus conductors to drop me at the Buddhists place where only veg food is served. Even this conductor didn’t charge me and dropped me to a place called “Saphan Sung” on the Bangkok eastern outer ring road. Happy to see finally a veg stall in Bangkok, I eagerly went to see what was she offering? As usual, she dint know English and I repeatedly asked her is this vegetarian and she was looking at me with a question mark on her face. Finally one of the locals understood what i was talking about and he told yes it is vegetarian. I told her please make one for me as well, it was kind of soup with varieties of boiled vegetables, spices, noodles and the name of the dish was Ko Pak Pha. I thought I had to take 4 of these to fill my tummy looking at the size of the bowl. I started eating one and by the time I finished it, my tummy was full. It was tasty and filling and it cost just 35 Bhats. I thought of packing one for my dinner as well, it was that scarcity of veg stalls in Bangkok,  so waited for the bus no 70, and finally I could see the bus coming with board 70 on it. It was an a/c bus, but I didn’t enjoy its ride as the windows were tinted and it blocked the city view. This conductor finally charged me and I came out of the myth that local buses were not free for foreigners, I reached place called Wat Arun by 4:00 pm.

Stunning monument it was but we need to cross a small lake to reach Wat Arun through a ferry which will charge you 6 bhats (to & fro) I went inside to see the exquisite monument, took few pics of the surroundings. To enter the main monument, you need to take an entry ticket which will cost you 50 bhats, observing the monument closely which was entirely made up of a stone, the entire structure was sculpted by a fine Thai art. It’s a treat to see such minute carvings. Reaching the monument you have to literally climb on an inclination of 80deg through steps to reach the monuments top which offered beautiful views of the surrounding establishments, resting for some time, and capturing few more pictures decided to leave the place. 

On my way back to ferry, I found a cute Thai girl with beautiful attire who was also a tourist. I decided to capture her natural looks and approached her for a picture and she readily agreed following which I left Wat Arun by 5:30 pm. 

But the day still had many surprises to offer with many new places to visit many new experiences to capture. Stay with me to get a glimpse of the Thunderous Thailand with me. 

Shravan