The last time I was at the Bangkok airport was in 1997. I was very small and my 2 hours of stopover there seemed magical because the airport was so huge and full of toys.

In spite of the proximity with Vietnam, I have never yet visited Thailand, neither has JB.

Part 1: Travel Diary
Part 2: Practical Tips

Part 1: Travel Diary

We leave our hotel in Kathmandu at 6:30 am to arrive at the Bangkok airport at 8 pm.

The day was long: the stopover at the Delhi airport made us understand that nobody wants our Nepalese rupees. At the Bangkok airport, same scenario: money exchanges do not buy Nepalese rupees. Never mind!

We carry out our usual procedures when we arrive in a new country: purchase of SIM and data card (550 baths for 30 days), cash withdrawal (all banks charge 200 baht for any withdrawal with a foreign card so it is better to withdraw a lot).

We take the Airport Link for 35 baht/person and then a connection with the subway. You have to select the subway station where you want to get off and pay according to your journey. The subway is very clean, air-conditioned. When I think about the Parisian subway, I don’t see why we consider ourselves more civilized than others when other countries (like India) manage to keep their subway super clean. People queue up before entering and wait until everyone has gotten off. In short, it’s a change…

Our hostel (T-Boutique Hostel, link Booking) is located 2mn walk from the metro. It is the cleanest hostel I know. The decoration is minimalist, all the furniture is made of wood (handmade) and you walk barefoot in the hotel. In India or Nepal in hotels, I hated walking barefoot because the floor is always dirty. But here, walking barefoot is a real pleasure, the floor is fresh and clean.

The bathroom is shared but everything is clean so there is no problem. For a good shower, it is better to go to the ground floor to have more water pressure. Another prob that we do not meet in France. Since the beginning of my trip, I realize every day of our luck, there are many things that we believe acquired but which aren’t elsewhere. For example in India, arranged marriages are still very common, even in the big cities. The hot and abundant shower that we have every morning, well, I haven’t had one like that since I left on my trip around the world.

It’s 10 pm but fortunately the restaurants are still open. We settle in a bui bui which has a menu in English please with some pictures. We eat well, “not spicy”, for 200 bahts (5€). I’m over the moon, after 2 months of eating vegetarian in spite of myself, I’m in a country where I can eat as much meat as I want. It’s naturally towards a restaurant specialized in duck that I stopped.

You will notice that I eat a duck wing soup (photo on the left). These bony parts, very despised in Europe, have the coast in Asia. The brownish cube you see there is pig’s blood. But it is very good.

Day 2: Siam Square, China Town

I’ve emptied my moisturizer stock and my skin is letting me know. So I decide to spend the whole morning shopping for Korean and Japanese cosmetics near Siam Square, at the Digital Gateway. We take an Uber to go there, much cheaper than the autorickshaw. I’ ve devoted an article to it here.

Why Korean/Japanese products? It’s not because I’m against Thai products. All over Asia, people love and use Korean cosmetics, which are known to be effective and cheap. They also adopt Japanese/Korean layering, a particularly effective skincare method, which is increasingly adopted in Europe and especially in the United States. To learn more about my layering during the world tour, please click here.

3 bags filled and 2 bubble teas later (try it absolutely dear friends, take the Classic Milk Tea to start), we land in one of the many food courts in the area… to eat Japanese food (ahahha we miss it too much). JB spits fire : his chirashi is mixed with chopped fresh chilli pepper 😂

We discover in a shopping mall next door the 4D imax format (3D but with the effects of wind, water… in addition and a huge screen). But the only movie offering this format is the new Star Trek. Do we want to spend 15€ for that ? No !

We return to the hostel to book the ticket for Koh Tao the next day. They sell combo bus/boat tickets (called “Joint Ticket”) for 1100 bahts and we want to be sure that the hostel manages to get some in time for us. For info, by withdrawing money at the ATM, we only have 1000 baths tickets. We were told that there was no problem if you pay a 40 bahts dish with a 1000 bahts bill, people always have a lot of cash on them.

I discover that my Chinese neighbors, who arrived in the morning, are getting a beauty treatment with a moisturizing mask on their face. JB tells me to join their lol beauty club but that just proves how popular Korean skincare is in Asia.

I test my products bought in the morning and we leave, around 7pm, direction China Town. The neighborhood is great, I love the atmosphere. The kitchen is in the street, you can see the chefs working and browning the prawns on the barbecue.

We opt for a seafood restaurant, air-conditioned. And there, we hallucinate in front of the Thai organization. The customers are given a number and wait in the street until there is a free place. Everything is communicated by walkie-talkie. As soon as there is a free place, the waiter in charge of a floor communicates it to his boss. The same goes for orders. We, number 22, are expected on the 3rd floor. Each order is numbered to facilitate communication to the kitchen and the invoice at the end. It looks like chaos but it is perfectly organized.

For all this, plus rice and drinks, we paid 12€ (500 baht), at T&K Sea Food.

I stop to buy a set of “sticky rice with mango” (to try according to the backpacker). Even if I’m used to the Vietnamese sweet and salty mix, this dish is really awful.

Just in front of the restaurant, you can see a massage parlour with 10 seats lined up next to each other. For 150 bahts (3,8€), one is entitled to a foot and calf massage of 45 minutes. It feels good, especially since my calves still hurt after my mini trek in Nepal. When I leave the lounge, my feet are light, I can’t even feel them anymore.

We see many street vendors selling dorian, the stinking fruit, for 200 baht (very expensive). Personally, I don’t think it stinks that much. It stinks as much as an overripe mango. Then, the taste is special, I feel like eating butter. My mother loves this fruit, but it’s the only one in the family.

We also see Chinese restaurants selling shark fin soup or bird nest soup (very expensive, not good, and not great for these animals); a bar superbly decorated in the Shanghaï style of the 20s. Even the singer, who sings modern songs, has this way of singing a little bit enticing as we see in the movies of the time.

Near the subway station, you can see street vendors with a bamboo carpet on the sidewalk. The dishes aren’t prepared in advance, but if you want, you can sit down and eat a good spicy mango salad. The girls who only have a carpet and a basket are masseuses.

Since my arrival, people take me for a Thai, which I don’t dislike because I find them very pretty (to be completely objective, they are really very beautiful, small, thin, well dressed, with a small honeyed voice).

Here, we don’t get accosted in the street, nobody follows us, except the tuk-tuks, the announced tariffs are correct, the beggars are there but not aggressive. There is always a waitress who speaks English, the menu exists in English even in the bui-bui. Hotels can buy any bus/boat ticket for you without extra commission.

I understand better why tourists love Thailand so much. Here, we enjoy life. We don’t need to think.

Day 3: Wat Po

We return our hotel room and leave the luggage at the reception desk. We take an Uber to go to Wat Po and have lunch in the area before visiting the temples.

A street vendor is making a mango salad for two warehouse employees. We decide to take one too. It’s cheap and delicious.

A group of tourists arrive from nowhere. They have things to give. They give some baby clothes and toys, at random, to the warehouse owner. She is just as astonished as we are and thanks them warmly. Later, she herself will offer us a bottle of water, it’s too nice.

After the mango salad, we have a light lunch in a hotel overlooking Wat Arun which is under construction. The beautiful view will dispense us from a boat ride.

We then go to Wat Po, famous for its reclining Buddha and its school of massage (the massage there is a little expensive, 400 baht/hour). We stay there for hours contemplating different Buddhas.

These posters can be seen everywhere but the souvenir Buddhas are still on sale.

Then I set my sights on the street food at the exit of Wat Po.

We spend a long moment to discuss with the owner of our hotel before taking the bus at 7 p.m. in direction of Koh Tao.

Day 15: Thai BBQ

We are back in Bangkok after several days at the beach.
As we take Air Asia, we land in another airport (Don Muang), not served by the subway. But everyone was very kind to indicate us a bus leading to the subway (A1, 30 Bahts).

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we take the subway directly to Terminal 21 for a Thai BBQ at Bar-B-Q Plaza. Bar-B-Q Plaza is a restaurant located on the 4th floor of the shopping center, very well known and appreciated by the Thai people.

The Thai BBQ is a mix of BBQ and fondue. You have to oil the tray with a piece of fat and then grill the meat. The juice of the meat will give the taste to the broth. The cabbage given generously will also give taste. You can add water regularly (there is a pitcher, at the beginning I thought it was lol water). The pitcher of Coke is huge (1 liter at least). You can choose sets (with mix of meat, vegetables) or small proportions separately. For 1200 baht, we really enjoyed ourselves.

If it makes you want to try it too, I just want to warn you: the meat we are given is semi-frozen. It isn’t marinated. However, the sauce provided is superb and makes you totally forget this inconvenience. The broth lacks a bit of taste, but this is always the case with all asiat fondues.

A small preview of the menu :

Day 16: Canteen at Terminal 21

The next day, we return again to Terminal 21 (the laziness to make visits under the burning heat when you can live like the Thai, with air conditioning).

Terminal 21 is a shopping mall decorated in an airport style. We have “gates” and each floor is decorated to look like a country (UK, US). The foodcourt on the 5th floor is very frequented by Thai people because it is even cheaper than in the street. The gourmet market and stalls in the basement look like the Gourmet Galleries and are worth the detour. There are also very accessible brands of clothing or decoration.

Pier 21 on the 5th floor is a kind of giant canteen. Many Thai people come here to eat, during their lunch break or for dinner with friends. Each booth is specialized in maximum 7 dishes that use about the same ingredients. Everything is prepared very quickly, but the difficulty is to find a table to sit down. Payment is made via a card specific to Pier 21. You load your card (available on request) with any amount you want (allow 150 baht/person for a meal). You pay for the stands by giving your card each time. If you don’t spend it all, you can get the remaining money back at the cash desk.

It’s very good, clean, cheap (between 35 and 50 baht), even in the street I can’t get these prices, but it lacks that little touch that gives taste to street food: the dust ahahha

Jb takes the opportunity to go to the Japanese restaurant (next to Pier 21). His chirashi is good but my salmon tartar is exceptional. I think it’s the best salmon tartar OF MY LIFE. I think I guessed the ingredients of the marinade. When I get a chance, I will try to make this tartar again.

We will end our stay in Thailand with a movie session: the new Jason Bourne. The seats are numbered and more expensive in the back. The audience is like in France: quite silent. In short, nothing to report. We should have tested the 4D Imax at Siam Square. Tomorrow: direction Koh Tao

We’ll come back to it a year later, read our travel diary in Bangkok n°2 here

Part 2: Practical Tips

Budget

• Visa : 0€
• Telecommunications: 550 Baht for 30 days of use, 4.5GB of data at maximum speed
• T-Boutique Hostel (link Booking): about 20€/night double room with shared bathroom
• Massage in Chinatown: 200 baht/hour
• Visit of Wat Po : 100 baths/person
• Visit of the royal palace (which we did not do): 500 baht/person
• Food: between 150 baht (on the street) and 250 baht (at the restaurant) per person per meal
• Transportation
  • 50 bahts in Uber for 3km
  • between 18 baht and 50 baht by subway/person
  • 450 baths in Uber from/to the airport

Tips

• The subway is the cheapest means of transportation, followed by taxi/Uber and last tuk-tuk
• To visit the Royal Palace, remember to wear closed shoes and to cover your legs (pants, skirts, long dresses)
• Withdraw a maximum of money all at once because each withdrawal is charged 200 baht for foreign cards
• Remember to specify that you do not eat spicy food (“mai pet”) otherwise you will spit fire
• Do not point your feet at a Thai or Buddha
• Women should not touch or sit next to a monk