After the string of flights across the world, I finally made it to one of the craziest places on Earth. At 1am, I checked into a place called the Diamond House. It’s an exotic Thai guesthouse near the famous Khao San Road – a global backpacker’s meeting hub. At around 4am, my friend finally arrived and we decided to start the day.
After walking around the Khao San Road area, we ran into a young Thai Tuk Tuk driver. We made a deal with him to drive us around the city for 3 hours for 20 baht (less than one US dollar). His Tuk Tuk even had subwoofers and we started the day by introducing the local Thai people to some nice Electrohouse :)! The first stop he brought us to was a place called Wat Intharawihan (the giant gold Buddha). It towered over the entire city and was absolutely breathtaking.
Next, we proceeded to check out an area called Wat Saket (the golden mount). It is a beautiful Buddhist temple built high above the city with enormous winding stairways that inspires this feeling of ascending to the heavens. At the top was a phenomenal view of the entire city and its multitude of statues, prayer rooms, ritual bells, and Buddhist shrines. The Thai people use a mixture of gold and wood that makes every piece of artwork appear ethereal despite their relative simplicity.
After the long walk down, we came across an eccentric Thai man who told us we would not regret trying his cooking, so we went into his tiny restaurant and had at it! A few Changs (Thai beer) alongside fantastic cooking led to full stomachs that nearly put me in a food coma.
After we recovered, our Tuk Tuk friend brought us to Wat Chana Songkhram (another local Buddhist temple), where we walked in at the perfect time. We witnessed the monks chanting intensely as thick incense filled the golden chamber that echoed with prayer.
It is disrespectful to film the monks while in prayer, so we followed along and enjoyed the enchanting atmosphere as we participated from the back of the room. It was quite a beautiful sight to witness.
Here is a video of the outside shrine at the rear of the temple. It is absolutely gorgeous.
When the monks finished up with their morning ceremony, one of the elders came outside and spoke with me. It was a calming and graceful experience.
Once we left, our driver introduced us to his cousin who did canal tours for a living and had a private boat that he said he would take us on since it was a slow day. I know that it is extremely touristy, but I have always wanted to ride in the Thai boats in the Canals. We ultimately succumbed to the temptation and walked over to the harbor on the west side of Bangkok. For the next hour, we received a tour of the canals and observed how the majority of the Thai people lived along the river.
At one point, some young girls paddled up to our boat and employed some of the most relentless sales tactics I had ever encountered. I respected the hustle, so I bought a few wooden elephant figurines from them and a few beers for our boat driver.
As we finished up the canal tour, we started heading back to our guesthouse, grabbing some fresh coconut ice cream on the way. It hit the spot!
Keep in mind, we packed all of this into one day and we had not slept for over 30 hours. Thankfully, we were able to fit in a few hours of sleep and wake up just in time for the Bangkok nightlife to begin.
Earlier in the day, we were hanging out with some Swedes, Germans, a group of backpackers from Norway, and two travelers from the Philippines. We also met some funny folks from Chicago who told us that we had to see a ping pong show, as it was our first time in Bangkok…
After partying with our new friends for awhile all over the city, we noticed it was about 2am and we decided “When in Rome, right?”…… Not knowing what to expect, we called over a Tuk Tuk and told him to take us to Patpong road (the red light district), where it gets wild at night and where the infamous ping pong shows are held.
After a hefty entrance fee of 600 baht (~20 dollars), we were taken down a very ‘inviting’ back alley, and walked into a pitch black room with neon lights, blaring music, and foreigners drinking sketchy cocktails. The girls came on stage and performed various acts such as shooting ping pong balls with pretty impressive accuracy, picking up items with chopsticks, opening beer bottles, pulling out neon jump ropes, and finally shooting darts to pop balloons. Doesn’t sound like a unique experience? Well, it’s probably worth mentioning that this was all done with their genitals. It was deemed disgusting by some as many left the scene pretty fast. However, it was definitely a part of Thai culture that I will never/am unable to forget. As crazy as it sounds, I do recommend going to see one as there is nothing like it in the world. It is almost like a talent display/sport. After the show, we tried to comprehend what we had just witnessed, then decided to call it a night as it was about 4am. We had a flight in 3 hours to Phuket the next morning, so we figured we should stop drinking these Thai Red Bulls and hit the sack for a bit.
For now, one day in Bangkok was enough…. What happens in Bangkok, stays in Bangkok. Until we return in a week!
