My Bangkok visit diary
This is the second time I was visiting Bangkok but this time outside the Subarnabhumi airport. First time I only touched Bangkok while travelling to Khon Kaon. This place is half an hour by flight from Bangkok. I had some official work at Bangkok on 12th Nov 2014 and I had return flight to Delhi next day at 8:00 pm. I had complete one day to spare in Bangkok.
I traveled Bangkok in Thai Airlines from Delhi. Room was booked in hotel Beyond Suite Hotel (http://www.beyondsuitebangkok.com/). It was approximately 50 km from airport. It was excellent hotel; room(s) was huge with seating area with large sofa and kitchen. This suit has two bathrooms!
The restaurant of the hotel was also very good. I loved Thai food, it’s awesome with beer!! If you are a non-vegetarian then you will have absolutely no problem in Thailand and you too will fall in love of Thai food. Thank God I’m not vegetarian.
I took taxi from airport to hotel. The driver knows few English words. The car charged me 600 Thai Bath it include 75 Thai Bath as toll charge for expressway. All the taxi run in meter but this taxi did not (I did not know this initially). I realised while I was returning to the airport from very same hotel and taxi meter displayed only 290 Thai Bath(TB) (excluding toll tax). Taxis are very cheap if I compare with quality and service of Indian taxi. Roads are excellent but traffic condition is very similar to Delhi or any other metro city in India. I experienced pick hr Delhi traffic condition at 6:30 in morning there. Driving style is also very similar to Indian drivers!!
On 13th morning I started around 10:30 am from my hotel in a taxi (80 TB) to The Great Palace. It was lovely sunny day and very hot even in Nov. The entry ticket to the palace, the royal monastery of the Emerald Buddha and museum 500 BT which in my opinion is little expensive. Thailand is primarily a Buddhist country and culturally more close to India among Asian countries.
There are few thing which you must not forget while travelling to Thailand; these are a good camera, a sunglasses and a bottle of water. Unfortunately I forgot first two of them. The Nov sun was so strong it almost made me blind!! I think it’s absolutely not recommended to travel Thailand during summer.
It took two and half hrs to see the Great Palace and Emerald Buddha. The museum was little far the ticket was valid for 7 days so that it can be visited later if not same day. Inside the palace promises there is a shop where you can find water, food, ice cream and most importantly BEER (‘Singha’ is I think most famous local beer brand).
Next I visited to Wat Pho (the Reclining Buddha). The entry ticket is 100 BT. Wat Pho is 10 to 15 min walking distance from the palace. At the exit of the palace you will find few people who will guide you to ‘tuk tuk’ (basically a auto in India). Like in many tourists places in India they too have tie-up with local shopping centres on commission basis. However, these tuk-tuk drivers are honest (unlike Indian drivers) and will tell you which places they will take you on the way. It’s a nice option to for local siteseeing.
Thailand in general not so expensive compare to many travel destination in India. Indians are allowed to have visa on arrival and charges for visa is only 1000 BT. If you do not want to stand in long queue then you have to pay 200 BT extra. In my opinion cost for one week honeymoon in Kerala or Goa would be expensive than one week in Pataya and Bangkok. That is the reason you will find many newly married Indian couple with ‘shadhiwali mehendi’ and ‘chuda’ moving around in Bangkok.
