Weddingbee Blog

We are back from our post-courthouse, pre-ceremony mini-moon to Thailand! We stayed two nights in Bangkok and one night on the island of Koh Samet.

We landed at Suva…Suvarna…whatever, Bangkok Airport late Tuesday night and immediately got on a bus to our hostel. We were tired but excited to see the city—unfortunately, a heavy storm made it hard to see!

We stayed for the first two nights in Bangkok at a hostel called Lub d. I stay at hostels all the time, and here is my trick for picking a good one: look at the reviews at hostelworld.com, hostelz.com, and tripadvisor. I know it seems like a lot of work, but seriously, look at ALL the reviews to find the best one. Compare, compare, compare. I’ve only ever had one bad experience using this technique (in Amsterdam), and we picked a real winner this time, too. Lub d is located in the Silom area, and we ponied up for a double private room—it was about $90 for two nights. The double room had a private shower, bathroom, queen bed, and TV with Western channels. Score! It had a nice design and was comfortable and rather large for Asia.

Did you ever think a hostel could look like this?

We woke up early the next morning and had breakfast at the hostel and asked them some questions on how to get around. I downed a Thai Red Bull for breakfast; I’m a Red Bull fanatic, and the Thai version packs a serious punch! It’s not carbonated and is a little syrupy, but not bad. Once I was awake and ready to bounce off the walls, we hit up the major sightseeing spots of Old Town Bangkok.

Clockwise from top left: Wat Arun (The Temple of the Dawn), The Grand Palace, Wat Pho (The Temple of the Reclining Buddha), and Mr. G being silly

All of the major sightseeing spots in Bangkok are located around the Chao Phraya river. To be honest, the Silom area we stayed in was a little far from the sights, and I would’ve preferred to stay closer to the river. Anyway, we withstood the humidity and walked around the Grand Palace, then hopped a boat to Wat Pho and saw the Reclining Buddha, had a 30-minute Thai massage for $10, ate lunch, then hopped a boat across the river to Wat Arun. It was really surprising how poor most of the city seemed—broken and abandoned buildings all over the place, shacks made of corrugated metal, people selling anything and everything on the sidewalk to make a baht—but the temples and palace were grand opulence. Dripping with gold, jewels, fabulous details. In Japan, the Buddhist temples are wooden, plain, and austere. These Thai temples were like nothing we’ve ever seen before! I wonder if it’s a cultural thing or because Thai and Japanese practice different schools of Buddhism?

Once we were done seeing the famous sights, we headed to the dirrrrrrty dirty of Bangkok: Khaosan Road and Patpong. Khaosan largely caters to foreigners, and you can buy all kinds of clothes, shoes, rip-off DVDs, whatever, for cheap. All over the city, people will try to hawk things or get you to come into their store, but you will be approached by EVERYONE on Khaosan Road. We tried to look for new shoes for Mr. G, and I bought myself a cute little romper. We also had our first beers in Thailand: Tiger and Laos.

Stinky, sweaty, tired, and sick of being asked if I need a tuk-tuk

We headed back to our hostel to take showers and have a quick nap, then debated: should we be klassy and take a taxi to a rooftop-hotel bar to get an amazing night view of the city and have a quick and pricey nightcap, or walk to Patpong and experience all the crazy things we’ve heard about Bangkok? Since we were still in a party mood from our trip down Khaosan, we chose Patpong.

Dream Boy, The Boys Bangkok, and Balls Bar

Patpong is the Red Light District of Bangkok. It’s got a night market, but the big thing is bikini girls dancing on poles on top of bars. You don’t even need to go into a bar to see them! And of course, the infamous ping-pong show. If you aren’t familiar and aren’t faint of heart, go ahead and Google it. I’ll wait…

For some reason, all of the club promoters kept offering ME the ping-pong show. Anyone have any idea why they do this? When we peeked inside of the clubs, we noticed there were quite a few female patrons as well. Just one of the unsolved mysteries of traveling to a new country! We had dinner at a beer garden, and the drinking began. We drank it aaaaaall at once; when Mr. G tipped our waiter, he came over and wiped down Mr. G’s arms with a cold towel for him. Whaaaat?

To be honest, we were pretty sick of the city after a night in Patpong. I mean, you can’t even go a few steps without being offered a ping-pong show for “special price, just for you!” or a fake-brand-name watch. Even sitting down at the outdoor restaurants meant the street hawkers would come and try to sell trinkets. We were relieved the next day when we headed to a different part of Thailand.

Stay tuned for part two of our mini-moon!

Which city do you think has the best nightlife?