First day in Bangkok started out with breakfast buffet and then checking out Lumpini Park which was a short walk from the hotel.
Mmm breakfast…
Saw this guy on our walk.
After that we joined my cousin, her group and the private tour guide (from Tour with Tong) to check out the Temple of world’s largest Golden Statue (Wat Traimit)
and Bangkok’s Chinatown.
The ‘Bangkok Food Tour’ was unfortunately disappointing thanks to heavy rainfall that afternoon which forced us to eat at a random place in Chinatown instead of the place the tour guide originally wanted to take us to.
I can see why there was flooding, the drainage system isn’t very good.
Actually in the first restaurant we sat down in, we saw a huge roach climbing on a woman’s back!! We quickly got up and left that place.
The meal in the chinese place we did eat at, turned out being a bit on the expensive side for dining in Thailand, but that was because of the river prawn – 450 baht each!
Other dishes we tried were duck, duck tongue, Tom yum soup and morning glory (which turned out being stir fried greens)
After that we were ready to check out street vendors. This part of the tour wasn’t so bad.
Street food seemed to be the better deal. We tried a little bit of everything from grilled plantain to ice cream in bread. My cousin even bought some durian.
Durian, for those of you who don’t know is a stinky fruit that tastes a bit like creamy onion. Its actually banned from the subway and train system as well as hotels and taxis due to the stench.
On the skytrain back the skytrain guard must have smelled the durian because he came right up to my cousin from a few feet away and told her to close up the bag containing durian. I was surprised he didnt make her throw it!
On the train, the stinky durian definitely got some looks from other commuters.
Hahaha..
Before going into the hotel we all sampled the durian.
Interesting tidbit: Maybe because it was fresher than the frozen ones we get back home but it wasn’t as bad as I remember.
Notes:
-The area we stayed at in Lumpini was a bit more than the price of a motel/hostel but since it was our first nite, we wanted to have a nicer place to sleep and settle in.
-Taxi from the airport included 3 toll fares and was 350 baht
-skytrain/subway ticket machine have an English option making it easy to navigate. Cost of ticket depended on how many stations you went. And if u need coins the ppl at station could easily change ur bills for you.
-water taxi on river was fast way to travel versus a cab in Bangkok traffic.
Bangkok Skytrain 
Daytime view of fr the hotel
More street food pics
Ice cream in a bun
