Three Days in Bangkok 2018

My parents-in-law hardly travel together and very rarely go on family trips due to household obligations and what not.

Since hubby and I had timeshare points to use by end 2018, we decided we should spend it in Bangkok where the exchange rate is bearable and flight time is short. Unfortunately, mom-in-law decided she wanted to stay home with hubby's sisters so it was just hubby, father-in-law (FIL) and myself.

We took the late afternoon flight and arrived to a rainy Bangkok at about 6pm. It gets dark early there so it was pretty a dark, long ride to the serviced apartment. For the first time in my life, I encountered having to wait at the toll for about 20 minutes out of respect for the King's entourage to pass through.

We were too tired to go out for dinner so we ordered delivery from Usman Muslim Restaurant using Telegram. We waited for over an hour  but our food arrived hot and delicious.

DAY ONE

The next day, I made a simple breakfast (groceries were bought from Top Supermarket - their equivalent to Jaya Grocer in Malaysia) before we went to search for a boat ride on the Chao Phraya.
We took a tuk tuk from close by the apartment and asked him to drop us at the closest pier. He dropped us at The Boat Temple with the official name Wat Yannawa which is on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, just south of Central Pier on Charoen Krung road.

There, private charter boats were waiting to charge tourists their arms and their legs. We walked out and a few minutes found the Central Pier where we took the Chao Phraya tourist boat ride at just 60 baht per person per way journey.

Boat Temple

FIL was itching to go to a flower nursery (he loves growing plants and wanted to see what the local nursery looked like) and so some locals said to get off the boat at Pakklong Taladd where the biggest flower market was said to be on Chak Phet Road near Saphan Phut.

We got off the boat and found ourselves at a beautiful and well kept public park. We bought some mangoes while watching the sunset.

Then we took a tuk tuk to the famous Flower Market which wasn't a nursery at all but filled with shops selling cut flowers, with lots for use at the local temples.

After walking around for 30 minutes and seeing the same thing all over, we headed back to Yodpiman River Walk.

We took a boat with all the locals at 20 baht per way to Sathorn

 A nice place to visit in the evenings is Asiatique, if you enjoy shopping and dining at above regular prices. The place is attractively decorated and offers plenty of photo taking spots.

Asiatique 

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How we looked at the end of the whole day before heading back to the apartment via the BRT. BRTs aren't disabled or too friendly to the elderly. The walks are far and some stations have no lifts. FIL had to make several stops due to fatigue.

DAY TWO

No one doesn't know Chatuchak Market. I came here a few years ago and things seem to be more well organized with different zones for different product types.

FIL loves hats and wear them well too

The crowd doesn't diminish even at 6pm

Us enjoying our dinner at the only halal stall we could find in the market

DAY THREE

FIL wanted to go out of town by train. The earliest train was at 7.20am and we would reach River Kwai around 10am so we left the apartment early and got a taxi to send us to the nearest train station which was supposed to be 20 minutes away. However, he got terribly lost as he didn't use a GPS to find his way and relied on instinct . Instinct lost and we got caught in a gnarly morning traffic. He gave up, asked us to take another taxi (wanted us to pay him initially then changed his mind when he realized what he had done to our plans) and left. We got the other taxi to send us to the nearest BRT and headed back to the apartment, utterly disappointed.

On this particular trip, I felt that very very few Thais speak English and they are not as genuinely hospitable as before. 

FIL's brother and his family happened to be in Bangkok for the day and had a rented a car to go to the floating market about 2 hours drive away. They gave us a call right when we reached the apartment and said they were nearby.

Invited them upstairs and FIL invited himself to join them hahahha

Hubby had spent the whole night finishing some work and went back to sleep. We spent the day taking it easy and going to Platinum Mall in the late afternoon.

The usual morning traffic in Bangkok

The river beside one my favourite malls, Platinum

The park next to Platinum mall

The restaurant that hubby and I loved when we were here a few years ago has since disappeared. We spent quite some time searching for it and gave up after close to an hour. We found another great restaurant though. It's called Ibu Silom and the prices and portions were reasonable.

The usual evening Bangkok traffic

The usual evening Bangkok traffic

DAY FOUR

We had a leisurely breakfast and got ready to fly back home in the afternoon.