3 nights in Bangkok

It's Thursday around 2pm and I'm currently waiting for a flight to Phuket, Thailand. I just spent 3 days in Bangkok, as the start of my one year of traveling adventure. What an eclectic city! I was lucky to explore this city with a friend from home, who had been traveling Thailand for a month already and happened to be in Bangkok at the same time.

Day 1

We booked the same hostel, to maximize fun, and discovered everything Bangkok had to offer together. On the first day, we visited the Wat Sam Phran Dragon Temple, which is a short drive outside of the city centre. It's an impressive red building, with a green dragon spiraling around it. The climbing dragon symbolizes the human journey from sadness to happiness and from heaven to hell. If you want to climb the tower, you have to pay a TBH100 (€2,6) entrance fee, but the view is definitely worth it.

Around lunchtime, we visited a floating water market. The smells invite you in and we had a hard time choosing what to eat first. We tried fried tofu, thai noodle soup and khao soi, which is a curry soup typical of northern Thailand. A short boat tour, showed us around the little water town surrounding the market and brought us to some more remote places like a flower nursery.

We spent the afternoon in Bangkok's city center. We relaxed in Lumphini Park, hung out on the water in a pedal boat (free of charge!) and watched in aw how the local komodo dragons went about their life. We had never seen them in the wild, and we were a little scared at first, but they are not dangerous at all. Just really interesting to observe.

In the evening, we had dinner at the local market around the corner from our hostel and afterwards had a drink in one of the many drag queen bars. It's a must-do if you want to be dazzled, moved and blown away, while experiencing one of Thailand's most popular nightlife activities. Most bars have a small entrance fee which includes drinks, but it is worth your money. We had so much fun, the artists are so lovely and talented, and we went home smiling from ear to ear.

Day 2

For only TBH20 (€0,5), we took a train from Bangkok to Ayuttaya to explore the old temple ruins. Ayuttaya used to be Thailand's capital city, until the introduction of capitalism made the original order collapse. The central power was then moved to Bangkok, but Ayuttaya is still considered the foundation of modern-day Thailand.

The temples are impressive to say the least, we visited two different sites: Wat Chai Wattanaram and Wat Mahathat. The former is one of the most famous Buddhist temples and was built 1630, in honor of king Prasat Thong's mother. It's surrounded by 8 chapels, with relief paintings on the walls to depict the life of Buddha. The 2011 floods destroyed a lot of what was left of the temple, but the Department of Fine Arts has been restoring the site ever since.

The entrance fee was TBH80 (€2) for each and the money goes to landmark preservation.

In the evening, we tried some local delicacies at the market, like fried scorpion, snake and even tarantula, and although it didn't taste all that bad we went out for pad thai and roti (fried pancake) afterwards. Worth the experience though.

Day 3

On the last day, we had a thai noodle breakfast and then my friend and I had to say goodbye. I spent the rest of the morning running errands for my travel day and browsing the hundreds of markets around the city. I had a passport case custom made for only TBH100 (€2,5), which is now my favorite Bangkok souvenir. It is both practical and pretty!

3 nights in Bangkok are enough to get a taste of the city, but I would recommend a longer stay if you want to see more or explore the rest of the region as well.