We made it!! The late arrival and the long day of flying caused us to sleep in; we didn’t get up until late in the morning. We spent the first couple of hours in Bangkok walking in the area around our hotel, just to get our bearings. The hotel was in the Bang Rak neighbourhood, a short walk from the Chong Nonsi metro station. Once we figured out what was available in the neighbourhood, we chose a restaurant and had lunch. It was our first real Thai food, and it was delicious.
After lunch we did a bit more walking in the neighbourhood, then hopped onto the BTS Skytrain. The Skytrain is Bangkok’s rapid transit system, essentially an elevated LRT which crosses the city. While the Skytrain doesn’t go everywhere in the city, it certainly makes for a convenient trip to the locations with service. We took the train to the Chatuchak market, a weekend market with thousands of vendors. The trip itself only took a few minutes, and required one transfer, but it was much faster than attempting to take a cab there.
After climbing down the stairs from the station we quickly found ourselves in the middle of a crowd. The Chatuchak market is notable for being the largest weekend market in Thailand, hosting over 8000 stalls. We spent several hours wandering through the maze-like arrangement of stalls, selling everything from clothing, to food, to furniture and decorative items. We didn’t end up purchasing anything, as we didn’t want to lug it around with us for the remainder of the trip. The stalls were not organized into any meaningful pattern, and the partially-covered alleys which ran between stores were very easy to get turned around in, so I’m sure we saw the same stall more than once without realizing it. The one thing, thankfully, we did not see in the market was a snake; Todd was keeping a keen eye out.
After a few hours the market got a bit overwhelming so we walked outside the market to the nearby Chatuchak Park and looked out over a small lake which had paddle swans in it. It was a quiet and peaceful moment, we watched the sun set then took the train back to the hotel for a quick dinner and some much-needed sleep.
