We took a short flight from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok on the last day of January. We spent 3 nights in Bangkok before flying to Cambodia. While we were back in town we relaxed, ate street food and I got a little bit of retail therapy in. (Below: adventures in malls!)
I liked the shopping in Vietnam better than Thailand because of all of the knockoff bags/clothes/shoes that were in Vietnam. Thailand seemed to have poor (if any) knockoff goods. They did have pretty swanky shopping malls though, with name brand stores in them. There was a really nice mall close to our Airbnb, and it had a giant food court. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have eaten in a food court in the States. But here, the food is actually really good, and extremely affordable! Below are photos from the malls, and of street food that we picked up on the way back to our apartment. Second dinner happened frequently for us- which is extremely acceptable when you only spend $3 total!
Near the last place we stayed in Bangkok there was a new market/hotel/event center. It was a very strange building, we took the elevator up to what was supposed to be the upper floor of the market and it was still under construction. Also only a few of the stalls in the market had shops in them. There were also animatronic dinosaurs around the outside, and little ones that you could pay a couple bucks to ride around the parking lot. It was a very, very strange place...
Last year in October, Thailand’s king passed away after ruling for over 70 years. The country was in morning and no celebrations were allowed for awhile, and government employees are wearing black for 1 year. While we were in Bangkok we saw people leaving the Grand Palace (Thailand’s royal palace) who had just payed their respects to the late King. This is ongoing while the King lies in state for 1 year, so the whole country has time to attend. They even have food outside the palace free for the mourners. There are photos of the King all over the country, and there seem to be memorials on every city block:
If you liked the posts about our time in Thailand, check out this blog: http://thaidyedliz.blogspot.com/ Mrs. Wagner (Liz) is who we visited in Pattaya, and she and her husband have been living in Thailand for over 2 years!
-Cara
Thailand summary:
Transport used: Uber, Grab, car, red truck, bus, motoscooter, water taxi, skytrain, subway
Total amount spent in Thailand (including flight into Bangkok): $1469.34
Avg.: $69.97 per day
Thailand ended up being a little cheaper than Vietnam even, mostly because Cara and I laid really low for a week after Phil left. Our nice studio apartment was about $20 a night, we made breakfast for ourselves and snacks and dinner out everyday at the local places were only a few dollars. Southeast Asia is definitely helping the bottom line of our trip, and while Cambodia is going to be a little more because we are going diving, hopefully we will still continue to lower our daily average since we have some expensive locations coming up after that!
-Jeff