07.01.2023 - Back in Bangkok

Finally back in Thailand! After spending three weeks in the north of Thailand from mid-November to early December, I now want to explore the south in January. After a more or less (un)relaxing night at Kuala Lumpur airport (the floor topped the hard mattresses in Southeast Asia), I arrived at Bangkok airport on January 4th just before 9 am. Normally, I would go directly to the hostel to check off the typical arrival checklist. But not this time. The reason was a visit from Germany. Jacob, a friend and former colleague from Lüneburg, had announced that he would travel with me until the end of January. Since Jacob was supposed to land at the other airport in Bangkok at 12 noon local time, and I of course wanted to pick him up, I needed a transfer from Don Mueang airport to Suvarnabhumi airport. In advance, I had researched that there should be a bus that could easily transfer between the airports. The emphasis here was on "easily", because it didn't turn out to be as easy as expected. When I tried to get on the bus, the controller asked me for a onward flight ticket from Suvarnabhumi airport. Obviously, I didn't have one because I wanted to stay in Thailand and just pick up Jacob. So I asked him if I could buy a normal ticket, to which he replied, "No, you can only ride with an onward flight ticket." After about 26 hours without sleep, I would have liked to express my opinion to him, but since he only spoke broken English anyway, I refrained from my angry speech. It wouldn't have helped anyway. So, annoyed, I started looking for a public bus. And believe it or not, I finally found one 45 minutes later. Well, after an hour's drive and another three hours of waiting, Jacob finally emerged from the security area and the adventure could finally begin. Together, we made our way to the hostel. Coincidentally, it was my birthday the next day, so we had briefly considered celebrating into my birthday in the evening. However, after the usual arrival activities (check-in at the hostel, buying a SIM card, eating...), we were both exhausted and in bed half past 8. The journey to Bangkok had taken its toll on us, so there was no more thought of partying. And so I slept into my birthday.

Instead, the next morning started with a small celebration. Despite being about 10,000 kilometers away, Jacob had a few birthday gifts and two small birthday cakes in his backpack - thanks to everyone for the nice surprise! By the way, I still find it remarkable that he got everything through customs. After unpacking the gifts and having an early breakfast with the birthday cakes, we set off on our first sightseeing tour. During my first visit to Bangkok, I deliberately skipped the sights, so it was also new for me. The first stop took us to the Grand Palace, the former residence of the Thai royal family. Since 1925, the palace has only been used for ceremonial purposes, and the king now lives in a new residence in Bangkok. I actually wanted to stick to my motto of not visiting any more temples, but I had to break it that day, otherwise the visit to the Royal Palace would have been canceled. Wherever you looked, temples. One temple followed another. After we had seen about 30 temples, which by far weren't all of them, in summer temperatures around 30 degrees, we left the area around the palace and moved on to the next landmark of Bangkok. And what do you like to see most after seeing 30 temples? Right, another temple. But this time it was really special - even for me. Wat Pho is the temple of the reclining Buddha and is one of the largest and oldest complexes in Bangkok. As the name suggests, you can admire a reclining Buddha here. The statue measures a whopping 45 meters and was covered with millions of gold leaflets for the 60th birthday of King Bhumibol - by the way, I was already very happy with the cakes and the "normal" gifts. Back to the topic: The Buddha is so long that it's hardly possible to capture it completely in a picture. Thanks to modern technology and a wide-angle mode, I managed to do it anyway. Like most visitors, we only looked at the temple with the reclining Buddha and skipped the rest.

To avoid the midday heat and relax a bit, we went to Lumphini Park afterwards. The small green area offers some peace and relaxation in the otherwise busy and noisy Bangkok. We also encountered a few monitor lizards here. It's really crazy, for the first few months in Southeast Asia, I kept my eyes open for monitor lizards and didn't see any, now I see them all the time. By the way, Jacob had his first Pad Thai to eat before visiting Lumphini Park. After four weeks in Malaysia and Singapore, it was also an absolute highlight for me. Just because of the food, it was already worth returning to Thailand. For the evening of my birthday, we had reserved a table at one of the countless rooftop bars. With cool drinks and delicious food, we ended the evening at high altitude with a beautiful view of Bangkok at night.

The second day included a boat tour on the Chao Phraya. The largest river in Bangkok winds its way through the metropolis like a snake and offers a completely different perspective on the Thai capital. We cruised for a total of two and a half hours in perfect weather before returning to the hostel in the afternoon to freshen up for the evening. We returned to the Chao Phraya for the last hours of sunshine of the day. From there, you have a great view of Wat Arun, a temple behind which the sun sets. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy, so there was no clear sunset to admire. But since the temple is illuminated in the evening, it was still a beautiful sight. After that, we went to one of the many night markets, where we naturally had Pad Thai to eat. The next day, we had the first day of our journey. We went to...