Bangkok

After eight hours of bus journey, we arrived well in Bangkok on Friday. Our room in a hostel is located in the middle of Chinatown, but in a side street, so we don't hear the noise despite the hustle and bustle. We also have a good view because our room is on the fifth floor (without an elevator 😂). We will stay here for three nights.

After checking in at the hostel, we freshened up and mingled with the many people. Chinatown is a completely different world! Loud, flashy, full of different smells, many colorful lights, a lot of traffic, and in the midst of it all, policemen trying to bring order to the bustling activity with whistles. We were only there for dinner because we were completely exhausted from the long bus journey and the intense impressions. Chinatown is known for the best seafood in Bangkok, so we ate lobster and mussels - treating ourselves 😁.

Since some things broke after 13 weeks of traveling, we took the opportunity of the many malls in Bangkok yesterday to go shopping and replenish our equipment. The plan was just for a short stay because we knew exactly which stores we had to visit. But after Madlin discovered the hairdresser and the Birkenstock store next door, the plan was forgotten 😂😂😂. Planned shopping turned into beauty and strolling - and two hours turned into five 😅. We had to postpone the planned sightseeing for the next day.

Since we wanted to see a lot in Bangkok and spent the previous day in the mall, we set an alarm for today. After breakfast, we first visited Wat Traimit. There stands the largest golden Buddha in the world. The Buddha weighs 5.5 tons and is worth 250,000,000 dollars. Then we took the local bus to the flower market. In addition to flowers, there is also plenty of fruit, vegetables, and spices to buy at this wholesale market. The flower market is the fourth-largest flower market in the world - vegetables, etc. are not included. After visiting the market, we continued on the Chao Phraya River by boat. Here we took a ride through the canals of Bangkok. We were able to visit a floating market and see the houses of the locals. Afterwards, we visited the Grand Palace - the King's Palace. The entire complex covers an area of 2.6 km² and the foundation stone was laid as early as 1782. The probably most important building is not the palace itself, but the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. Actually, the Buddha is made of jade, but the mistaken name has stuck. To conclude our sightseeing tour, we visited Wat Pho with the 46-meter-long reclining Buddha. We ended the evening with delicious Thai food.

Tomorrow our adventure continues - we are flying to Phuket.