Hello you! Welcome to Part 2! This took so long for me to put together because of how crazy things have been since I’ve been back; anyways… I’m super excited to continue sharing this journey with you and I hope you enjoy every bit of it!

Y’ALLLLLLLL! This city took me straight back to Lagos, Nigeria! LOL! Bangkok is a city of hustle and bustle, because everyone here is on the move! I mean, everywhere!

Bangkok welcomed us with the big city vibe! We arrived very early in the morning around 6 am and took a taxi to our hotel, located right in the heart of Chinatown. We stayed at the Shanghai Mansion. The personnel weren’t the friendliest, but we had a very delicious breakfast which cost us B400 (~$12) per person and we were able to check in 2 hours early which turned things around! The best part of it all was that our suite was beautiful!

Thanks to my dear friend Awele for sharing this video after losing all my pictures! 

DAY 1 ( The SO-MUCH excitement day)

We got cleaned up, relaxed a little and took ourselves through Chinatown. The city reminds me of New York; an organized chaotic city. The streets are dirty and you can find street food at every corner of Chinatown. What’s also at every corner? 7 Elevens! This was the best place to go when every other store had nothing you needed. Let’s say you forget some over the counter medications, need some more water, need some alcohol, snacks etc, you would be just fine; just walk outside your hotel and BAM, a 7 eleven waiting to save the day!We visited the surroundings of the Wat Traimit temple which holds the largest gold Buddha in the world. You will find several souvenir shops around this temple which have really good prices on so many cute items! I copped some pretty shot glasses and coin purses for family and friends, and they only cost me B250 (~$8).

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Our main mode of transportation in Bangkok was yet again Tuk Tuks. We had so much fun in these, so we were definitely using them as often as we could and they are cheaper than Taxis, Uber and GrabCar. I mean, I have ridden in them before but this was in Nigeria, and we call them Keke Marwa (Ke-KE Mar-Wa).

Our next stop for the day was the famous Khao San road! I would highly recommend visiting if you are in Bangkok! Here you will find a variety of street food, bars, restaurants (if you don’t want street food), souvenir shops and more! You get to see a whole lot of interesting things and people on the street. Let the pictures do the talking for this:

DAY 2 (THE L DAY)

The itinerary for this day included visiting the floating market and then having dinner in one of the highest buildings in the city at the Baiyoke Sky hotel. However, this plan was turned upside down. We didn’t realize that the floating market closed at 2:30 pm and we didn’t leave our room until 2 pm, so we switched to visiting the Grand Palace and the Wat Pho temple…

One thing to be cautious of in Bangkok is that if you do take a Tuk Tuk, the drivers will discount your cost of travel for visiting their sponsor sites. Sounds great doesn’t it? This is basically to get you to buy stuff, but you don’t necessarily have to. So the way it works is, these sponsors give the Tuk Tuk drivers some incentive like a certain amount of gas money so they could bring tourists to their shops, even if they don’t buy anything. We took this discount on our way to Khao San road the day before and instead of paying B120 (~$3.85) we only paid B30 (~$0.96)! BUT, I should warn you; if you are in a hurry to get somewhere, the diversion may take you far from your destination so you may not want the so called discount….

Anyways, we took this discount again on our way to visit the temples, but it took too long to get there and we missed our chance to visit the Grand Palace. The cost to visit the Palace is B500 (~$16) and they close at 3:30 pm. We arrived at 3. You need a good solid hour to appreciate the Grand palace. We took this L and got another Tuk Tuk back to Chinatown; this time for FREE…because we visited 2 stores. It was free, we didn’t really do anything else that morning, so why not window shop!

I did get to take some pictures of the surrounding area of the Grand Palace as well as interesting details of the outside.

Our plan for the night was to visit Baiyoke Sky hotel which is the second tallest building in Bangkok. You get to eat good food and also see Bangkok from a high point…a beautiful sight.

I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND to book a tour with ANY company to visit Baiyoke sky hotel. What we were told , was not what we experienced and I bet it’s the same for other companies as well. Why do I say this?

THE FOOD—> They tell you: Experience exquisite fine Thai dining on the 72nd floor of the hotel building | We were on the 72nd floor quite alright, BUT it was no fine dinning. The restaurant was absolutely crowded (with both locals and tourists). It was a buffet spread with standards that probably broke every health code you could think of! People were eating and smiling so we were like okay, let’s not act like stuck up Americans and try focus on trying something different! No. No. No. I wish we stopped ourselves. Long story short, we ate some and 2 of us got sick. Like our bodies immediately rejected whatever we ate. I’ll spare you the extra details to this.

THE VIEW—> They tell you: Relax and unwind with a drink on the 83rd floor and see Bangkok from a high point | I could see Bangkok from a high point quite alright, but the bar was just…SAD. We took this Loss yet again, wasted B850 (~$27) which was the cost of the so-called experience, walked around the hotel area for a bit, and took a Tuk Tuk back home. The sad part is I had to complete the rejection of the food I ate earlier when we got back to the hotel. OK, sorry; I gave you some details. Although, I get to laugh about all that now, it was not a pleasant day!

DAY 3 ( Recovering from the L’s)

The Itinerary: Floating market and shopping.

We finally got to visit the Damnoen Saduak floating market today! The day started out with us walking under the rain for a few minutes, which seemed like another L at first, but we got through it! We quickly found a taxi and rode 90 minutes out of Bangkok for the floating market. Rain is something you cannot escape in Thailand especially during their raining season, which starts around May through September or even later. Our round trip to the floating market cost us B1200 (~$38.50). The cost to get on a boat at the floating market was B2500 (~$80). AIN’T NOBODY PAYING THAT!!… so we negotiated and paid B1000 (~$32). * dust shoulders * L.O.L.

The floating market was fun! Beautiful even! It was just so cool to experience something so different. This is a highly recommended activity. I’m gonna let some of the pictures show you what I can’t explain with just words.

As you can see from above, the water is not clean.  So, I would not recommend eating the “street food” while on the floating market.

The ride back home was pretty fast; since we paid for a round trip ride, our taxi driver stayed at the car park while we went on the boat ride through the floating market.

DAY 4 (Flight to another beautiful city)

We ate breakfast and left for Phuket! The journey to Phuket was at first very frustrating due to the airline baggage allowance issues. Be very careful of this because they really limit the amount each passenger can take and they charge A WHOLE lot for any extra weight. Basically like Spirit airlines. Thankfully, the lady at the check-in counter was gracious enough to let us take 5 kg out of our bags and have our bags come with us! The most frustrating part of it all was that, the airline system wouldn’t allow us pay for the extra cost of our bags (we were willing to pay) because it was a foreign credit card! We made it on the plane though and then relaxed….

SEE YOU IN PHUKET!!