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Wat Pho

Today was the day for sightseeing. We first visited Wat Pho, a temple that houses the famous reclining Buddha. This thing was humongous!! And the buildings in the area were beautiful.

Grand Palace

Next was the Grand Palace. Unfortunately, the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha within the walls was already closed, but we caught a few distant glimpses of it — it was smaller than we expected! That tiny shiny thing in the above picture is the best shot we could get of it.

Common Scams

Unfortunately, throughout the day we encountered several tourist scam artists that Lonely Planet had warned us about. They all tried to tell us the places were closed, or not open til xx PM, or that we didn’t have the proper clothing to enter. Generally, the scam is to lead you away from these attractions to other locations where they receive commissions for sales, or charge outrageous prices for “tours”. Luckily, we were prepared for this and did a good job of declining or ignoring pushy scam artists.

Busing through Bangkok

After all the sightseeing, we were so hungry so we decided to bus back to MBK Centre for some food and to do some more shopping on our last day. First of all, the traffic in Bangkok is INSANE. Doesn’t matter what time of the day you go out, the main roads are always jammed. What could have been a 15 minute trip took us nearly an hour and that’s including the crazy driving by our bus driver. As you can see in the picture above, we were inches away from another bus at one point on the ride back.

Bangkok Wrap-up

After going back to our hotel and packing our luggage, we went out for one last dinner in Bangkok. We had always walked to the left of our hotel so this time we went to the opposite direction to look for some food. We found this place literally across our hotel and ordered our very last Pad Thai. Surprisingly it was quite delicious and we wished we had found it earlier. After dinner, we went back to our hotel to wind down and goto sleep since we had early flights out of Bangkok for Hong Kong. We couldn’t believe our trip was actually over. We had an amazing time and we would definitely do it again!

The images above are from the very popular Chatuchak Weekend Market, only open on Saturday/Sunday. Since we were rained out the day before, we HAD to get there today!

This market was absolutely humongous, with thousands of stands selling goods or snacks. We easily spent 5-6 hours here shopping, eating, drinking, people-watching, etc.

We tried chicken and beef satays for 20 baht each (approx $0.70) — a bit pricey, but it was okay. We also tried “squid eggs” for 30 baht (approx $1), which Erica enjoyed but Nima found too fishy. Another 50 baht (approx $1.70) for a chicken donair, which was absolutely delicious, and 70 baht (approx $2.35) for a plate of pad thai.

There were multiple promotions going on in the market, which got us each about 2 and a half free drinks. One was an energy drink (not that good), and the other was a Kirin brand Tea Break iced tea (sooooo good!!)

We enjoyed lots of “English” signs, as we have been throughout this trip (e.g. “french fried” or “french fires”, “freash for you”, etc.)

We didn’t actually end up buying that much today (especially compared to yesterday’s visit to MBK), but it was a fantastic experience and we’re very glad we saw it. At least Erica is very proud about her matte-style fake Ray-Ban sunglasses which only cost 100 baht (approx$3.35).

With only a couple hours in the morning left in Samui before heading to Bangkok, we headed to a local McDonald’s for a light breakfast and sat outside enjoying our tea for a bit.

Touchdown in Bangkok

After a lengthy cab ride from the airport (traffic in Bangkok is insane!!), we checked into our hotel, which was a nice change from our cockroach nightmare in Phangan.

The next morning, we had planned to go to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, but it started raining! So instead, we headed to MBK for some shopping. We ate lunch at the Tokyu department store — 45 baht (approx $1.50) for a bowl of Tom Yum soup noodles, and 50 baht (approx $1.70) for a plate of rice and curry. We finished it off with a plate of mango sticky rice

This mall is absolutely ginormous!! We walked until we tired ourselves out, only stopping for snacks and bathroom breaks The picture of Erica above is with a waffle-coconut-sweet egg dessert thing that was only 10 baht (approx $0.30). It was delicious, but very rich! Sharing just one was enough for us.

McDonald’s in Bangkok

On our transit ride back to the hotel, we found a McDonald’s stand thing that sells a limited selection of drinks/snacks. Apparently they have a broccoli pie, which sounded gross at first since you always think of something sweet when you think of McD’s pie (they generally have pineapple and corn flavours here), but we soon discovered it’s a savoury one — broccoli and mozzarella. It might not be so bad after all, but we haven’t tried one yet.

Nima enjoyed a fanta shake drink. And the sign shows their cones are only 9 baht (approx $0.30)!!

In the evening, we were too tired to leave the hotel room for dinner again, so we tried our hand at the 24 hour McDonald’s delivery service. It was easy to order, extremely efficient process, and was delivered quickly & accurately. Some places in Asia offer free delivery, but this cost us 30 baht (approx $1) delivery charge for the whole order.

We checked into our hotel, which had a great beach and pool area. But since we had limited time on this island, we got to our sightseeing right away! Rented a moped for 270 baht (approx $9)

Lamai Beach

Headed to Lamai Beach to eat lunch along the shore and then took a quick dip in the water.

Grandmother & Grandfather Rock

Went to see Grandmother & Grandfather Rock. Good thing another foreigner was there to explain it to us, because otherwise we wouldn’t have understood. We can see how it may be confusing for other independent travelers who have posted poor reviews on travel websites (e.g. TripAdvisor) saying they don’t understand the random rocks that are considered a tourist attraction.

Pagoda Kho Hua Jook

Visited a popular pagoda on top of a hill for a great view and sightseeing. Nima attempted to communicate with the street cats in the area…

Big Buddha

We visited the Big Buddha on the northern part of the island…which is actually called “Big Buddha”. Erica could touch from floor to ceiling here!!

The Islander

Apparently the whole island operates on the same power grid, because we experienced a power outage before we went out for lunch, and then another one right before dinner. Due to the heavy rain and dark streets, we opted not to drive the moped out. Walking through the wet, dark streets was not fun, but eventually we settled for a restaurant just a few blocks away from our hotel — The Islander.

The food here was not cheap (since it mostly had a “foreigner food” menu of American and European dishes), but still only 230 baht (approx $7.70) for a big plate of chicken parmigiano and 150 baht (approx $5) for a homemade burger. We tasted some of the best coleslaw we’ve had in our lives there…creamy and delicious!

Spa Night

We were both too tired to enjoy the nightlife in Samui, even though we were staying in the heart of Chaweng (party central of the island). Instead, we spontaneously walked into a busy spa. Nima enjoyed a 1 hour foot massage for 240 baht (approx $8), and Erica got a mani/pedi for 600 baht (approx $20). These weren’t even the cheapest prices we’ve seen…but when it comes to this kind of stuff, you want to make sure the place is clean and sanitary!

For our last full day in Phangan, we walked around and enjoyed exploring the island some more on our moped. We found THE cutest baby puppy in one of the stores that the vendors were taking care of…he was a fluffy ball of adorable. The shop owner jokingly tried to sell it to us for 1 baht (approx $0.02). His wife then offered to sell us her husband for 0 baht hahaha…

For lunch, another local soup noodle stand just next door to the one we tried 2 days before. It was pretty good, but not as good as the other one. only 50 baht for a bowl of noodles, and 50 baht for a plate of pad thai (approx $1.70 each). We also ordered one bottled 7-up and one bottled Coca Cola for 20 baht each (approx $0.70 each).

One last night partying at the beach in Haad Rin. It’s funny how you start seeing many of the same groups and similar faces throughout the island during the day AND the night.

We had tried to visit Nick & Kadi’s bungalow just about 5 minutes away, but even after we located the tucked-away location, the bartender showed us a sign-in sheet that didn’t have their names on it at all! We were so confused…so instead we left a note and Red Bulls in front of our unit (we had promised them the Red Bulls we got as part of our buckets but didn’t want) just hoping they might stop by and see it.

Turns out they did! Because they showed up on the beach drinking our Red Bulls and told us they got our note! A night of partying with these awesome Cali folks and we went back to the hotel to rest.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get much rest that night due to a cockroach problem. Yes, a cockroach problem. Nima killed multiple roaches that night…a couple of them pretty big. So very gross and so very difficult to sleep well when we were too freaked out. Thank goodness it was our last night there…and all of our other hotels on the trip were very nice.