After Vientiane our plan was to head south to Malaysia, Singapore and, eventually, Indonesia.  However, all of southern Thailand lay between us and the next part of our adventure.  We wanted to travel by train and, logistically, it made the most sense to break up the journey to Malaysia with a stop in Bangkok.  This had the added benefit of giving us a few days to get reacquainted with a city that totally overwhelmed us when we visited it four years ago.

On our first trip to Thailand we spent two days in Bangkok before heading north to Chiang Mai.  Friends who had gone to Thailand before us universally warned us that we wouldn’t like Bangkok and recommended spending as little time there as possible.  We took their advice and were glad we did.  The city was huge, dirty, and worst of all, seemed filled with people trying to scam tourists.  We couldn’t walk anywhere without someone trying to convince us that the sight we were going to was closed that day and that we should come with them to some ‘better’ temple instead.  Luckily we had read enough not to actually fall for these scams but it was still a frustrating situation to navigate.  We gave ourselves just enough time to see all the major sights and then got out of there.

This time around, though, we had been in Southeast Asia for almost three months and felt much better equipped to actually enjoy Bangkok. Because we had already seen all of the ‘must see’ temples and palaces there was no sightseeing pressure and we got to explore the city at our own pace.

On our first day we decided to meander around Lumpini park, a lovely green oasis in the midst of modern skyscrapers and mega malls.  We enjoyed some take-out mango sticky rice next to a little lake while watching birds and turtles.  As we were walking around afterwards this thing wandered across our path before slithering into the lake:

Turns out Lumpini park is full of monitor lizards.  Apparently their population to surged a few years ago and, as of 2016, there were 400 of these guys occupying this park!  They aren’t dangerous but coming across one was still quite a shock.  You can read more about the city’s efforts to relocate these lizards here.

The highlight of our second trip to Bangkok came a few days later when we discovered its Chinatown neighborhood.

This part of the city forms quite a contrast to the glitzy malls and modern office towers that characterize a lot of Bangkok.  It feels older, grittier and more authentic in some ways.  We started our journey through the neighborhood by wandering down the main drag and stopping for some delicious dim sum.

Yaowarat road is filled with cars, tuk tuks and motorbikes and is lined on either side with massive neon signs, most in Chinese.  However, when we wandered off of this busy street we discovered a very different Chinatown.

The narrow side streets are filled with old, two story shophouse buildings. Many of them are still occupied by small businesses that look like they’ve been there forever: machine shops, engine repair places etc.  Sprinkled between these older businesses are trendy bars and restaurants occupying some beautifully restored historic buildings.  We especially enjoyed the food and drinks at Ba Hao.

It is remarkable that so much of Chinatown has remained unchanged. It was fun to get a glimpse at what Bangkok might have looked like a few generations ago.