Hello there, welcome back folks. I know I need to be writing more and expressing all that i wish to , but somewhere this catharsis of an experience takes a backseat due to mainstream routine life. Today is a Friday , another weekend and i am back afresh from a trip to the country Thailand. What a trip it was! , as the journey began on quite an unpredictable note , i am taking a deep breath, as i reminisce on how it all began.
I started prepping and planning a month before , scouting for cheap deals on airfare and doing a simple research into stays as well as planning my itinerary. I used ChatGPT ,watched a few travel guides on YouTube and finally managed to sort arrangements for the trip. I need to admit, I get too excited while planning a trip and often tend to act on an impulse , turns out it works both good as well as has its share of lessons. I still feel i need to study a lot , around basic things like weather before deciding the place of vacation, yes season my folks is the kingmaker and it would decide how favourable it turns out to be. Weather turned out to be a perfectly learnt lesson this time around , hope I check on weather before i plan my next trip. Thailand, is such a fun destination, yet the time i planned , was a season of monsoons and unfortunately, Bangkok was hit by heavy floods nearing to the time of my onward journey. This felt very sad and moments of uncertainty was adding to my doubts about making it to the place. I was unsure about going to Bangkok, till about 2 days before my onward flight. Thankfully, I had kept in constant touch with the hotel staff , where I had booked , in order to get info on the latest weather updates and the staff was receptive enough to update on day to day weather conditions.
I am writing my experience, on a friday evening, a week after i have lived in another city. I was just so flustered and a bit sad to have began the journey on an unpredictable note , but yes I am so happy that everything turned out so so wonderfully, just as how a journey should be. Travelling has taught me this, it is all about the journey, carrying a spectrum of experiences to arrive as an enriched soul and it is all on a purpose to evolve. I am a hyper independent person , thanks to my conditioning , it has been one of the reasons for me taking up everything as diy . Travel has taught me this, to learn to, embrace uncertainty with a more flexible attitude and thus become open to experiences, whatever life throws at one, the pleasant , the challenging and everything in between. When you repeatedly confront a challenge, one no longer is hyper focused on the magnitude of it , rather one would learn how to face it and decode it as more than an obstacle and in the process try to solve the challenge.
Travel for me are philosphy classes taken in person and survival lessons learnt practically, and that is why I have been quite repetitive about this theme of learning. Cutting across to,further parts of the journey, on one hand while weather was concerning on the other hand , i was topped with a load to face another shocker , when i landed in the airport.The airline ticket that i had booked with was non-operational!, this literally caused my heart to pounce. I was not prepared to face this atrocious shock by the negligent airline company and a pathetic travel agency by the name Goibibo.I was faced with so much of stress, as i came to terms with a non operational flight. My whole world paused for a bit, i felt directionless and confused. Questions popped in my head, whether all of this was worth it? Should I be just booking another current flight, despite the exorbitant price . Should i wait or should I just make a move? . To get more clarity, I dedcided to reach out to my sister. I just wanted some reassurance and to affirm to my decision of taking the next available flight. Thankfully my sister consoled me , on the drama that unfolded in the past few minutes and suggested me to take the next immediate flight available. One thing that she said , strikingly made sense, since you like traveling go for it and forget about the price. I did just exactly that, kept aside the overthinking and booked a flight immediately. I took an instant action, booked my ticket on indigo and waited for the ticket confirmation. With my string of challenges continuing, the indigo ticket took a ton of time to reflect, hence had to call an inflight staff to assist me on securing the ticket. After all the verification and sorting out, I finally did get my confirmed ticket.
This is how my journey to Bangkok began, with a first micro lesson of holding your world during uncertainty and powering through it, not that this isn’t a familiar one , in fact it is , as i have been carrying challenges far too long . Anyways, i carried the lesson in my stride, partially disheartened, still reeling , under the incident and trying to process what had just happened.
It was a raining , at the time i got into the flight and was ready for a departure. Rains in Bengaluru, just made me think of weather in Bangkok. I was still half hopeful and half alive, sad but excited. I sat in my seat , made myself comfortable and began speaking to a co-passenger.I just happened to speak to this person to divert myself from what had happened. He seemed a calm guy , who was good and most importantly safe to interact with. I wasn’t able to sleep or feel rested and hence went on conversing with my co passenger. I probably should have restrained in conversing , but i just dint stop. That gentleman was married and I dint want to give an impression that I am hitting on him, but it turns out he felt that I was showing interest. This is what happens, when you are platonic and trying to interact in a healthy way with the opposite gender and it gets misinterpreted if the opposite gender isn’t self aware . So , yes this was another lesson , to just be on my own and be my own source of comfort in all times and especially the odd times. I never regret having a friendly conversation but i feel disturbed that it wasn’t being responded to in a healthy way , not that the passenger was unpleasant. The person was a nice guy, but the fact is when you simply have a conversation , it doesn’t mean you intend to have romantic intentions and the person was married too. After a good 3.5 hr flight, I happened to land in Bangkok all tired but looking forward to a fun experience
LANDING IN BANGKOK
I landed in Bangkok, at 7:00 am in the morning. Enroute to landing, i was welcomed by a blushing sky view ,decorated with a tint of orange and the sunrise just felt like a warm welcome, after all the hurdles I had to go through. Next up was the immigration check , as soon as I landed. Thankfully, at the Suvarnabhumi airport, (quite an Indianised name , right! )the fleet of travellers at the que to clear immigration dint seem huge and the process was , moving fairly at a decent speed . I made myself a space and quickly joined the queue, as i approached my turn and as the officer happened to check my passport, immigration formalities and accommodation list , they pointed out that I hadn’t booked my stay at Phuket. This sounded a little alarming, the stay had got cancelled as the payment dint go through, so yes this shit just happened,. Thankfully the immigration officer, took me to a side and gave me 10 mins to make a new booking. The deadline seemed fair also tricky , but i did book a hotel then and there without giving much thought, but it did turn out right in the end.
Post completion of immigration formalities, I was finally let free to go. I walked with my luggage and immediately booked a grab taxi on the app. I again happened to make a mistake, while I did add the right name of the hotel chillin in Bangkok , there were several places by the same name , I chose the wrong one , hmmm which was realised later , as i was in the middle of a car journey.As I sat in the car, I looked at the streets with a sense of awe, half sleepy and then dozed off in between as well, only to wake up to a destination that had been wrongly selected. Anyways I dint regret for having booked the wrong location, although I did cost an additional fare on my pocket , I just took it as a sign to be enjoying a ride through the city. After additional 20 mins and a fare of around 700 THB , which is around 2k in Indian currency, i reached my first stay in Bangkok , feeling happy.
I knew this stay was a welcoming one, largely tourist destinations are very hospitable and my stay here was one such too. In fact , I was in constant touch with the hotel staff on the weather updates and found them to be very responsive . I am sitting in an auto , as I type these words and wearing a shirt that i got from bangkok, to serve me as a reminder of the memories i made in the place. I just feel a sense of pure joy as i reminisce my time there .
Day 1: Straight to shopping
Half awake, tired and sleepy , I ordered a Thai milk tea with an eager heart, with enormous greed to just taste it. I was given keys to my room , located on the second floor . I took the keys and headed to the room in a jiffy. I entered the room and wasn’t surprised, by a clean and good ambience , most stays in Bangkok have an image to offer good accommodation. My stay was a hostel with a cute cafe on ground floor. My room was on the second floor and it was cute studio room , having all amenities including a tiny fridge to store food. Tra la la and my heart danced feeling the vibe of the room.
I am resting on a couch and as i continue to write , giving a description of my trip , i somehow have a longing to have or lead a very different life , not that stability is bad , but doing things differently, can make one feel alive. Ok , let me continue with the heart of this topic , discarding all the post trip hangover!.
I rested for a while and got all geared up to visit the platinum mall. I made this decision, as platinum mall was close by to where I stayed , that is Ekammai area and thus decided to immerse in the experience of shopping. My dopamine levels were charged , with the thought of taking a metro and getting to explore the city through a new lens. Everything right from buying the ticket to people watching in metro felt so good . I literally felt like an alice in wonderland.
Everything felt more alive. The bts metro ride was enough of an experience, before I got my stop at Chitlom to shop at the platinum mall.
The roads were a refreshing scene , clean and picturesque. To be honest , coming from country like India , witnessing a basic infrastructure be so good , felt like a warm hug. The air was clean and people unbothered, minding their own business. There was nothing in particular, where i had to stay on high alert, my nervous system totally relaxed and the feeling of home never felt better
I wish , i could take up travel storytelling as an aspirational profession, a stream where just the heart speaks. I have always felt , that life shouldn’t be lived like a drill and felt like a prison. While stability is comforting, it doesn’t necessarily fulfill the soul. Even now, as i type these words , a part of me wants to break monotony , wish to have wings just to be able to see what living life feels like in 10 different places. Mind you, experiencing a different life doesn’t mean , you take a liking to it, but yes it would certainly be a learning adventure and i treat travel the same.
As i , speak on not taking an instant liking to something, I illustrate that with the shopping scenes in Bangkok. While everyone has appreciation for the shopping scenario , especially the price, quality and being able to shop affordably in Bangkok, I would differ , based on my experience. I found the shopping spectrum to be diverse, there were a lot of fancy things, including clothes, accessories health ,skin care and so on. While I dint shop much and couldn’t get into the depth of it, i found most things to be quite pricy compared to India. The price as well wasn’t , standing up to quality.I did however, buy souvenirs, few T-shirts and some accessory stuff here and there . Overall i had a great time just being in the mall and strolling through them. One of the highlights , was trying the mango sticky rice , that turned out to be good with the sweet mangoes , doing the justice in terms of the taste
I have been feeling, this write up is turning out to be quite lengthy already,but i am weaving my heart here and 6 days is quite a long time with a multitude of experiences. Time will never stand still and old experiences get replaced by newer ones. Ok , let me continue my story ,while day 1 already felt exciting and brought a surge of joy ,it was also important I slept well , so I bought myself some Indian food , had a hearty meal and then dozed off to a deep slumber.
Day 2: Grand palace and meeting with indigenous locals
Day 2 began on a well rested noted, no duties, no tasks to attend to and i was waiting to hit the streets again. I had my morning green tea, took a tour of the cafe area of the hostel that I stayed and felt so at peace. My first stop for the day was grand palace of emerald , housing the golden Buddha along with Wat pho and Wat Arun all of which had beautiful Buddha statues.I took the bts as usual which is supposed to be the upper metro to sukhumvit followed by mrt to grand palace at Sanam chai stop.
Grand palace was one exquisite visual treat. The entire area was quite expansive and was an architectural marvel with every corner holding artistic paintings, statues and thus numerous tales.There was so much to see and i covered as much as i could and admired the main statue situated inside a huge hall.
After the grand palace, i then went to visit the wat pho, another architectural marvel, housing the reclining Buddha, The statue of the Buddha , is a mammoth, and the entire idol is a posture of Buddha sleeping to one side. The idol runs across a distance and the enormity of it stimulates awe.
The first 2 days of Bangkok was an exposure to a new world of sights , sounds , people and culture. Witnessing the high end infrastructure and most essentially the quality of air , felt like a vacation in heaven. The unbothered attitude of people and just to be existing and observing as an enchanted traveller felt liberating. This is just the part 1 , I will continue narrating other wonderful parts of my visit to this beautiful country 🌻.
