Our first destination of our 3-month trip is Bangkok, Thailand. We arrived there after an early flight from Manila. We had to spend overnight in the airport since we live 5-6 hours driving distance from the international airport in Manila. We got to Bangkok early morning and we headed to the most popular place, Khao San Road. It is where many travelers decide to stay and most of them are backpackers. Since Khao San Road is full of life 24 hours a day, there are many hotels around. We will provide in this blog the information on how to get to Khao San from the international airport in Bangkok.

How to get to Khao San from Suvarnabhumi Airport

Suvarnabhumi Airport is located around 30 KM from Bangkok city. There are a few options to get to Khao San Road:

By Taxi – The journey will take around 30 minutes, depending on the traffic. It costs around 400 Baht ($13 USD). If you are traveling with more people, this can be a good option.

By Airport Rail link – You have to take the train BTS to Phya Thai Station. The trip costs 45 Baht ($1.5 USD). From there, you need to get to bus 59. You have to head to Century Movie Plaza, and make sure you get in the right direction. The bus ride costs 16 Baht (.50 cents USD). In total, you will spend 60 Baht which is $2 USD. The whole journey will take about 1 hour 20 minutes.

By Bus – This is a great news. There is a bus heading to Khao San Road for 60 Baht ($2 USD). The journey takes an hour and the bus’ departure is every 30-40 minutes from Suvarnabhumi Airport. You can find Bus S1 in exit number 7. We tried all of them mentioned so far and this is our favorite because of the price and quality of the ride.

We decided to spend 3 days in Bangkok before going to Ko Chang for the first time. If you are heading to Bangkok soon, we will give you some quick facts:

Exchange rate is around 1 USD = 31 Baht. It means that, if you exchange 100 USD, you will have 3100 Baht. We recommend you to look for the right money changer in the city and avoid changing cash in the airport. If you will be using ATM, they will charge you 150 Baht as commission/fee.

SIM Card+ Internet – There are different prices for these. If you want to have a SIM card for 30 days, prices go from 400-600 Baht (1.5 GB to 15 GB of mobile data). If you want a SIM card for 7-15 days prices go from 300-600 Baht.
SIM Card (2 GB to 10 GB of mobile data).

Well guys, these are the things that we first did after arriving at Khao San Road.

Things To do in Bangkok

Unicorn Cafe

How to get to Unicorn Cafe from Khao San? We did riding a taxi from Khao San Road, it will take you 20-25 minutes and prices are around 70-80 Baht, depending on the traffic. Make sure the taxi driver turns on the taximeter. If not they will try to charge you 200-300 Baht for the journey.

Have you ever heard of Unicorn Cafe in Bangkok? It was our first time in the cafe and we met Anna Everywhere for first time. She is one of our favorite bloggers and Instagrammers. We really loved the place and had so much fun with Anna. We shared experiences about travels, and we tried to take creative and colorful shots.

You can rent your Unicorn onesie as costume while having your juice and waffles with ice cream. The place is so colorful. It´s really nice to take pictures. We loved the set up of the dishes, too.

We ordered Blood shake and Waffles with Ice Cream to enjoy our evening there. The shake was really delicious and the waffles with ice cream shared with strawberries and banana were amazing too. The prices in Unicorn Cafe: for renting a Unicorn costume was 100 Baht ($3 USD), Smoothies and desserts were around 300 Baht ($10 USD both orders) which were big enough for 2 people.

Experience a Day Tour with Explorenique

We teamed up with Explorenique for an off the beaten day tour and we visited places with no tourists, which means there were no lines to take pictures. Most of the time, it was just locals visiting around. Our local guide Geng explained to us the history and story of every place that we were visiting with full details. Here we will name all the places that we enjoyed in the tour with Geng.

Toproof View

We know Bangkok is very busy but you can find quiet places like the Toproof view. This Toproof view is located in Talad Noi and it had really great views of the river. Enjoy the views here while sipping your fresh drinks. You can also see the view of the neighborhood. It´s worth to walk around and take a look to the second hand business, plus it´s also a good place to try local street food. It looked like an authentic experience for us!

Don Wai Floating Market

The market is a 30-minute drive away from Bangkok. The ferry trip lasts an hour and you will find houses, temples and you can also try to feed fishes. The tour is very local and you can´t almost see foreigners. Before the boat trip, you can grab some local food in the market. There are snacks and sweets that we didn´t see before in our prior visits to the country. Our choice was duck for lunch and a few snacks. For dessert we tried banana steam which was delicious and more sweets typical from weddings.

Cruise in Chao Phraya River

It´s very interesting cruising around the canals where you can see local Thai life. There were people living around the canals, kids swimming and some flamingos and lizards in the water. We made a stop to visit an offbeat temple with the shape of a boat. The temple was under construction and it was surrounded by water.

Walking Around Bangkok

We visited a few temples during the day and a Portuguese church. This tour is not only a walking tour, but also a food tour! We tried typical food like bread, coffee, tea and everything was so DELICIOUS! We also discovered the oldest Queen´s childhood home. The place was very beautiful. The garden was was really peaceful and neat.

Sunset at The Golden Mount

Finally our last stop of the day was watching the sunset at the Golden Mount. The temple Wak Saket is on the top of a small mountain. You need to climb stairs for 5-10 minutes to reach the top and enjoy the pagoda, the Buddhas and of course, the views and the sunset. Despite is a touristic place, it´s totally worth it to visit. And we believe if you love chasing sunsets as us this is your place.

 

Visiting Temples

There are many temples around Bangkok and we managed to visit the most hidden ones. We enjoyed the explanations of our guide Geng and we learnt new things about Buddhism that we didn´t know before.

Visiting Local Markets

This is our favorite activity in every country- to visit local markets at lunch time. You can see fruits, different dishes, and desserts. All the food was delicious. People are friendly and you can find very affordable prices.

Dinner Toproof View

And to finish the day, we did it the way we started it- by eating, but this time it was dinner. We tried local dishes like coconut soup, Thai pancake and chicken belly. It was so yummy and we devoured it with cold local beer. It was really fun to explore Bangkok with Geng. He explained so many things about Thailand and Bangkok that we didn´t hear before. The day was amazing and we can recommend 100 % Geng and his tours. Click here to check his website and feel free to ask him questions.

Patpong Night Market

From Unicorn Cafe, we headed to Patpong Night Market. It was just a 10-minute walk. In Patpong, you can find fake or Class A brands for clothes, watches, etc. There are also bars and restaurants. We walked around and had dinner. A delicious noodle soup costs around 50 Baht (less than $2 USD), and it was so delicious. We really love Thai food, healthy and delicious! We didn´t stay until late hours. But if you feel going out there are many bars around the area to have a drink and meet people.

Khao San Road

In Khao San Road, you can literally find everything. From shopping stores, bars, to restaurants, and prices are very affordable. It is alive 24 hours. Khao San Road never rests.

You can have dinner starting from 50-60 Bahts ($2 USD). Our favorite dsihes for this price are noodle soups, pad thai and fried rice. Plus other local choices costs similar like papaya salad and Pad Krapow for example. And beers for similar price small beer for $2 and big ones for $3 and it´s similar price to buy in the shops that in a bar or a restaurant. I love beer and my favorite beers in Thailand are Leo beer and Chang beer.

Where To Stay in Khao San Road

For this time in Bangkok, we decided to team up with Ibis Styles Bangkok Khaosan Viengtai Hotel. The hotel in the heart of Khao San Road is very new, modern, and stylist. Check out these shots of our room:

We felt at home in Ibis Styles Hotel. We were happy to meet Gift, who showed us around and told us the best tips in moving around Bangkok. The room was big enough for the two of us and had all the comfort we needed, from hot water to toiletries, etc. Plus we really loved the location, especially at night time because it’s fun to think that we’re sleeping so close to the night market, bars, and restaurants. Check out the shots below if you are traveling with more friends or with your family they have big rooms with banks. The decoration is great and we love the pillows remembering to Songkran Festival, the most popular festival in Thailand.

The breakfast was great! We had Asian and Western choices, so both us were happy. Rachel enjoyed Asian breakfast while I loved my vegetables, omelette, and bread. There is a bakery and also a bar if you want entertainment with live music at night.

Our favorite place in the hotel is the swimming pool, as usual ha! It was super colorful and a perfect place for relaxing during the day.

Click here to check their website and book your stay!

If you want to read more of our experiences in Bangkok, click here. If you want to read our expense guide for traveling in Thailand in a low budget, click here.

Happy Travels!