Taking a bus in Bangkok?

Share

A bus is also another way to get around bus - and wow it was great - but I did have a Thai colleague with me who knew which bus I was supposed to be on.

So I had a look - and I decided that it was best to really prepare yourself with a map of all the routes... I found a list on Wikipedia.

Then I looked for a map of these routes and I found them here and there are a lot of routes. So I would not hop on and off the buses but take them from A to B.  But wonderful to get to the Immigration Office from the Victory Monument. So a little bit of organisation and all will be well.

There are air-conditioned and non air-conditioned buses and the A/C is sometimes freezing and the non A/C is very hot - do not sit next to the window for the sun - but there is a breeze.

Unless you get the bus with no air-conditioned it is raining - that was not easy!!!

Not sure how the costing works BUT you must have change - more than 50 or 100 Baht is not something to do - loose change is great.

Transit Bangkok is a wonderful site to help you do this;
Bangkok Buses 
Bangkok Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT)  
Sky Train (BTS)
Chayo Phraya Express (Boats)
Khlong Boats  
MRT  

With all this why are there so many taxis, motorbikes and Baht buses...

Wat Suwan Khuha - วัดสุวรรณคูหา

Share

Wat Suwan Khuha - วัดสุวรรณคูหา - (Cave Temple) was a place we visited on the way to somewhere else. I do enjoy it when Google maps works...

The first thing that we noticed was the monkeys (as Jamie also did) and I have to say that it looked like fun but I did not encourage my daughter to tease of feed the monkeys - they are wild animals.

So beware of your food - the money will be bold enough to come up to you and take what is in your hand. Around the cave there were a number of street sellers selling some food and a bag of nuts would cost you 20Baht.

Then there was the standard Wat adjacent to where we parked.

Then we came to the cave entrance - tucked away - and we paid 20 Baht to enter.

And we were taken to another world - peaceful...

In the cave there is a Reclining Buddha which you are able to pay respects to.

Then we found a strange wall...

We continued further into the cave and it was open at the other end - and this figure was there on the rock - I know nothing about this figures - but then we were surprised with the screeching of more monkeys...

We continued into the cave an it was not well lit and unexpectedly peaceful...

   

Bangkok General Post Office ไปรษณีย์กลาง บางรัก

Share

The General Post Office is a fascinating building - not all all what I expected.

"The General Post Office, also known as the Grand Postal Building, is a historic building in Bang Rak District of Bangkok. Built in 1940 on the former site of the British Legation, it was designed by architects Sarot Sukkhayang and Mew Aphaiwong in a mixture of Art Deco and International Style architecture which reflected the desire of the ruling People's Party to project a modern and powerful image of the state"

"The building is now being developed as the offices of the Thailand Creative & Design Center."

Text is from WikiPedia.

The building is clearly special but I am not sure what the ground floor (if at all) 

is used for and I did find a room where there was some Post Office staff.

On venturing past this I came across what reminded me of the Design Museum in the UK (some 30 years ago).  

It was certainly an interesting place.

I walked in and there was this display above and the staff were so welcoming I was quite taken.

There was the chance for a guided tour.

I made my way to the top in the lift and came across a coffee shop and a number of students - I felt really quite old.

The roof was then something quite special.

This was the view. There was an abundance of things to see and I would have to return to see it all - and the coffee was good...

Then there was a Stamp Market outside... 

Central Embassy

Share

Central Embassy is an enormous place to go shopping and there are an enormous amount of very expensive shops.

Not sure which coffee shops I have visited there - Dean + Deluca is my personal choice...

I usually go thought there to get to Central Chidlom or visit the coffee shops, visit the clean toilets and worth a visit in the rain.

But they do have special displays on - SUPPORT, a painted jaguar and snowballs to name a few.

Amongst the list of places to visit there is a Harrods and there are a great many more.

Ghost Tower

Share

The Ghost Tower has been recently the focus of a Thai horror movie and there is a story behind the fact that this building was built at enormous expense but never reached completion.

The Ghost Tower Has a great deal of writing about it - but here is a recent article about it's history - and then the talk that it is actually built on land where the dead were buried....(10 creepy facts) - then the suicide...

Image courtesy of #Instagram and doyoutravel

But then people tend to go up there - bribing the security and the junkies on the first floor.