James and Amina's Fantastic Bangkok Tourism Bonanza

Dec 19th-23rd

My time in Koh Tao had expired and it was time to return to Bangkok to welcome my girlfriend-at-the-time, Amina, to Thailand.

(Photo Credit: Amina Qureshi)

I had booked a decrepit night-boat to Chumpon which arrived at 4:30 am. From there I took a series of minibuses which eventually dropped me off at Bangkok's distant southern bus station.

I shared a taxi with a girl from France to the Silom district where Amina and I would be staying.

Josh would be staying in Koh Tao an extra night and would meet up with us the following day.

I checked into the lovely Sunflower Place and would head to the airport to greet Amina the following day.

I hadn't seen her since my departure in July and to say I was excited to see her would be an understatement.

When we did finally find each other at the airport, it was like we'd never been apart. We hailed a cab to central Bangkok. She couldn't get over how much Bangkok reminded her of her adolescence when she lived in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur.

Without wasting much time, we headed to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace. Even though I had already been there with Bryan and Rich, I think I was still more excited to revisit the beautiful architecture and spiritual marvels than Amina!

I spent even more time admiring these beautiful structures and in the company of Amina, I could not have been happier.

After our afternoon at the palace and temple, we visited Wat Pho: another temple housing an immense reclining Buddha.

This impressive yet lethargic Buddha measures 46m in length and 15m in height and is covered in gold leaf. Even his feet are inlayed with mother-of-pearl ornamentation.

Upon our return to Silom, Josh had already arrived in Bangkok, and the three of us went out for dinner and headed to our favorite stomping ground: Khao San Road!

(Photo Credit: Amina Qureshi)

After too many buckets and shisha with Kumar and company; and trying to beat a dick-bag Asian pool shark; we called it a night, but not before Amina was forced to buy an embarrassing bracelet reading "Lick my Discharge".

(Photo Credit: Amina Qureshi)

Good times!

The following day, we visited the MBK center for lunch. MBK is essentially a mall on steroids, selling a ridiculously large variety of everything, ranging from luxury items to blatant knockoffs.

Not only are there department stores, but innumerable, hastily put-together shops selling everything and anything imaginable. The t-shirt/singlet section is particularly hilarious with graphics ranging from famous rappers to Hitler lying naked on a beach.

The piece de la resistance, however, is MBK's food court, comprising hundreds of mouthwatering options at extremely low prices.

That evening we decided to change things up and went to Soi Cowboy instead of the usual Khao San road.

Soi Cowboy is another heavily neon-lit street encompassing countless Gogo bars, hundreds of Thai women and ladyboys trying to get you into their clubs, bars and panties; with an equally large contingent of white guys hoping to get lucky with their charm or more likely with their wallets.

(Photo Credit: Amina Qureshi)

We settled on one place that looked the least like a brothel and had a decent pool table. Amina and Josh kept trash-talking as to who was the better pool player, but regardless who won, the other blamed the cue, the table or any other conceivable factor that was apparently out of their control.

The following day I had decided to do a walking tour around Bangkok suggested by Lonely Planet. I figured it would be a great way to see the city and would be good exercise to counteract all the partying. Obviously Josh didn't want to go, so I would get to drag Amina along.

Our first stop was Wat Arun, whose 82m prang (Khmer-style tower) started in the early 19th century by Rama II, proved to be incredibly impressive.

The floral mosaics covering much of this beautiful structure were made from discarded porcelain from Chinese ships.

Amina and I took our time climbing up this wonderful shrine and admiring the panoramic views from the top.

We then crossed the Mae Nam Chao Phraya and made our way to Trok Tha Wang: a narrow alleyway neighborhood of Bangkok seemingly floating on the banks of the river.

From there it was only a few minutes walk to the amulet market where vendors sell bizarre religious nick-knacks and highly valued amulets.

After this point, the sights really diminished in appeal and interest. We first had to traverse Bangkok's royal field or Sanam Luang, which then led us to the unimpressive and inaccurately described Thai "Champs Élysées" or Th Ratchadamnoen Klang. It resembled pretty much any other major Bangkok roadway.

We then passed both the October 14 memorial and Democracy Monument, but both left much to be desired.

We should have stopped there, but we ended up walking for another few hours before finally reaching our starting point.

We did, however, finish the second craptastic part of our walking tour at a relatively nice temple that I wasn't able to find the name of, but we were both quite pleased it was over.

That night we returned to Khao San and were joined by Josh, and Amina's best friend from her time at the University of British Columbia, Elena, who was visiting Thailand for a few weeks with her boyfriend Remi.

(Photo Credit: Amina Qureshi)

After some copious drinking there, we went back to Soi cowboy to continue the party and determine pool superiority between Amina and Josh.

The next day it was already time to bid adieu to Bangkok. Josh would be prolonging his stay to welcome his friend Yemina to Thailand, and Amina and I would be heading north to Chiang Mai to visit the cultural capital of Thailand, have some animal encounters and to party it up for Amina's birthday with Elena and Remi.

Happy Holidays coming up!