We are about halfway through our first year in Bangkok! I no longer have to sit in taxis with my GoogleMaps open. I can successfully navigate the driver to all of the places we frequent. We have favorite restaurants, street food vendors, manicure places and so much more. Bangkok feels more like home with each passing week and it helps that we’ve had family in town visiting. We’ve done a lot in the past couple of months and yet we still have so much of Bangkok and Thailand to experience.
This picture was taken at JJ Market in Chatuchak. A must see when in Bangkok!
Some tidbits about Bangkok …
- Plastic bags are EVERYWHERE. If you purchase fruit from a street vendor they will cut up the fruit, put in a plastic bag without handles, and then throw it into another bag that has handles. We get food delivered sometimes and certain dishes will come in a plastic bag and tupperware. I find it so strange, why is so much plastic necessary?
- One of my favorite things about seeing a movie in Bangkok is that you can reserve a seat when you purchase your ticket. The need to show up to movies half hour early to ensure you aren’t sitting in the front row of a newly released movie is gone! Woot woo!
- As far as I know, in the States if you purchase something like dish soap and it runs out you just chuck the bottle and purchase a new one. In Thailand, you can purchase a refill bag. It’s pretty much a ‘plastic bag’ filled with dish soap, Head-to-Toe Johnson & Johnson, etc. and so you can pour into the plastic bottle to refill it. It’s kind of genius and I don’t know why we don’t do this in the US … and if we do, I am totally behind the times.
- When eating at restaurants food comes our whenever it is ready. It rarely comes out all at the same time and often feels like you are eating in shifts. Whenever your food comes out you eat it, else it will be cold!
- Another interesting thing about restaurants is the waitress/waiter will rarely, if ever, bring you the bill before you as for it. This is such a huge contrast from dining out in the States where the check is more often than not delivered to the table before being requested.
- Walking down the street you can often hear the buzz of ‘live’ wires. The wires are all tangled together, some hanging down low enough you could grab it and how one would identify a certain wire is beyond my comprehension.
- Living in such a heavily populated city one would probably expect to hear sirens, however the noise pollution is more often than not something other than sirens. In DC I became strangely accustomed to the sound of sirens and eventually hit a point where they didn’t wake me up at night. I’ve heard possibly only three sirens since arriving in Bangkok, and each time I feel my heart start racing with worry. Such a stark change from my reaction to the sirens in DC!
- You can order pizza by the meter … just go ahead and wrap you head around that!
- Despite many services being a lot more affordable in Thailand, manicures are actually more expensive than in DC. The manicures here are more spa-ish and include an arm scrub/exfoliator so I guess you are getting more, but I still found the price a bit surprising.
- Motorbikes will often jump up onto the curb {with no warning} and speed down the sidewalk during rush hour in an effort to avoid sitting in traffic. Motorbikes would never get away with driving on the sidewalks in the States!
And if you missed it, please check out the first and second installment of Bits of Bangkok. More of our Bangkok adventures, to date, can be found here or please follow along on Instagram.
Bangkok sounds amazing, if a little mental, but all part and parcel of the fun I’m sure. We have to pay 5p per plastic bag these days, I best go to Bangkok 😂 Enjoy. I’ll look forward to more adventures. Gem x
This is so interesting! Love the refill soap. I’m the UK they also won’t deliver the bill until you ask for it, I never knew they did that in the US. #bestworst
What a fascinating post, I have never visited Bangkok, it sounds like some place that’s for sure! Thanks for linking up to the #bestandworst :) hope you’ll stop by again!
Sounds so amazing. We went to Hua Hin in Thailand and the motorbikes were nuts. So I am sure they are worse in Bangkok. I only ever drove through there to go to the airport. I am wanting to go there next for a few days.
We haven’t been to Hua Hin yet, but it’s definitely on the list of places we want to go! I don’t think Bangkok would disappoint if you were here for a few days :)
Wow it sounds immense! The wires thing reminds me of visits to Thailand…and as for the refill bottles they seem to be hot on green packaging in only one area lol! Thanks for sharing X #bestandworst
Ahhh this is great, Bangkok is an amazing place…love that market! Eeek motorbikes on the pavement sounds a bit hairy. Great idea on the refill things. #bestandworst
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At the Asoke intersection, located inside one of the 5 star hotels, there is a manicure + pedicure salon, priced at THB 200 each (ie THB 400 if you decide to do hands & feet). Not a spa type manicure. Granted it is one of the most reasonable places around, but surprised to see that prices in the DC area are even less.
I would love to know which hotel! I found one inside one of the hotels for 350 THB, however it’s not very clean and I don’t want to get an infection from their tools. I should have caveated all the places I found that I feel comfortable with are more expensive than DC.