🛫 Throwback to May 2019
My friends and I escaped to Bangkok for a long weekend! This post has been migrated/reposted, so join me in reliving the adventures, the heat, the street food, and all the colorful chaos of the city.
☕ The Midnight Impulse
Okay, so let me tell you how this whole thing started, because it’s honestly so us.
We were in our usual coffee shop, the kind of evening where the coffee smells amazing and the conversation just keeps rolling. Somewhere between refills, someone brought up the long weekend coming up, and I just leaned in and said, “How about Bangkok? Let’s actually do it this time.”
That was it. That was the whole planning process. No spreadsheets, no pros-and-cons list, and no “Let me check my calendar and get back to you.” By midnight, flights were booked—and cheap ones too, which honestly made the decision feel even more right. A few hours later we were trading our office chairs for NAIA Terminal 3, dragging half-packed bags behind us, running on adrenaline and zero sleep.
We caught a red-eye, dozed on and off through the flight, and landed in Thailand just as the sky turned that soft pink dawn color outside the window. There’s something about arriving in a new country at sunrise—groggy, excited, a little disoriented—that makes the whole trip feel like it’s starting on fast-forward. No overthinking, no hesitation — just “let’s go.”
For anyone wondering, the holders’ flight from Manila to Bangkok is only about four hours, and as Filipino passport holders, we didn’t need a visa at all, just a valid passport and a return ticket. It might genuinely be one of the easiest international trips to book on a whim.
🌡️Survival at 42°C: First Impressions
If you’re Filipino, Bangkok kind of feels like home at first—familiar heat, familiar chaos, that same “everyone’s just figuring it out together” energy. Except this heat was on another level. We stepped outside, fogging up, and the thermometer said it was 42°C. Forty-two. The kind of heat that hits you like a wall the second the airport doors slide open, wraps around you, and just doesn’t let go. Within minutes my sunglasses were fogging up outside, and I could feel my shirt sticking to my back. Lesson number one of Bangkok: hydrate constantly, and don’t even bother trying to look cute past 10am.
The travel part, though? Almost too easy. No visa needed, a quick four-hour flight, and suddenly you’re dropped into this incredible melting pot of languages and cultures, all sizzling under a sun that does not mess around. Tuk-tuks buzzed past, vendors called out over the traffic, and the smell of street food drifted through the air before we’d even found our hostel.
We checked into Silom Sp8ce, a hostel on Silom Road that ended up being our home base. It was tucked just off the main road, close enough to the BTS Skytrain station that we could hop on public transit without much fuss—which, in that heat, felt like a small miracle every single time.
Our room was… an experience. An attic-style bed you had to climb up to and a bathroom with glass walls that definitely tested the limits of personal space. Let’s just say a trip like this tells you real quick how strong a friendship actually is. We laughed about it so much that first night that any awkwardness just melted away — pun very much intended.
🏯 The Wat Arun and Wat Pho: The Cultural Heart of the City
By mid-morning we were down by the Chao Phraya River, and for just 200 baht, we hopped on the hop-on-hop-off boat like proper tourists. Zero regrets. The river itself is an experience on its own — long-tail boats zipping past, water taxis packed with commuters, the occasional barge chugging along like it’s got nowhere to be. It’s loud and a little chaotic, but in the best way, and it gives you this front-row view of the city from a completely different angle than the streets do.
First stop: Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. Up close, those towers covered in tiny porcelain tiles genuinely sparkle in the midday sun—it’s one of those “okay, wow” moments where you just stop talking and stare for a second. The detail is incredible when you’re standing right next to it: tiny fragments of colored ceramic, painstakingly arranged into flowers and patterns that catch the light from every angle. We dressed respectfully — shoulders and knees covered, as required — and moved slowly, soaking it all in despite the heat radiating off the stone beneath our feet.
Then a tiny 4-baht ferry ride across the river brought us to the pier near Wat Pho, home to the massive Reclining Buddha. And when I say “massive,” I mean it—the statue stretches nearly 46 meters long, and walking alongside it, you really do feel small in the best possible way. Even with crowds all around, there’s this quiet stillness in there that somehow the heat just couldn’t touch. People spoke in hushed tones, the gold leaf on the statue glowed under the temple lights, and for a few minutes it felt like the whole city had gone quiet, even though we knew it hadn’t.
After visiting Wat Arun, our original plan was to continue exploring and make our way toward the Grand Palace before visiting Wat Pho. I had been looking forward to it because I also wanted to see the famous Reclining Buddha that everyone had been talking about.
We were almost there. But Bangkok’s unforgiving 42°C heat had other plans. My friends looked exhausted and suggested that we skip the rest of our walking itinerary. A part of me quietly protested—I had always wanted to visit the Grand Palace, and I wasn’t ready to give up on seeing more of Bangkok’s historic landmarks. Still, travel is a shared experience, and sometimes you choose the people you’re with over the places on your list. So we changed course.
Instead of pushing ourselves further under the scorching sun, we bought some fresh fruits and headed to Tha Maharaj, a charming riverside lifestyle mall along the Chao Phraya River, just a short walk from Wat Pho and Tha Chang Pier.
Looking back, I’m glad we did.
While many first-time visitors focus on temple hopping and unintentionally skip Tha Maharaj, it turned out to be one of the most relaxing stops of our trip. We found a shady spot overlooking the river, watched ferries drift by, cooled down with our snacks, and simply enjoyed slowing the pace for a while.
It reminded me that not every memorable travel moment happens at a famous landmark. Sometimes, it’s the unexpected detours—the ones you never planned—that become some of your favorite memories.
🏮 Chinatown Hits All the Senses at Once
By the time the sun was directly overhead, we ducked into Yaowarat—Bangkok’s Chinatown—mostly just chasing shade at that point. The air was thick with roasted duck and herbal medicine smells, red lanterns everywhere, and gold shop windows gleaming. Every few steps brought a new smell, a new sound, a new burst of color—sizzling woks, chattering vendors, the occasional motorbike squeezing through gaps in the crowd that seemed physically impossible. It was a lot, in the best way, the kind of sensory overload that makes for the best travel memories even when you’re half-melting while you experience it.
(photo credits to the owner)
We’d been dreaming about grabbing street-side Pad Thai right then and there, but honestly? The heat won. We were dripping, done, defeated—the kind of tired that has nothing to do with how much you slept and everything to do with the sun refusing to let up. Even the shade under the shop awnings barely helped. So we retreated back to the hostel, blasted the air conditioning, and learned an important Bangkok truth: the heat runs the schedule, not you. If you’re planning your own trip, take this as your warning — build in downtime between noon and 3pm, because the city basically demands it.
🍜 The Pad Thai Redemption
Once the sun finally started dipping and the sky softened into that golden early-evening color, we tried again—and this time, we won. Just a short walk from the hostel, we found a street vendor doing brisk business, wok flames flaring up every few seconds, the smell of garlic and tamarind pulling us in from half a block away. We grabbed plastic chairs at a tiny table crammed onto the sidewalk and, for 70 baht each, dug into our very first authentic chicken pad Thai with an ice-cold soda in hand.
The noodles were smoky from the wok, a little sweet, and a little tangy, with crushed peanuts and a squeeze of lime that pulled the whole thing together. Honestly? There’s something about eating good street food on a busy sidewalk, motorbikes weaving past, and city noise all around you that just hits different from any restaurant meal. It felt like we’d finally earned it—after a full day of heat, temples, and near-defeat in Chinatown, this was the moment the trip really clicked into place. Worth every minute of the wait.
🛍️ Retail Therapy: Platinum to MBK
Our last day was basically a shopping marathon. We wandered Platinum Mall and MBK for hours, floor after floor of clothes, accessories, phone cases, and souvenirs, hunting bargains through the chatter of shoppers and the smell of grilled street food drifting in from outside. Bargaining is basically expected in these malls, so don’t be shy about it—a friendly smile and a little back-and-forth over price are just part of the fun, and half the time it felt more like a game than a transaction.
By the afternoon, our feet were aching and our bags were full, so we treated ourselves to a traditional Thai massage—cheap by our standards and exactly what our shopping-worn legs needed. The timing couldn’t have been better either, because we walked out right as a sudden downpour was clearing up, leaving that fresh wet-pavement smell in the air and the streets glistening under the streetlights. We closed things out with a toast at Bangkok Recipe, a cozy little spot near the hostel, clinking glasses and just laughing about everything that had happened in the last 48 hours—the heat, the temples, the near miss with Pad Thai, all of it.
🫶 Kop Khun Ka, Thailand!
On the way to the airport (via Grab—we never did try a tuk-tuk; the AC just won every time in that heat), I caught one last look at the neon lights sliding past the window and just felt… full. Full of good food, good chaos, good memories, and honestly a little sad to be leaving already. Forty-eight hours had felt like both no time at all and somehow enough to fall completely in love with the place.
Bangkok has this electric energy that just tugs at you—loud and overwhelming one minute, quiet and sacred the next, and somehow both of those things feel completely true to the city at once. I’m already dreaming about the next trip—maybe the mountains of Chiang Mai or a sleeper train clicking through the night somewhere, watching the countryside blur past in the dark.
But Bangkok? Bangkok was just the beginning.
Quick recap for anyone planning their own trip:
- ✈️ Flight time from Manila: ~4 hours, no visa required for Filipino passport holders
- 🌡️ Pack for heat—we hit 42°C, so light fabrics, sunscreen, and a water bottle are non-negotiable
- 🏨 Stay near a BTS Skytrain station to make getting around painless
- 🍜 Budget roughly 70 baht for a solid street-side Pad Thai
- ⏰ Plan indoor downtime between noon and 3pm—the heat really does run the schedule
