Samui to Bangkok to Home

Last Day in Samui

Once again the weather keeps changing from cloudy, to raining, to pouring rain to sun. We spend most of it hanging out in our favourite lounging pavilion by the hotel pool/beach.

We finally move in the late afternoon to go for a walk and find ourselves a good massage place. John goes for a one hour foot and leg massage while I do my usual full body massage.

We finish the day with supper and packing.

Off to the Samui Airport

The alarm goes off early. We fly to Bangkok this morning. Fight number eleven on this trip but who’s counting.

It had been raining in the night. After a 7am buffet breakfast, we go to a 24 hour gasoline station to fill our rental car before returning it to the airport. The gas station is closed.

We reroute to head to a different 24 hour gas station and are faced with a flooded road. Some motorcycles go through but no cars. We don’t want to take chances with the rental car so we turn around to do a long detour.

We finally get to the gas station but it’s unmanned. John tries to figure out how the pump works. There is no place for credit cards. John asks a motorcyclist who has pulled up. Apparently the pump works like a vending machine, you put in coins or bills and out comes gas. Problem…how much money to put in to fill the tank? We put 200 baht in but it’s not nearly enough. We put in another 500 baht. As the pump shows we have used up 400 of the 500 baht gas starts flowing out of the now full tank. There is no automatic shut-off on the pump when the tank is full! Fortunately the motorcyclist is still nearby and sees what is happening. He runs over and pushes a button on the pump to stop the gas.

We head off to the airport to return the car. No one is at the booth. Finally someone shows up and we go to check-in.

By this time, the weather is bright and sunny. Figures.

The Koh Samui Airport is small but really pretty. Soon we are on the one hour Bangkok Airlines flight to Bangkok

Upon landing in Bangkok, the weather is still bright, sunny and hot (33°C). We check into Dewan Hotel which is a short walk from the Royal Palace. We stayed in this same hotel on our first trip to Thailand in 2017.

Wat Pho 

We grab a tuktuk to Wat Pho. The tuktuk driver looks confused when we tell him that he took us to the wrong place. We thought we were at the Royal Palace but it turns out we actually are at Wat Pho.

The temple area is gorgeous with so many colourful stupas and many big, golden buddhas, all housed in different temples. The most impressive buddha is the huge, golden reclining buddha.

Flower Market

We next walk fifteen minutes to the flower market. So much colour and huge varieties.

The market is huge. One part is blocked off and they are shooting a movie. I don’t see George Clooney or Brad Pitt though.

We stop at a cafe for a cappuccino (John) and a rose-raspberry sherbet before ordering a Grab (like an Uber) to the Asiatique Riverfront.

Asiatique Riverfront and Dinner Cruise

The Asiatique is an entertainment and shopping complex on the river. It has shops, restaurants, bars, an entertainment theatre, rides and a big ferris wheel all on the riverfront.

John and I make a last minute decision to book a dinner cruise. It doesn’t leave for an hour and a half so after checking out the riverfront, we grab some drinks and people watch.

The cruise is a great way to spend our last full night in Bangkok. There is a huge buffet and I love going down the river and seeing the beautiful wats and buildings lit up at night. The bridge is also very cool.

There is entertainment: traditional Thai dancers, a singer and some cabaret performers which I am uncertain whether they are women or very pretty ladyboys. The evening ends with karaoke and dancing. A favourite number was Opum Gangnam Style. Click here for a short video.

Khaoson Road and Night Market

After the two hour cruise we take a cab to Khaoson Road. Surprisingly the cabs are less than the tuktuks. Khaoson Road has a long history as Bangkok’s backpackers street.

We first walk down the street beside Khaoson Road which is pretty lively. It’s filled with food vendors, pot vendors, street side massage spas and merchandise carts. There are a number of places selling edible bugs and scorpions. I also saw someone selling something that suspiciously looked like BBQ snake. And I dare not forget the crocodile meat stand.

The next street is Khaosan Road. Besides the food, novelty snacks and pot cafes, there are tons of bars and clubs blasting really loud music…each one trying to be louder than the one beside them. I have to block my ears. The place is packed. Click here for a short video.

We walk back to our hotel which is nearby, but on a nice quiet street, and call it a night.

Grand Palace

Today is the last day of our trip. After breakfast we start walking towards the Grand Palace. Then I see the Palace rising above the white walls surrounding the it’s huge complex area. It is a gold and glittering spectacle.

It is even more spectacular once we are in the complex. So many golden stupas and gold and coloured mirror tiled buildings. There are also corridors of beautiful murals telling mythical tales. There is a smaller scale replica of the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia.

Huge demon statues guard the Royal Palace’s main building, the ordination hall that houses the Emerald Buddha.

There is a strict dress code to go into the Grand Palace area and especially the ordinance hall. Shoulders and most of your legs need to be covered. You have to always take off your shoes when entering a wat (temple).

John is declined entrance by a security guard on one side of the ordinance hall because his capri pants are too short. I’m allowed in, no problem.

A few minutes later, John shows up beside me while I am looking at the Buddha. He had loosened his belt and pulled his pants down as low on his hips as possible and gained entry from the other side.

There is an area where you can sprinkle yourself with holy water by dipping in a lotus flower and shaking it on yourself. It is supposed to bring luck.

As with many Royal Palaces, there are guards here. The Thai guards wear pith helmets (British influence).

The Bangkok National Museum

We check out the Palace’s textile museum before walking to the Bangkok National Museum where we spend several hours…it is really worth a visit.

Goodbye Bangkok

Too soon it is time to head back to the hotel where John rests and I go to a massage spa called Thai Lanta for my final massage of the trip. I choose a 1.5 hour full body Thai massage with balm. It is the best massage of the trip, possibly the best of my life. It’s like she found every muscle that needed work and loosened them up. I walk away feeling ready to take the long journey home.

We take a cab to the airport passing many beautiful sites including the Victory Monument on the way out of the city.

Flight to Saudi  Arabia and then Home

Our flight on Saudia Airlines leaves at 1:15am. The flight to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is close to 9 hours. After a little over an hour layover, we take the 14 hour flight back to Toronto.

We are home… after 13 flights on 8 different airlines and travel by plane, train, car, motorcycle, tuk tuk, tricycle taxis, songthaew, ferry and outrigger boats.