It was a gorgeous Bangkok morning, and my wife and I both had the day off from work, so we decided to jump on the Vespa and take a tour of the old town and riverside districts. I rode, while she was armed with the Go-Pro to take pics as we drove. Most of these pictures were taken from a moving scooter so forgive me if they are a little blurry.
WHAT CAN YOU SEE IN BANGKOK IN 1 DAY ON A VESPA ?
QUITE A LOT ACTUALLY !!
WAT TRAIMIT
Our first stop was at Wat Traimit as it was on the way towards the old town. It was also a temple that neither of us had been to before and contained a massive Golden Buddha. I wrote a separate steemit article about it which you can read here: WAT TRAIMIT - (Phra Phuttha Maha Suwana Patimakon, พระพุทธมหาสุวรรณปฏิมากร)
CHINATOWN
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Chinatown. Home to some great food and interesting shopping it also has absolutely hellish traffic, which is enough reason for me to avoid it most of the time. However, we figured on a Saturday morning we would be ok to drive through. You can see all the Gold shops lining each side of Yarrowat Road. This is the biggest Chinatown in the World.
YODPIMAN
We decided to have a little look around the newly renovated Yodpiman Wharf district on the river. Behind the wharf are some very old and interesting merchant shops. It also smelt strongly of garlic and onion, as this seemed to be where a lot of wholesale garlic and onion traders where. We also came across the daily ice delivery as some young lads were moving massive blocks of ice from the truck.
LUNCH OVERLOOKING WAT ARUN
By this time, we were getting hungry and it was VERY hot, so we decided to take a break by the river for some lunch. We had been cruising up and down the small lanes that ran down to the river looking for something interesting when we came upon "The Deck". Built in some old shophouses and directly across the river from Wat Arun (The Temple of Dawn) this looked like a perfect spot for us.
AROUND WAT PHO
Wat Pho which is also known as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha is one of the most popular temples in Bangkok. It is also home to the most famous Massage School which teaches blind people. We chose not to go in today, as we had both been to this temple many times before.
MASSAGE & DRINK BREAK
We decided to stop for a refreshing Thai drink and a massage. We were now near the Phra Arthit district and luckily for us, many massage shops are located around here.
PHRA ARTHIT
The area around here, has many interesting laneways, shophouses and also contains the backpacker areas of Khao San Road and Soi Rambutree. We took a walk around this interesting part of Bangkok, as well as finding some lanes barely big enough for our scooter to fit down.
PHRA ARTHIT FORT & PARK
This ancient fort was built to protect the capital from invaders. Nowadays, it is home to a beautiful pagoda and a lush park with cool breezes. We decided to take another break here under the trees, until we noticed the dark clouds blowing in from the South. We might need to make a move soon or risk getting wet.
DEMOCRACY MONUMENT
This large monument is positioned in the centre of a roundabout to mark democracy in Thailand. I am looking a bit worried in this picture as there is a huge bus directly behind me. We are stopped at the red light but he seems rather keen to keep moving.
THE GOLDEN MOUNT
The weather was turning really bad at this point and we were trying to make it back to the river for dinner and drinks, so we kind of blazed past the Golden Mount, but you can see it here. In a city which is almost perfectly flat, this is the highest natural point.
THE GIANT SWING
No longer in use, and with the swing missing, but this monument used to play an important part in Brahmin ceremonies.
YAKINUKU DINNER
We made it back to the Yodpiman area just as the heavens opened up, so what better excuse to have a bit of dinner and wait for it to pass. We found a great spot right on the river, where I could watch the boats cruise by while we cooked up our BBQ Buffet.
HUALUMPHONG RAILWAY STATION
It was now dark and the roads were wet, so we decided to head back home. We went past the lovely Bangkok Central station but just managed to snap this blurry shot.
THE END
I hope you enjoyed our tour today, and we had a lot of fun taking these pictures. The Vespa allowed us to cover a lot of areas with a minimum of fuss, and see many things. I plan to write some more in-depth articles about some of the things we saw today. Please follow if you would like to see them.
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