We woke up early this morning to head off to the Surat Thani Airport. Yesterday we took our last Lomprayah ferry and we have to admit that the service is very professional. They have clearly been doing these routes for years and even helped us to make arrangements for a taxi to pick us up at our hotel and bring us to the airport this morning (for 300 baht, about $9 USD). Our driver was waiting for us right on time. We got to the airport a bit early, so we got comfortable, ordered a coffee, and had a little morning snack. We boarded our plane and arrived to Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok around 11am and caught the same #59 bus with a blue sign that we had caught our last time in Bangkok.
This bus brings you directly to Khaosan Road for 23 baht each (less than $1USD), but there was no one collecting money, so we got a free trip! It’s definitely worth mentioning that these buses come every 30 minutes, but you might not get the same quality bus every single time. For example, the first time we caught this bus, we had a pretty nice air-conditioned bus that took about an hour. This time it took us over and hour and we had a rickety old bus with no A/C! Traffic is always a variable, and often pretty bad going south into the city, so that’s understandable, but no A/C?!
We pressed the little red button to request a stop and got dropped off right in front of Khaosan Road. We’re staying at a nice little hotel right here on the strip for one night before heading over to the fancy-pansy Marriott for Joey’s birthday (thanks to his dad’s points!). Once we got settled into our hotel, we headed out to see some of the beautiful temples in the area. We planned on seeing half of them this afternoon and the other half tomorrow morning before heading to our new residence.
We started at Wat Ratchabophit, or formally Wat Ratchabophit Sathitmahasimaram. There was some construction taking place, which limited our access, but the sheer size of the chedi in the background was magnificent, not to mention an elaborate mausoleum for one of King Rama V’s consorts lies on these grounds as well.
The next temple on our list was Wat Ratchapradit Sathitmahasimaram, whose name looks similar to the previous, but they are quite different. This temple’s stonework was some of the most intricate we’ve seen in all of Thailand. The beautiful white/gray marble tiles of the pagoda had such amazing contrast to the gold and colorful stones on the temple itself…definitely a must see as there was not another visitor in sight.
We walked through Saranrom Park on our way to the famous Wat Pho (home of the reclining Buddha) and were amazed at the size of the enormous lily pads in the lake! We also like this park as a place to find some shade on an incredibly hot day. We noticed many locals relaxing and catching a break from the hustle and bustle just outside to park walls.
The next temple we stopped at was Wat Pho. This is the first and only temple on today’s list that has an admission fee, but it does come with a much-needed free bottle of water for each ticket purchase (100 baht per person, about $3 USD). The wat itself is amazing, but the entire complex is enormous just as beautiful and probably takes a minimum of an hour to stroll around, so plan accordingly.
Some know Wat Pho as the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, due to the 150+ foot long and 50-foot tall main Buddha image. And while this Buddha image is the centerpiece, this amazing complex is also home to the largest collection of Buddha images in all of Thailand. There is also a Thai traditional medical school, which teaches the art of massages and actually has practicing masseuses that are considered to be some of the best in Thailand.
This temple dates back to the 16th century, before Bangkok was actually Thailand’s capital city. In the 17th century, when Bangkok was named capital city, ancient Buddha images were brought to Wat Pho from Ayutthaya, Sukhothai, and other locations in Thailand and are still on display at the temple today. Every single detail in this temple complex was stunning, from the colorful flower tiled chedis to the large stone guards at each gated entrance and obviously the amazing Reclining Buddha, with over 100 bronze bowls adjacent to offer coins for good fortune.
After spending over an hour at Wat Pho, we decided to take a taxi to Raan Jay Fai for a very late lunch. We usually always insist on the taxis using meters, but we settled for a flat rate of 100 baht, which we all agreed was a fair fare. Most resources say she opens her shop at 3pm, but we arrived just after 2:30pm and she invited us in. We were the only ones there, so we witnessed some of her magic all to ourselves. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Raan Jay Fai, she’s somewhat famous here in Bangkok and she’s been mastering the wok in this particular kitchen for over 40 years (though she claimed today that she is over 70 years old!). There have been numerous articles written about her, some calling her the master of the wok, some even claiming her noodles are the best in Bangkok, but most around here know her as Jay Fai, which loosely translates to Sister Mole (because of the mole on her face).
She is famous for numerous dishes on her menu, but the most exclusive item has been dubbed the most expensive street food in Bangkok, the infamous crab omelet, which goes for 800-1000 baht depending on size ordered ($25-30 USD). It might seem crazy, but we’ve all spent that on a meal here or there…and let us tell you personally, it’s worth every penny! Even Martha Stewart called her “the best cook in Thailand.” The way this woman handles a wok is a form of art, and seeing it firsthand made us believers. The omelet is not the least bit oily, yet has the crispiest egg coasting and the most succulent and lump crabmeat we’ve ever tasted hidden within! And being from one of the king crab capitals of the world (Joe’s Stone Crab included…and far exceeds this price tag), that’s saying something about this place.
She helms the wok with some funky looking ski goggles, but if you give her a chance, she’ll change your view of fried foods forever. It’s also worth mentioning that we had an order of her seafood drunken noodles with prawn, crab, and squid, which was also amazing, but this crab omelet changed our lives so much everything else was kind of a blur. The setting and the service is nothing special, but every single cent is definitely going into the ingredients (no MSG here) and expertise of this amazingly skilled woman.
We decided to walk back to our hotel after such a huge meal, but at about the halfway point, we passed a cute little shop called Brunch & Baked and had to stop in. They had such amazing looking baked goods that we couldn’t say no. After much deliberation, and Joey saying to choose just one, we ended up taking a slice of delicious young coconut cake back to our hotel with us.
After we indulged in a little slice of heaven, we cleaned up and just relaxed around the hotel for a bit to recharge. After a much-needed rest, we headed out to see Wat Arun, also known as the Temple of the Dawn, lit up at nighttime. This beautiful temple was built in the 17th century and actually housed the Emerald Buddha briefly when Thonburi was Thailand’s capital city. In 1735, three years after Bangkok became the country’s capital city, the Emerald Buddha moved across the Chao Phraya River, to its current location in Wat Phra Kaew.
I was a bit reluctant, but we made a deal to get a tuk-tuk to my favorite restaurant afterwards if we went. We walked to the boat pier and snapped a few shots before catching a tuk-tuk for 100 baht (about $3 USD) to Thipsamai for their famous egg-wrapped pad Thai! We had it about a month ago when we started our trip, but I’ve talked
about it almost every single day since then, so we both knew the return was inevitable.
We ordered two “superb” pad Thais, which is what the egg-wrapped version is called, and a large fresh orange juice to share between the two of us (I secretly wanted my own large). I know we talked in great length about this place in Day 2’s post, so I won’t go too into it, but if you ever find yourself in Bangkok, you HAVE to have this pad Thai with the fresh orange juice…the OJ might even be better than the pad Thai (it even says “Drink within day of purchase” so you know it’s fresh!)!
After dinner, we headed back to our hotel for some much need rest. Tomorrow, we plan to finish our temple tour and see The Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, and the City Pillar Shrine, so stay posted!