Pheng
Today, we travel back to Nov 3, and revisit Taling Chan Floating Market, Chatuchak Weekend Market, Jim Thompson’s House, Baiyoke Tower and more.

Taling Chan Floating Market is the nearest floating market and most accessible from Bangkok without joining a tour. However it is not as famous as Damnoen Floating Market where tourists would flock to for wonderful photos. To reach there, you can ride the BTS until the last station 'Wongwian Yai' then ride a taxi for about 30 minutes. Please note that taxi drivers might not know where this is, so please prepare your map or even better if you bring Thai directions on how to go there.

The taxi driver will drop you at Taling Chan District Office, from here it is a short walk to the entrance of the market. You will pass by stalls selling plants and gardening stuff but beyond is the real market with all kinds or sweets, fruits and fun snacks you should really try. Traveling without eating is missing half the pleasure.
Past a small bridge, you can't miss all the wooden boats moored along the riverbank, most of them cooking huge prawns on small barbecues, blue crabs, large fish, and other seafood. Eating by the river is such a fun experience, you should really try it. The food here is cheap!!! We ordered 1 grilled sea bass (180 baht), grilled prawn (200 baht), rice (20 baht), and cockles (40 baht) for brunch. Look at this photo, this whole meal is only 440 baht and we were really full!

After eating and looking around the floating market, we went back to the entrance and raced against other tourists for taxi to Chatuchak Weekend Market (ตลาดจตุจักร). Feels like amazing race huh! Chatuchak (Jatujak) Weekend Market opens only on weekends from 7 am to 6pm, it is Bangkok's biggest and most famous market. Below are maps of the market.

You will find everything here, whether clothing, handicraft, Thai style décor and furniture, plants, exotic pets, collectors' items, art, used books, souvenirs and literally anything you can dream up – all at bargained prices. 
We tried their famous Mango Sticky Rice and Coconut Ice Cream while shopping. Perfect for a dry and very hot day!!!
From here, we visited the Chatuchak Park before we hopped on to BTS Mo Chit Station to go to BTS National Stadium. When you exit this station, you will see the Prathunam Stadium, this is Thailand’s main arena for soccer and other sporting events. MBK Center is also nearby; it a 8 stories high shopping mall in Bangkok connecting Siam Discovery and Siam Paragon shopping mall by elevated walkways.

With National Stadium on your right, walk along Rama I Rd and turn left into Soi Kasem San 2. Jim Thompson’s house will be on your left at the end of this narrow laneway. It is open from 9am to 5pm daily, guided tour compulsory and no photography in some parts of the house. In the tour group they will roughly introduced you the owner of the house and the different artifacts and design in this house. Jim Thompson, the owner of this house, was born in Delaware, USA in 1906. He had worked as an Architect in New York before coming to Thailand in 1945 as the Bangkok head of the Office of Strategic Services. In 1948, he founded the Thai Silk Company.
After here, we went to MBK Center to buy grocery for breakfast and dinner before we headed home to rest a bit.

After freshening up, we headed to Baiyoke Tower to meet with my dear teacher for catch up. We took BTS Ekkamai to BTS Chit Lom, then walked towards Baiyoke Tower. Baiyoke Tower II is an 85-storey, 304 m (997 ft) skyscraper hotel at 222 Ratchaprarop Road in the Ratchathewi district of Bangkok, Thailand. It is the tallest building in the city, and comprises the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, the tallest hotel in Southeast Asia and the fourth-tallest all-hotel structure in the world. We had complementary buffet dinner at 84th floor if not mistaken from my dear teacher. Thanks a lot!!! :) Unfortunately forgot to take photos of food... :(

After dinner we went to the observation deck and took fantastic view of Bangkok’s skyline.
 
 There's more! Check out other floors in the building where you can snap up good photos.

Breakdown for Day 1:


- no title specified
DayTimeDirectionsDetailsCost (BKK)
Day 1: Sun (Nov 3)7:00 AM - 8:30 AMAravinda Living home to Taling Chan Floating MarketBTS One day pass - 130 baht
BTS Ekkamai to BTS Wongwian Yai - approx 1 hr
Taxi from BTS Wongwian Yai to Taling Chan Floating Market - approx 30 mins - 115 baht

187.5
8:30 AM - 9:30 AMBrunch at Taling Chan Floating Market1 grilled sea bass (180 baht), grilled prawn (200 baht), rice (20 baht), and cockles (40 baht)220
9:30 AM - 10:30 AMTaxi to Chatuchak MarketTaxi - approx 30 mins - 120 baht 60
10:30 AM - 1:00 PMShopping and snacks at Chatuchak marketcoconut ice cream - 35 baht
orange juice - 20 baht
mango sticky rice - 50 baht
shopping - ???
52.5
1:30 PM 2:00 PMBTS Mochit to BTS National Stadiumusing BTS One day pass
2:30 PM - 4:00 PMJim Thompson Houseadmission fee - 100 baht100
4:30 PM - 5:00 PMBTS National Stadium to Aravinda Living homeusing BTS One day pass
BTS National Stadium to BTS Ekkamai then walk
6:30 PM - 7:15 PMAravinda Living home to Baiyoke Towerusing BTS One day pass
BTS Ekkamai to BTS Chit Lom, then walk for 20 approx mins
7:15 PM - 10:30 PMBaiyoke Tower
11:30 PMHome Sweet Homeusing BTS One day pass
BTS Chit Lom to BTS Ekkamai, then walk to Aravinda Living home
Total620

http://thevastlife.blogspot.sg/2013/11/4-days-4-nights-bangkok-tour.html http://thevastlife.blogspot.sg/2013/12/day-2-bangkok-city-temple-tour-grand.html


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