Bangkok D1 - Airport - Hotel - Silom Complex

Don Mueang International Airport - Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is one of the most favorite destinations for Singaporean. It takes around 2 hours 20 minutes to reach from Singapore and there are few budget airlines available such as: Thai Lion Mentari, Thai AirAsia, Scoots, Jetstar, etc. so that you can travel economically and go for a short visit like 4 days 3 nights. I love traveling in budget so I chose AirAsia for my past visits. It departed from the new Changi Terminal 4 Airport and it landed at DMK (Don Mueang) Airport. Read here for transport from Airport to Bangkok city.

Train journey from DMK Airport to Hua Lamphong Station - Bangkok, Thailand

I was more adventure type and loved trying different methods of local transport. And anyway, I did not bring much luggage from Singapore. So from DMK Airport, I took the local train to reach Hua Lamphong train station that connected me to the MRT station and later on to BTS station. This way, you can save lots of transport money too as the train ticket only cost you THB 5 to 20 only per pax!!! For first timer, don't worry!!! This website gives you the details on how to go. I used it as my guide and went through it successfully!!! :)

MRT and BTS Map - Bangkok, Thailand (Pic source: Google.com)

From Hua Lamphong station, you can take MRT and later on BTS to the nearest station of your destination. Fyi, MRT and BTS are not connected to each other and you have to buy the ticket separately. The machine accepts coins mostly so please prepare coins on your wallet or otherwise you can change it at the station (but sometimes you have to queue and spend some time on it during peak hours).

Hua Lamphong Train Station - Bangkok, Thailand

If you want to have coins, my advise is, when you reach Hua Lamphong train station, go to their toilet. You have to pay THB 3 each and give them your big note so that you can get coins in return :)

The Heritage Hotel at Silom - Bangkok, Thailand (Pic source: Google.com)

There are numerous hotels available and it varies from low to high category. For my recent trips, I stayed at the The Heritage - a three-star hotel located near Chong Nonsi BTS (Bangkok Mass Transit System) or so called Skytrain station. It cost me around SGD $50 per night for 2 pax and I found that the room was big enough to store our luggage and roam around, with bathroom inside, free WiFi and necessary equipment (safety box, hair dryer, toilet amenities, towels, TV, kettle, and so on). The staffs are friendly too. While many have their own favorite hotels though, with better standard and much higher rate at city center area.

Must try dessert - After You at Silom Complex - Bangkok, Thailand

Since I stayed near Silom, I spent the rest of my day surrounding Silom Complex Building area (nearest BTS - Sala Daeng). There, I visited After You Dessert Cafe, a must visit place for dessert lover. We were lucky that they had the special menu - Mango Sticky Rice Kakigori - which tasted very nice. Inside they put the fresh mango and sticky rice. On my second visit - two months later - it was no longer there. So I tried the Thai Tea Kakigori. Inside they put the old school bread and grass jelly, which also blended really well with the Thai tea shaved ice and the cream on top. Hhhhmmm... nyummy!!! It did not come cheap though. It cost about THB 260 per portion (SGD $11). However, worth trying!! :)

Thai Thai Massage - Silom 

After a little break on tummy, we decided to have a Thai massage :D There were many massage places near there. Some put the massage menu with pricing outside to make people easier to decide where to enter. So it depended on your luck though if you could get a good and comfortable massage or not since each masseuse had different skill and strength of massaging. I recommended you to have a two-hour massage since the one-hour massage would seem too rush and not long enough to enjoy :D The two-hour Thai massage cost THB 450 plus THB 50 tips (optional). By the time we finished, the sky had turned dark and our stomach started to growl.

Street food at Silom

Within a ten-minute walking distance, you can find food street sellers (along Saladaeng Rd). Go through each stalls before decide what to buy. On the first left stall they had Wanton noodle (dry and soup). It tasted better if you ate it there (not for takeaway). Since we were hungry, we ordered a bowl each. It was not a big portion so we decided to try other food but take it away and consume it at the hotel :)

Variety of local Thai food from Silom night food seller

Dadaaaa..... For the above photo, the most recommended food to try was everything!!! Hahahaha.... Well, the bowl on right below, it was called Spicy Mama Salad. That was my favorite!!! You can see the seller on the photo before this. Fyi, Mama is the Thai brand instant noodle with Tom Yum flavour. In the salad, they added veg, fish cake, cuttlefish, etc. It tasted sweet, spicy, salty and sour. All mix together :)

Mango salad or papaya salad was another famous appetizer in Thailand. The omelette with rice was a simple yet filling dish. cheap and tasty, a favorite of most Thai people. You have to try the BBQ pork skewers. It tasted sweet and delicious!!! They usually added glutinous rice to be eaten with.

From second visit - food from the same places :)

The above was taken from another visit. Spicy Mama salad was there but we ordered papaya salad this time instead of mango salad. We ordered a bowl of Kway Chap (pork organ soup with rice paper noodle and tofu). There were fried stuffs we ordered too plus deep fried chicken. Oh my!! That was for two persons btw. Hahahaha.... :P The last but not least was Chang Beer - the local Thai beer to accompany this wonderful dinner :) All the food price was quite reasonable and worth it to try!!!

So that was what I had on my first day visit to Bangkok. More will come. So stay tune!!! :)