Impressions from BangkokBangkok 
, December 2017
Thailand Backpacking Part I: 36 hours in Bangkok
Ramble through the old town (Phra Nakhon), temple complexes in Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Ratchathewi and Pathum Wan, street food at the cookshops in the evening Chinatown (Samphanthawong). Breakfast at the Local Thewarat Market in Dusit and aimless wandering through Pom Prap Sattru Phai. From Hua Lamphong station by night train north to Chiang Mai.
36 Hours in Bangkok - Thailand Backpacking Part I
Temples, street food, dark alleys and tuk tuks in Thailand's megacity
After almost 13 hours of flight time, I stepped on Asian soil for the first time at 7 o'clock in the morning and needed a short time to get used to the hot and humid climate. For me it was the first visit to a non-European country. By bus we went from the airport to the old town to our hostel. From noon on we went on forays through the old town (Phra Nakhon). In the process, we also passed Khaosan Road (Thanon Khao San), Bangkok's party mile for backpackers and tourists. Fortunately, it was still early in the day, the crowds usually come only with darkness. In any case, we liked the quieter side streets better.
We continued to temple complexes in Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Ratchathewi and Pathum Wan to visit the Buddhist temple Wat Saket, better known to tourists as Golden Mount, after dark. Not only the temples were impressive, also the view from the terrace of the golden Chedi over the nightly Bangkok was imposing. Afterwards, we had a tuk tuk take us through the evening and hectic traffic on Bangkok's streets to the train station. There we bought tickets for the night train to Chiang Mai the next evening and then walked to nearby Chinatown (Samphanthawong).
In the light of the countless neon signs, we drifted through the streets of Chinatown, tried different things at several cookshops. On the way back towards the hostel in the old town, we passed through darker alleys, which are otherwise probably only crossed by the residents. It was already unusual to see on which narrow space and under partly adverse conditions the people lived there.
For the last kilometers we changed again on a Tuk Tuk, the day and the outward flight stuck us nevertheless quite well in the bones. Near Wat Chana Songkhram we drank a nightcap and fell in the hostel then freshly showered into a deep sleep.
Recovered, we went the next day to the Local Thewarat Market in Dusit. We had breakfast a second time with a spicy chicken soup and strolled from stall to stall. Strengthened, we drifted relatively aimlessly through Pom Prap Sattru Phai and bought at isolated cookshops again and again small things for the long train ride in the evening. Highlight here was the old woman we called "Banana granny". With her small cookshop she stood at a large and busy street and sold a kind of "banana-mango-mush deep-fried in dough cover". It was so delicious that I ran back to buy more.
On the way back to the hostel, where we could leave our big backpacks until the evening, we kept running into alleys that didn't really look inviting to the standard tourist. But we wanted to get as much as possible of the "Bangkok of the locals". Bars, cafes and souvenir stores do not interest us.
From the hostel, a tuk tuk took us to the train station. The night train was already at the track and was just cleaned inside for the trip. We had booked beds in second class in a wide-body carriage, for the equivalent of about €29 per head. At 20 o'clock the train started moving and drove very slowly within the urban area of Bangkok, so that one could still see the area around the train tracks well through the windows. Almost along the entire route in the city area were makeshift wooden shacks, which offered a "home" to people who could not afford to live in the city. After we left Bangkok, the train picked up speed, but it was dark and we made ourselves over the tagbsüber bought delicacies.
It was after 10pm when a steward helped us make our beds. This involved extending the seats downstairs to make a couchette and folding down a couchette from the ceiling upstairs. There were thin blankets and pillows, and the individual berths were covered with curtains. After brushing our teeth in the train toilet, consisting of a sink and a hole in the floor, we crawled into the bunks and also found a restful sleep thanks to earplugs. At sunrise I woke up a few kilometers before Chiang Mai and realized that this way of traveling was very pleasant after all. One recovered in sleep and "wasted" no time during the day with a transfer to the next destination, a win-win situation, so to speak.