My Family Visits Bangkok

I've been looking forward to it for months, and the time finally arrived! My mom and brother arrived in Bangkok for their second and third visits respectively!

You can read all about our experiences here and on my brother's blog. He will be writing about his experiences, opinions, and perspectives, and I'll be sharing mine on here.

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My mom and bro arrived at Survarnabhumi Airport after midnight, and I was there to meet them and take them back to my new apartment. I live downtown now, so this year they could stay with me!

Jet lag woke them up early on their first full day in Thailand. We walked down the road to the nearby Suan Pakkgad Palace to spend the morning in the cool, quiet gardens of the estate. Because there was a small group of us, we even got a free private tour! We had the whole place to ourselves.

the lacquer pavilion

They've been to the Grand Palace before. It's definitely an experience worth having, but it can be hot, crowded, and overwhelming. Suan Pakkgad is quiet and relaxed, very much different! We decided to take it easy and go slow on their first day in Bangkok.

After that, we took the canal boat down to Rattanakosin Island, Bangkok's Old Town, to climb Wat Saket, Mom's, Kyle's, and my favorite temple in Bangkok.

cruising the canals

It was a beautiful sunny day, but up on top of the Golden Mount, a breeze kept us a bit cooler.

beautiful sunny day in Rattanakosin

We wound our way up the jungle path, ringing the prayer bells and the great iron gong on our way.

walking up the Golden Mount

Wat Saket offers the best views of Old Town in the city. On our way up, we could see everything from the Grand Palace to the Rama IX Bridge, and even my condo building, way off in the distance, as temples and neighborhoods sprawled out below us.

beautiful views of the city

At the "peak" of the Golden Mount, a golden chedi holds a Buddhist relic. Unfortunately the upper platform was closed for renovations, so we missed some of the best views.

Kyle descending

We got a blessing and a white prayer bracelet from a monk though, and a trio of lemon iced teas from Golden Mount Coffee on the way down. I usually wear one or two blessed string bracelets at any given time. I figure, an extra blessing or two certainly can't hurt!

receiving a blessing

at the top

We stopped at Siam Paragon for an upscale Thai lunch complete with herbal juice to cool off from the heat. Lemongrass, roselle, and bael juice refreshed us and energized us for more exploring around the city.

Thai herbal drinks with lunch

eastern Thai cuisine for lunch

Just next door, in the heart of the city's busiest shopping district, lies quiet Wat Pathum, a royal temple with a beautiful garden nestled between two luxury shopping malls. Kyle and I each carried a film camera to practice our photography skills. I'll be posting a few photo galleries of our shots as soon as I get them developed!

Wat Pathum

It's so great to have my family here in Bangkok! I miss them! It gives me the chance to explore and see places that I normally wouldn't visit. Since our final exams are past, I was even allowed to take the whole week off to spend time with them! It's been really great for me, and I hope they've had as great a time as I have!

hungry!

tea time!

Mom and me!

On their first evening, Pinky and I took Mom and Kyle to Emquartier in the "Em District", another nice entertainment area down the Skytrain from where I live. Emquartier just opened a year or two ago as Bangkok's newest and fanciest mall! There's a beautiful garden on the roof with excellent views of downtown!

group photo on top of Emquartier

It was a rushed visit to the Big Mango! On their second evening in Bangkok we loaded into a taxi on the way to Hua Lampong Train Station for the next leg of our adventure- we were off to Chiang Mai to explore Thailand's most famous northern city!

in a taxi