Finally the whole family has the same day off so we decided to pack our umbrellas (a must these days especially in Bangkok) and our cameras (and power banks, don’t forget the power banks) to explore the Talad Noi community in a new light.
TL;DR
I’ve decided to split the whole day into different posts. This one will cover the day’s journey in a summary-like fashion (and it’s still 740 something words long). And full story about each location will be posted in separate posts and linked to this story so anyone who wants to check out more details. Thanks!!!
It’s been a long, long, long, long time since the whole family get to have the same day off. And when this happened, we decided to hang out and just explore Talad Noi (rather than go to series of department stores).
We were all giddy to start the day and the plan was to visit as many places and take as many pictures as possible so we were all prepared with cameras, power bank to recharge the phones, and … umbrellas … (because Bangkok weather has been a tad psychotic of late).
Chong Kee Pork Satay
We decided to visit Chong Kee Pork Satay restaurant (80-year-old Satay restaurant serving only pork and liver satay) for breakfast. We enjoyed a whopping 40 pieces of grilled pork Satay amongst the four of us. I have to say that it’s a great start for a day of walking in the neighborhood.
The temple, the heritage center, and the Golden Buddha
Then we went to Wat Traimitr (Traimitr Temple) first to visit the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Center which is a museum covering the history of Yaowarat or Chinatown in Bangkok. There’s also a theater space where they will project video onto the life-size setting of a typical house in Chinatown of a grandfather telling his grandson about the history of Chinatown and the visit of King Rama VIII and his brother, the late King Rama IX with his trusty camera and their entourage.
In the same building, second floor, there’s an exhibit covering the story of how the Golden Buddha (83% pure gold and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest and highest intrinsic value 15th-century gold Buddha image in the world in the year 1991. We went to pay our respect to the Golden Buddha and then it started to rain.
But we came prepared so we all got our umbrellas out and trotted across the streets to the Scoop ice cream shop where we devoured 10+1 scoops of ice cream (they had the promotion, give us a break) and a waffle and a latte to wait for the rain to stop.
After the rain finally stopped, we went on our merry ways again walking in and around the Talad Noi neighborhood taking pictures of the graffiti wall art, the gigantic Bodhi tree, we only went past the So Heng Tai (250+ years old Chinese home cum coffee shop and scuba diving school) because if we want to enter, we had to order coffee. But we just had each a few scoops of ice cream so we decided against having any more food or beverages.
So we kept trudging on in and around this community.
Then we went to the Holy Rosary Church by the Chao Phraya River. This is one of the many very beautiful and most visited (even by tourists) in Bangkok. They also let you take pictures inside the church but just don’t disturb the worshipers that might be inside. You also need to wear proper clothing to enter.
Finally, we ended up at the Bangkok Art and Cultural Center (BACC) to check out and take some pictures of the art installations in the area. The Bangkok Art Biennale 2018 was just recently launched too so there are a lot of goodies to check out for sure.
It was a nice, wholesome, adventurous day for all of us with over 14k steps taken. I remembered my feet hurt after I got home but it was oh-so-worth-it. I got to spend the whole day with my folks, with the people I love and enjoy some awesome sites in Bangkok. What a day!
P.S. Posts about the specific locations mentioned here will follow. I seriously can’t put the details of every location into one post just because I feel that it will be way too long. Links will be added to this story about each location so do stay tune!
