AND SO THE JOURNEY CONTINUES AND BEGINS:
4/7/24 - Still in a semi recovery mode, we decided to make today a very early day. The reasoning is tomorrow (4/8) we we have a 0300 meeting time former departure flight to Paro, Bhutan.
Rough plan for the day is to have breakfast here at the hotel. Repack and consolidate our gear for the flight. Simply place some of our carry on items into checked luggage. So for me I will be carrying camera, batteries, and laptop, and a few other incidentals I.e. cables.
Then we will check in with our Expedition Leader as they have a desk set up in the hotel lobby. Can’t miss it with the big Nat Geo Flag. (Cue the Nat Geo Theme).
After that, we plan to take the train into Bangkok as a familiarization run. I think the heat and humidity will drive us back to the hotel pool today.
Then we will crash early in anticipation of meeting our group and the flight to Paro.
The breakfast here at the Suvarnabhumi Airport Novotel is EXCELLENT!!! So many choices, we lingered over small bites for a couple hours. Yes, they had pork steam buns.
Back to the room and got our bags sorted and repacked. Now we are killing time awaiting 0800 when we check in with Nat Geo folks.
No one showed up at 0800 so we struck out headed to the Chatuchak Market. No Worries.
Our outbound journey was on the Airport Rail Link to the Makkasan stop where we then went to the MRT or blue line to the Chatuchak Park station. This journey cost about 55 BHT each.
First off it is Asia HOT!!! From the Chatuchak Park Station it was a 100 meter walk to the entrance of the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Easy to find just follow all the people.
With over 200,000 people flocking into Chatuchak Market every weekend, the Bangkok Marketplace has become the World’s largest Weekend Market. The Market has over 15,000 stalls which are spread across 35 acres and 26 sections which range from Food, Art, Antiques, Fashion and much more.
Market views:
Here is a bit of history on the market:
Field Marshal Plaek Pibunsongkhram was the third Prime Minister of Thailand who first came into office in December 1938. During his tenure, he decided that every town must have a flea market of their own to make it easier for locals to trade and boost the local economy. Bangkok was high on his agenda, so it was declared that a flea market would open up in Sanam Luang, which would become the city’s first market in 1942.
In 1982, the market was moved as a permanent feature to Chatuchak. Five years later, the iconic Clocktower was built to celebrate King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th birthday and the market was finally renamed, Chatuchak Market.
This market has everything one could want. After rambling around bit Lynn found a belt for 200BHT (down a bit after some haggling). A fresh mango smoothy was procured as well as a bottle of much needed water. (70BHT)
Dripping in sweat from the heat and humidity we decided to make our way back to the hotel.
This time we took the BTS Sky Train to the Phaya Thai Station. From there the airport rail link back to the airport.
The floor cleaning robot is so much cuter than the ones we have at Sam's Club
Lunch time was had at the Magic Point Food court for a Vietnamese sandwich. Then upstairs for steam buns and a cold beer. Back to the hotel to find the Nat Geo desk empty :) as it was lunch time. Will try later.
Back in the room a bit of laundry was done and hydration continued.
A little after 1300 we noticed the Nat Geo desk was manned. We met our Expedition Leader Kesang Dorji. We got our logistic information updated and the best news was we get a later departure time of 0430.
Back to the room for the final preparing for tomorrow was completed.
See ya all tomorrow when our journey to Bhutan continues. We did learn our group size will be just 12 in the group. NICE!!!
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