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Trip Report: South Korea and Thailand – Day 3: Ayutthaya

May 11, 2016Trip ReportAyutthaya, bangkok, HHonors, Photos, thailand, Travel, Trip Reporttraveling4numbers One comment

After spending all day in Bangkok the previous day, we had planned to venture outside of the city to spend time in the historical capital of Ayutthaya. We took the public ferry across the river from the Millennium Hilton and commenced our walk to the train station (should have taken approximately 15-20 minutes). Unfortunately, we got pretty turned around on the way there and the walk ended up taking about 1 hour (did get a nice tour of Chinatown!).

As we approached the station, we were approached by a women wearing what looked to be an official vest for the rail company stating that the last train to Ayutthaya had already departed and she could provide a minibus for us for a relatively small amount of money. We contemplated and decided to confirm for ourselves within the train station only to find out she was in no way official and had been lying. Lesson learned to be on the lookout outside of the train station!

We purchased tickets for the air-conditioned train car to Ayutthaya (only marginally more expensive) and were on our way. Some pics below of the exterior of the train station, colorful Thai trains, the interior of the air-conditioned car, and the Ayutthaya station.

The train passes through suburbs of Bangkok for about half of the journey before emerging into agricultural fields for the final 30 minutes into Ayutthaya (did I mention the train is extremely slow!).

Bangkok Train Station

Bangkok Train Station

Air-conditioned train to Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya Train Station

Upon arrival in Ayutthaya, one is approached by a handful of Tuk-tuk drivers offering their services to take you around to the various sites as they are quite spread out. We chose the one who seemed the most sincere and after negotiating a half-day rate with him, we were off.

Can’t recommend Ayutthaya enough, it was pretty marvelous and for someone who has not been to Angkor Wat, it was quite impressive! Make sure you bring plenty of water though; it was incredibly hot.

Photos below of some of the highlights:

Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya (wife and I)

Ayutthaya

Tuk-tuk in Ayutthaya (one of our traveling companions and myself)

Bangkok slums

Arrived back into Bangkok pretty exhausted but managed to rouse ourselves up to go out for drinks on the famous backpacker road (Khao San Road). It was quite the experience! (no photos from that night though, ha)

The next day we were scheduled to head north to Chiang Mai, stay tuned for the next installment!

Trip Report: South Korea and Thailand – Day 2: Bangkok

May 9, 2016Trip Reportbangkok, BKK, HHonors, Photos, thailand, Travel, Trip Reporttraveling4numbers Leave a comment

Upon arrival into Bangkok, your senses go into overdrive. The smells, sights, and sounds are so different from what you experience in your day-to-day life that there is nothing that can prepare you the first time you step out.

We didn’t arrive at our hotel (Millennium Hilton – Bangkok) until late afternoon due to some flight delays (air traffic control at BKK lost power for about an hour and our flight from Seoul had to divert to Da Nong, Vietnam for about one hour) and given the long-flight we were ready to go exploring.

Our first stop was the famous night flower market in Bangkok. For a first experience in Bangkok this was pretty overwhelming. This is a must-visit for travelers to Bangkok.

Night Flower Market

Bangkok Flower Market

Within the flower market on a street corner is the street food cart below which had quite possibly the best noodle soup I have ever had, the spice and flavor were beyond belief. (If you see the guy in the dark t-shirt below working the cart, stop in, you won’t regret it!)

Flower Market Street Food

The next morning we woke up to a hazy view from our room at the Hilton Millennium hotel overlooking the west bank of the Chao Phraya.

Bangkok view from Hilton Millennium

Chao Phraya view from Hilton Millennium

Given my Gold status with HHonors at the time we had access to the executive lounge on the top floor, must say the breakfast spread with quite good and the views were tough to beat:

View from Millennium Hilton Lounge

For our first full day in Bangkok we had arranged for a half-day guided tour with a private car to view Wat Pho, the Grand Palace and take a canal tour. We booked through TourwithTong and I cannot recommend them enough. Very professional and informative tour guide. The images below are highlights from our half-day tour:

Reclining Buddha – Bangkok

Wat Pho – Bangkok

Grand Palace – Bangkok

Canal tour – Bangkok

After being dropped back off at our hotel we were ready to explore Bangkok on our own. Using the free hotel shuttle boat, we crossed over the Chao Phraya river to the Saphan Taksin BTS station. Very convenient access to public transportation. If you are trying to cross directly over to the Sheraton, there is a public ferry that runs frequently and costs approx. $.05 USD (public ferry dock is in the distance in the below picture).

Millennium Hilton Ferry Dock

Street Food – Bangkok

Street scene – Bangkok

BTS Skytrain – Bangkok

Bangkok, Thailand

Nothing too exciting the rest of the day, just wandered around the city and ate some pretty delicious street food. After an exhausting day, we were ready to get some rest to make the trek the next day to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Siam.

Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona (Day 5)

August 6, 2014Travel Photos, Trip ReportAncient Rome, HHonors, Hilton, Italy, Rome, Rome Cavalieri, Travel, Trip Reporttraveling4numbers Leave a comment

No excuse really for not posting the next installment in this trip report for more than 4 months, just have been extremely busy at work and haven’t dedicated the time to complete it. Given that I have had such a long gap in between reports, the final installments in this trip report will be more picture heavy since I don’t remember the specific details of what we did/saw/ate each day.

Baths of Caracalla

Basilica San Giovanni in Laterano

Teatro dell’Opera di Roma

Rome Street Scene

Veterinario

This was our final day in Rome with my family. The continued on to Naples/Pompeii/Florence and my wife and I continued on to Barcelona. We thoroughly enjoyed spending Christmas break with them in Rome.

I will write the remaining Trip Report installments covering our time in Barcelona over the next two weeks. After that I will begin an introduction to our upcoming trip to Thailand this fall.

Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona (Day 4)

March 19, 2014Trip ReportAncient Rome, Christmas, Christmas Day, HHonors, Hilton, Italy, Lufthansa, Pantheon, Photos, Rome, Rome Cavalieri, Travel, Trip Report, Waldorf Astoriatraveling4numbers Leave a comment

Given that it was Christmas Day we had planned to sleep in a bit and meet my family a little bit later (10:30) near the Vatican. Our plan was to meet outside the Vatican walls and proceed into St. Peter’s Square in order to listen to the Pope give his Christmas address. Amazingly, our plan worked.

We met outside of the walls and walked as a group into St. Peter’s Square finding it to be less crowded than we initially had feared (still about 30-40 minutes before his speech). We managed to get within 10-15 people of the northwest corner barricade, all-in-all a really good spot to watch. As the time for his appearance and address approached the square became more and more crowded, to the point that it was filled out to the very edges. Pretty neat to be as close as we were. (I should clarify that I am not Catholic but do find it very neat to witness events like this)

I definitely count myself incredibly lucky as this is the second time I have been able to watch a Pope deliver a religious holiday address in St. Peter’s Square. (My wife and I saw Pope Benedict give an Easter Mass on our honeymoon)

Some pictures from our time watching the Pope.

St. Peter’s Christmas Morning

Waiting on the Pope

Pope Francis Christmas Address

Once the Pope was finished giving his Christmas address we had decided, as a family, to have a long late lunch for our Christmas day meal. We met the owner (Frederico) the previous day and he was at the restaurant when we returned ensuring we were well taken care of. It was a good experience and I think we all enjoyed the chance to spend a couple of hours together celebrating Christmas.

After our long meal (2.5+ hours) we strolled leisurely back towards the Spanish Steps doing some window shopping along the way. We were surprised, but happy, at the amount of people out and about on Christmas Day. Made for a very fun atmosphere.

Beautiful Ceiling

Sorry for the quality of the above picture but the lighting was difficult to capture just how magnificent the ceiling of this church is. We went there on the recommendation of the aforementioned Frederico and it was amazing. The church is tucked into a small piazza behind and to the left of the Pantheon. Well worth it to go out of your way to find this church.

Elephant statue

My wife really liked this one 🙂

Christmas Day – Trevi Fountain

Alright, one more day in Rome with my family to blog and then we head our separate ways. My wife and I went on to Barcelona and the family continued onto Florence. Hopefully, I can get our Day 5 post out tomorrow. Until then, enjoy!

Trip Report: Christmas in Rome and New Year’s in Barcelona (Day 3)

March 18, 2014Trip ReportAncient Rome, Coliseum, HHonors, Italy, Lufthansa, Pantheon, Photos, Rome, Rome Cavalieri, Travel, Trip Reporttraveling4numbers Leave a comment

After a full day visiting the Vatican, we had planned on meeting my family the following morning in the Roman Forum. It was our day to visit Ancient Rome (originally our day was the day of arrival but due to flight delays Christmas Eve turned out to be just fine).

Our plan was for my family to arrive a bit earlier than my wife and I as we had already toured the forum during our honeymoon several years ago. We were going to try and meet up with them inside the forum, at least that was the plan. Due to an inability to reach each other via phone, we had significant issues finding them. I would guess my wife and I spent close to an hour searching for my family only to be startled to hear our names being called out from the Coliseum. Turns out my family sees things quickly and they were already inside the coliseum waiting on us!

Some pictures from our day:

Roman Forum

Coliseum – Interior

Lunch with the family

Cool church tucked between buildings

Wife and I with niece

Pantheon at night – Christmas Eve

Trevi Fountain at night – Christmas Eve

I know these are coming out slowly but it has been difficult to find the time to put them together. Next up will be Christmas Day in Rome, with a special guest appearance from the Pope.