December 18, 2025
Day 107 — Bangkok
After yesterday’s walking reintroduction to Bangkok (and day 1 getting used to 30+ degree temperatures), today was a day for getting some stuff done.
First, our plan was to escape Bangkok in a few days by taking the train south to Hua Hin, thereby avoiding the chaos of Bangkok traffic. And our wander yesterday confirmed to us this was a good idea — streets were absolutely bonkers, and there was no way we could subject ourselves to that over dozens of km in 30+ degree heat. So we needed train tickets, as well as a firm understanding of putting bikes on the train. Our information gleaned from the interwebs was that the train did have a cargo car where bikes could be put on (without boxing or bagging). It was however too difficult to figure out details from the train web site, so we figured we’d just go to the train station and sort things out and maybe get tickets in advance.
Second, we needed to get to the travel clinic to get vaccinations we did not get in Canada. There were a couple that were very expensive in Canada and not covered by insurance, and which would be much cheaper in Thailand. These were not needed for Japan, so we had planned to go to the main travel clinic in Bangkok to get them. Also it would be good if they could throw in our annual COVID/flu shot as well, which weren’t yet available in Canada when we left.
Fun stuff, I know.
Marilee mentioned in the last post that we were staying at the same guesthouse we stayed at 30 years ago. The guesthouse iced coffees and breakfasts were part of the memories of that trip long ago. It was pretty surreal to be sitting in the same lounge area getting iced coffees and breakfast again. And the coffee was as delicious as I remembered! A la rechereche du temps perdu…
Post breakfast we hit the road for the train station and travel clinic. This involved a short trip upstream on the river ferry, then a skytrain trip. Vancouver has the exact same skytrain system, so it was also a bit strange to be on what felt like our local train, but with much different stops.
Train station was first, and it was a good thing we went in person. We found out there were only a few trains that had the freight car for bikes, so we got tickets for that train, which we wouldn’t have if we booked online. Phew.
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We met with similar success at the travel clinic. The whole process lasted less than an hour, absolutely remarkable given we had no appointments and were just walk-ins. There was of course a certain amount of paperwork, but between filling out the expected forms we barely had any wait. We were in to see a doctor with a few minutes wait, then a nurse was ready with the shots once we paid our bill, which as expected was far less than what we would have paid in Canada. It was all impressively efficient and orderly.
We decided to walk back to the guesthouse, which was mostly a hot sunny trudge along busy streets, but there were points of interest, including a wat that we visited to give our legs a rest, a royal residence we were not permitted to visit, and the very handsome Parutakasawan Palace, which I’ve misspelled. This was a residence given to a prince 100 years ago on completion of his studies. It currently houses the police museum, which we were not interested in, though we did admire the building.
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We returned to the guesthouse to have mid afternoon showers and sack out in the air conditioning for an hour or two, and await the generally crappy feeling that comes from getting 4 vaccinations at once. Dinner was back at the same riverfront restaurant as the previous evening, so I could see whether their red curry or green curry was better (green was the winner, though their pork satay was really good).
Not much tourist excitement, but we went to bed pretty happy with our accomplishments.
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