Bangkok vacation, protest and rally sites

Are you following me on instagram? No? why not?! If you did, am sure you would have seen pictures of my bangkok vacation 2 weekends ago.

Honestly, other than the pictures i posted on instagram, i have nothing much to show because i barely whipped out my camera even though i had it with me all the time.

I was busy meeting up friends, shopping, and drinking starbucks. and OH. EAT. like NON STOP. and maybe, i tried to cafe hop but didnt have the time, so i basically hop from one to another without eating. not exactly the idea of cafe hopping, i know.

Actually, it was a team bonding trip, but no. The people that you see in the pictures above are not part of my team. Heck, they aren’t even part of my company. I arrived 2 days earlier to clock in more shopping and they are friends who i happen to know that they are in bangkok during the same weekend so we did like quick meet ups or shopped together. Well, i concluded (or rather THEY unanimously all agreed) that i am BAD influence when it comes to shopping. uh oh. now you know. don’t ask me along. you would end up buying a lot more.

So, what is good about bangkok?

CHEAP clothes.
CHEAP accessories.
CHEAP MELISSA shoes. I snagged 3 pairs of heels and none of them exceeds $45 bucks.
CHEAP food. I meant the roadside ones.

I haven’t been to bangkok for many years and i’m quite surprised that i still somewhat know my way around.

Anyhow, part of the reason of this post is because i know i have a lot of friends who have bought air tickets to bangkok and is probably wondering whether it is safe to travel there with news of the protests, the rallies, and the bombings.

Incidentally, i was in bangkok when the bombing happened. And i am unharmed. That is NOT to say that it is safe to travel. This is something that you have to decide for yourself. For me, i thought it was in general OK because while there are protest rallies going on with huge crowd, they are mostly orderly and very accommodating with tourists. The roads are all closed up, there are random gantries being set up with people checking the bags before allowing you to pass through and all. it can get a little intimidating and scary for some, but i was perfectly cool with it. It was really much of an eye-opener for me.

I must say, it is partly because of the fact that i believe that everyone’s life is predestined. if i was meant to die, i would so it would be hard to avoid anyway, so while i live, i try to live my life as i like it, enjoying every bit of it if i could.

And i came up with a map that i thought might be helpful!!

The 3 red crosses are the key junctions where the protest sites are. if you cant read the map, they are:
– MBK & Siam Discovery Centre junction
– Central world junction
– terminal 21 junction (asok bts station) is

The protest sites are mainly active during lunch time onwards and the evenings where the protest rallies would be on and there will be huge crowds gathering to hear the rallies. Other times when there is no rally happening, the place is pretty much deserted.

The areas marked green are where the road closures are, and the roads are somewhat converted into bazaars where people peddle their wares or sell street side food so it’s quite an experience to walk through them. However, if you are staying within the area, do note that you would have to get down the cab and navigate by foot from whichever point is nearest that the taxi can drop you off. it can be quite a LONG walk with narrow pathways to navigate, so think twice about booking hotels in that region. It would also mean getting a cab to the airport is almost an impossible or very expensive task. Just for the record, it cost 1000 baht for me to get a taxi from my hotel to the airport. That’s like 2.5 times more inflated than what i paid when i reached. I obviously didnt pay the $.