We had the chance to travel this past weekend to Bangkok for our son’s select basketball tournament. Only a 5 hour flight from Seoul, we decided to take advantage of a long weekend in Bangkok and tag along.

International Students Competing Abroad

Firstly, what an amazing opportunity for our 8th grader to travel with teammates and compete. This is fairly common place among international schools, many teams travel internationally for sports, the arts and academic competitions. The tournament was held at the International School of Bangkok, a beautiful school about 30 minutes outside the city center. Although we came to support and watch basketball, we gave our son his space to travel with and attend all the team events on his own. Watching him gain confidence and independence through this opportunity was exactly what we hoped for. When you are expat kid and you get to meet so many other expat kids living all over this world, it does wonders for feeling “normal.” His exposure to the teenage cultural variety is something we could never replicate in any other way.

Bangkok – First Impressions

It was my first time to Bangkok and I tried to come in with no expectations and just let city reveal herself. We stayed at The Athenee Hotel, a beautifully modern Thai hotel right in the middle of city center. The pool was peaceful and service was top notch. The breakfast bar is what dreams are made of, give the Thai omelet a try!

We found it very easy to get around, either walking or getting a GRAB taxi, which is cheap and easy for tourists and foreigners to manage. Lots of restaurants and shops all around with great food and beautiful views of the City. It was quite busy with moto’s, taxi’s and traffic, so we tried to stay fairly close to the hotel when we had the choice.

Dinner at the Deck

Our favorite meal was at the Deck restaurant overlooking the Chao Phraya River and Wat Arun. With the cooler evening temps, we climbed up 3 flights of stairs to an open air restaurant. It had the most stunning view as sunset gave way into evening. There is just something about the city at night.

The food was incredible, coconut curries, chicken satay’s and of course, the star of the show, mango sticky rice. I feel like I could have stayed much longer, if just to eat more of the local food!

As we continue to travel through Southeast Asia, as with our week in Vietnam, I am constantly confronted by how reality doesn’t match my expectations. I’m not sure if I expected more chaos, but I found myself feeling oddly comfortable in the damp heat and noisy streets.

We kept saying to each other, if Seoul and Cartagena had a baby, it would be Bangkok.

In the spirit of honesty, although we had a fun weekend, Bangkok was not my favorite. I had a hard time finding the identity of this city, and I’m sure some of that is due to our short stay. I have slight PTSD from high humidity and oppressive heat, so perhaps that had something to do with my less than stellar vibes. There is obviously so much more to Thailand than what we saw this weekend. I am very excited to plan a longer trip back and check out the islands and possibly Chiang Mai. Perhaps, if given the opportunity, I will give Bangkok a re-do as well.