It’s a nice trip to visit Bangkok and it’s somewhat a gift to my birthday in May. And it’s my first time to be in Thailand. Everything here is new and attractive.
Bangkok is one of top travel destination in the world. The cost of living here is affordable for most visitors.
The Thai Currency
I haven’t use paper currency in China for a few years since electric payment is so popular. You don’t need to carry wallet when you are outside because any store accepts Wechat pay or Alipay in Shanghai. Bangkok is a bit traditional. Paper currency is still popular and most local stores only accepts cash. I think it’s mainly because the electric payment company charges some extra fee.
A coin wallet is still necessary because you need somewhere to put Thai coins.
My Feeling about Bangkok Rainy Season
Although Shanghai also has some rainy season and it’s a bit annoying, it’s so short (usually 2–3 weeks). Rain looks to be very common in Bangkok because of the rainy season (May to Oct). People here get used to heavy rain. I even see one Thai taking videos with his phone in the rain without umberalla even if the rain is so heavy. It looks they don’t care. Frankly speaking, I’m a bit worried at first because I’m worrying that I cannot go back to the hotel.
The rain shelters between nearby shopping mall buildings are very impressive since it make it possible to walk from one building to another even if the rain is heavy.
Internet is so smooth
I bought a Truemove simcard and enjoyed its 5G network. It’s perfect and I don’t see any problem while traveling in Bangkok. The signal is always strong enough and the speed test is very impressive.
Download rate: 231 Mbps, Upload rate: 33Mbps
Since there is no national firewall in Thailand, VPN is not needed at all. It’s so smooth to install apps from Google Play. Google maps is so convienent here. You can get any information you need for one tourist location. In China, a map app is just a map. No information about stores, restaurants and sightseeings. You have to rely on some other apps like Dianping to figure out the information and reviews of one store or restaurant.
Wild Choices of Public Transportation
The bangkok city has a few transportation choices for tourist: bus, subway, taxi, tutu and motocycle rider.
Subway is very reliable and fast because there is no traffic jam for subway. The roads in central area of bangkok are blocked due to too many cars and the roads are narrow.
If you are single traveller, motocycle rider is a very good choice. You can book a motocycler on Blot and it’s very cheap, usually less than 50baht.
It’s recommended to use Bolt instead of Grab to book a taxi because the price of Bolt is much cheaper than Grab. Usually, it’s 1/3 price of Grab.
Language Problem
Although Bangkok is one of the top travel destination in the world. English is not so well used here. Although you can find some staff who can speak English in some big supermarkets or shopping malls, most local people don’t speak English. For example, the taxi drivers usually can only say hi and thank you. It’s somewhat hard to communicate if something goes wrong. You have to rely on the Bolt chat translation or Google translation.
However, most menus in a restaurant provide English translation. It’s possible for you to order dishes even if you don’t know Thai.
