$50 Pad Thai

(flashback: 15 January 2010)

Lets see, on our way to Australia we have a 6-hour layover in Bangkok (Thailand).  We’ve both been there before but have a hankering for some pad thai, one our of favorite Thai dishes.  Lets do it!

We land, disembark and make it through customs with about 5 hours left to spare.  We scramble through the very large (new) international airport, cash out a $50 traveler’s check into Thai Baht currency and catch a $16, 45 minute, cab ride into the center of Bangkok.  The entire cab ride into the city we are counting our remaining baht (putting aside another $16 for our cab trip back to the airport) and the minutes/hours until we need to be back at the airport to catch our connection to Sydney.  We are dropped off at the Grand Palace, of which closes in less than an hour.  We push our way through the very large crowds of tourists in the heat and humidity to the front gates to see the price of entry to be 750 baht for two people – $23 US.  We haven’t enough money left to get in!  Classic.  We take a few photos at the gate.  Yes we made it to the gate of the Grand Palace.  We putter out to the streets and find ourselves some authentic thai street food – we found our pad thai we’ve been craving, some other unknown deep-fried-goodness, and some thai ice cream to fill our hungry and tired tummies.  All for the cost of a mere 70 baht (a little over $2)!  With less than three hours to spare on a Friday afternoon in traffic-ridden Bangkok, we finally catch a cab back to the airport…

Upon arrival and the realization that we will make our connection, we then scramble around the airport trying to figure out how to spend up our remaining thai baht that will be useless in Australia, and not worth exchanging back into dollars.

About an hour-and-a-half and $50 spent on authentic pad thai in the streets of Bangkok, a few laughs, a bit of stress, and a memory we will not soon forget.  Totally worth it.

Grand Palace

Made it all the way to the GATE of the Grand Palace but we didn't have enough money to go in! Wearing Casey's sweatshirt to cover my bare shoulders (Buddhist temple).

Our pad thai in the making.

What we call "deep-fried-goodness"

Thanks Bangkok.  It was lovely.

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