- November 15, 2025, Saturday.
- Bangkok has been steadily growing on me, and any opportunity to go back just feels like going to another home. I was in Bangkok for a conference just last year, and now I'm back again for another conference!
- My Cebu Pacific flight to Bangkok from Manila was really early in the morning, but the flight was delayed for a while so my first day was significantly cut short. The afternoon traffic in Bangkok didn't help either!
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| At least I won in the in-flight trivia game. This pouch was exactly what I needed for traveling! |
- Upon checking in Diff Hostel I immediately went to Wat Saket which was a place I vowed to visit last year (closest metro station is Sam Yot MRT Station). This golden temple on a mad-made hill was built in the 1880s by King Nangklao (King Rama III). When I visited last year, the main stupa was under renovation, so I thought of visiting it again when renovations are done. This year, it looks nice and golden once more without all the scaffolding I saw last year!
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| Wat Saket! |
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| The best spot to have a photo of Wat Saket, including a bit of Loha Prasat (Wat Ratchanardaram), another royal temple built during King Rama III's time. (I think I need to explore Loha Prasat a bit more in my next visit!) |
- The temple is also known for attracting vultures in the past. The temple was located outside the former city walls, and so people would often bring the dead to be cremated here. However, during several cholera outbreaks int he 1800s, the number of corpses brought to the temple overwhelmed the crematorium, attracting many vultures and birds of prey to eat the corpses. Fortunately, this isn't the case anymore.
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| Giant gong. |
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| Main stupa. |
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| A reminder of Wat Saket's dark past (with the vultures). |
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| A golden Buddha towards the base. |
- From Wat Saket, I ventured in the far western side of Bangkok, in the Thawi Watthana district (near the borders that Bangkok shares with Nakhon Pathom and Nonthaburi) to visit Dog Country Cafe. Thank goodness for Grab, because this cafe would be incredibly hard to access without a private car! (Closest station is the Taling Chan Railway Station). Dog Country Cafe prides in being Asia's largest pet cafe, with hundreds of dogs in various sizes, cats, rabbits, and some farm animals like pigs and goats! Although I'm not too much of a pet person, I do enjoy the company of some nice animals! Dog Country Cafe has some branches across Bangkok, but with the amount of animals they have in their original branch, I knew I had to go to this particular one instead of the closer branches! This one had the best reviews too. (Bangkok's city proper has other dog cafes too, but with the limited time I had, I just had to go straight to the best!)
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| Here I am! |
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| Can I take you home pleaseeeee. |
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| Can I take ALL OF THEM HOME pleaseeeee?? |
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| I love you toooo. (Please don't eat me.) |
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| If I were to give this guy a name, it would be "Nugget" haha. |
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| PLEASE THEY'RE SO ADORABLE. |
- With just a 350THB entrance fee, and this is the premium package (there are cheaper packages, but I wanted the whole experience!), I didn't only get to play with the dogs there, but I got a free drink, and access to the cats and rabbits (not all packages allow entrance to the cat and rabbit quarters). Some animal feeds are available for sale, and I took the chance to feed some of the animals there. The reason why I went to this particular branch was because guests can clearly see how well they're taken care of, and how free and active the animals seem to be. (They seem happy, at least I think so?)
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| Room for tiny dogs. |
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| Medium sized dogs! |
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| At the cat room. I'm more of a dog person than a cat person, but I liked the cats here (until they started scratching my pants to ask for food hahahaha.) |
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| Fluffy cats!! |
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| At the rabbit room. They were in cages, but I don't know how difficult it would be to have them out and about the whole time. |
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| At least I have this fluffy bunny to pet for a few moments! |
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| GIANT FARM ANIMALS (they were in the same place the big dogs, although I wasn't able to take photos of the big dogs as there were too many people playing with the dogs at that time.) |
- That evening I had a brief visit to Platinum Mall (close to Siam or Ratchathewi BTS Stations), my absolute favorite shopping place in Bangkok, but mainly to have dinner rather than shop. I enjoy the outdoor no-fuss dining experience!
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| Had Tom Yum rice and fresh coconut juice. I always love Thailand's coconut juice. |
- My first day in Bangkok was more eventful than I imagined because of my flight delay. Bangkok also welcomed me with a chilly evening, which I didn't expect since Manila was still a bit hot even this time of the year (and Bangkok and Manila often have the same kind of weather). Truly, Bangkok knows how to make me feel "at home"!!
