Night One in Bangkok: Dinner Cruise

Night One Highlights

• Riva Arun Hotel
• Supanniga Sunset Dinner Cruise

The Details

We arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport mid-day on a Saturday in late December. Being that it was peak tourist time, between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, it took us quite a while to get through immigration and out into the warm, sticky air of Bangkok.

Plan plenty of buffer time around your arrival or departure. It can take hours to get through Suvarnabhumi Airport. It took us an hour to get through immigration when arriving and another 1.5 hours to get into the city. We spent our whole 3 hour layover on our way home to get from the domestic terminal, to the international terminal, checked in, and through immigration.

Our first challenge was to get into the city but that turned out to not be a challenge at all. We walked out to the curb to hail a cab and the taxi setup blew us away. There is a station with a few kiosks that direct the flow of passengers to the taxis. You walk up to a kiosk and wait for the screen to tell you there is a cab available. You then press the button and it prints out a ticket with a stall number where your cab will be waiting for you!

We got to our cab in space #37 and were greeted by a friendly driver. It took us a few minutes to communicate where we were trying to go. I ended up using Google Maps on my phone to show him where our hotel was.

When using a conventional taxi, it’s a good idea to have your destination pulled up on a map or to have the name and address written in Thai. We found that a lot of cab drivers don’t know the English version of destination names and given the size and density of the city, they might not even know of the place at all.

The drive into the city takes about an hour, depending on traffic, but we didn’t mind. It was our first time in Bangkok. We spent the drive just taking in the sprawling city. The driver dropped us off on a busy street at the opening of a narrow alley lined with small shops and apartments.

Our hotel, Riva Arun, was at the end of the alley. I’ll admit, as we walked down the alley I was having some second thoughts about my choice of hotel. But the moment we walked in the door any shred of doubt was gone. The lobby was bright and stylish. The staff greeted us immediately and ushered us to a seating area. They brought us tea and everything we needed to sign for the stay.  The service was amazing the moment we walked in and it continued to be amazing throughout our stay. The receptionist brought us to our room, which looked just as wonderful as the lobby. We even had a small balcony over the alley that had a pretty good view of the river.

Opt for a small, boutique hotel on the river over a large, luxury hotel further in to the city. We absolutely loved the hotel we stayed in. Sitting on the roof in the morning, enjoying the cool breeze, and watching the boats go by was one of my favorite moments in Bangkok.

After checking out our new digs, we freshened up and headed out for our dinner cruise. We didn’t leave with enough time to take the river taxi as originally planned so we hailed the first mode of transportation that we saw…a tuk tuk. Given that we were running late, this was our best option. A tuk tuk will get you to your destination faster than a cab, because they can weave in and out of traffic. But they are also not for the faint of heart, because they can weave in and out of traffic. My boyfriend and I had very different reactions to this, one of us thrilled, the other terrified. Nevertheless, we made it to River City in one piece and in time to get on our cruise.

Dinner cruises are a popular way to spend an evening and there are so many different options. From small and low key, like ours, to large and wild, like the mega yacht covered in neon, blasting the James Bond theme, there’s something for everyone. We were seated on the second level of our (relatively) small boat and served champagne as we set sail. I could not have asked for a better way to spend our first night in Thailand. The brightly lit temples provided a mesmerizing backdrop for a wonderful meal. This was also my first experience with what would become my two newest obsessions – tom kha soup and mango sticky rice. And after dinner we hailed a cab, not a tuk tuk, back to the hotel.

• More Cab Tips
  
  
  • Ask your hotel about booking transportation to and from the airport. We took a regular, metered cab from the airport when we arrived but the hotel concierge booked us a cab back to the airport for a flat rate. The flat rate ended up being much cheaper than the metered cab.
  
  
  • Aside from the airport trip, try to use metered cabs. During super busy times it may be hard to find someone willing to run the meter because they all want to charge a little extra, like an Uber Surge fee. If this is the case, agree on a price before you take off.
  
  
  • Grab Taxi (an app similar to Uber but based out of Thailand) can be a good alternative to hailing a taxi. It was usually cheaper and gives you the option to enter your destination. I found this to be helpful since most cab drivers don’t speak much English. The only downside is that it can take a long time for a car to arrive, so it’s not a good option if you’re in a hurry.