After spending several days around Ramkhamhaeng, eating at the same places, exploring the night market, and playing basketball almost every afternoon, we started to feel like we needed a change of scenery.
So one day, we decided to explore one of the busiest parts of Bangkok.
Our destination was the MBK area and Siam.
We headed out and made our way toward the city center. Once we arrived, there were already so many things to see. Bangkok suddenly felt completely different from the area where we were staying.
We visited several places around the Siam area, including MBK Center, Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon, Siam Square, and Siam Scape.
Each place had its own atmosphere, and there was always something interesting to look at.
But out of all of them, MBK Center was probably one of the places that caught my attention the most.
Not only because the mall itself was huge and full of different shops, but because of what I saw above it.
There was a train line running above the area.
Coming from Indonesia, seeing something like that in the middle of such a busy city honestly felt a little futuristic.
I was just standing there thinking,
โThis is actually crazy.โ ๐
Maybe for people who live in Bangkok, something like that is completely normal. But for me, it was one of those small things that made me realize how different the transportation and city infrastructure here can be.
The whole Siam area also felt incredibly busy.
There were people everywhere, huge buildings, trains passing by, shopping malls connected to each other, restaurants, shops, and so many things happening at the same time.
We kept walking from one place to another, and every few minutes there was something new to see.
At some point, I realized that Bangkok wasn't just about the famous tourist attractions.
Even simply walking around the city center was already an experience.
There was a mix of modern buildings, public transportation, shopping areas, street food, and people from different backgrounds. Everything felt very active.
We spent quite a lot of time exploring the area, and by the end of the day, we were definitely tired.
But honestly, it was worth it.
What I liked most was that we weren't just visiting one specific tourist destination. We were actually experiencing what it felt like to spend a day moving around Bangkok and seeing how the city worked.
And after spending most of our time around Ramkhamhaeng, this was a nice change.
But there was another reason this trip to the city center became memorable for me.
A few days later, I would return to this area for something completely different.
Not for shopping.
Not for sightseeing.
But to visit one of Thailand's most famous universities:
Chulalongkorn University.
And surprisingly, that visit would make me start thinking about Thailand in a completely different way.