Sidestory: The Thailand Temple Trip ~ Visiting Ban Bueng

11-Oct-2026

Today begins with Chella warming up some "leftovers" of yesterday's Chicken Adobo, feeding me more breakfast in a single day than I usually eat in a whole month.

Today, we're going to visit the place where Chella lives, the rural town of Ban Bueng (ตำบล บ้านบึง) in the province of Chon Buri (ชลบุรี). To do so, we're hiring a Bolt to take us all the way there, which comes at approximately 1000฿, give or take. That's about 27€. Not a bad price for a two-person trip to a place that is 90km away.

Anyway, while we wait for the Bolt to pick us up at the doorstep, I notice this little squirrel making its way across the wires.

And here's our bolt now. Once again I'm happy to have a professional driver to get us through the crazy Bangkok traffic.

We go there by the means of route 7...

...which takes us just north past the airport.

Route 7 is effectively a highway, allowing for speeds of up to 120km/h, and four lanes in each direction. Right now there's a lot of traffic though, so we can't go that fast. Oh, and these dangly thingies are apparently something like lucky charms for cars. I saw a dealer walk between the cars on a traffic light with a particularly long red phase (several minutes) and offer them to any car that didn't already have one. So I guess you can say that they definitely work as protection against annoying dealers.

And here's a video of our ride to Ban Bueng. Not the whole thing, just a quick compilation, like usual.

Along the ride, I notice that the emergency phone booths along the road a phone-shaped. Very nice!

As we get closer, I see the first hills since coming to Thailand, and immediately feel drawn to them. The area around Bangkok is just so flat!

Anyway, here we are. The dormitory that Chella is sharing with two of her friends. The white car to the left with the 3477 on the door is the bolt that we took here, by the way. Actually, come to think about it, I think a lot of the cars here in Thailand are white. The taxis here are yellow on top and green on the bottom, by the way.

One of her friends is at the dorm right now, as is her dog, who is called Prince. Aforementioned friend is much more important, however, since she's the one who brought Chella and me back together after we broke up. Her name is Mitch, and I am forever grateful to her, because without her, Chella and I wouldn't be together right now.

And then, there's also a cat called Ashley. She's quite small compared to my cats back at home, and shy at first. But after a while, she takes a real shining to me.

We have lunch delivered to the dorm soon after, with me and Chella going for a bowl of Braised Chicken Noodles each, delivered in plastic bags and with bowls to put them in. The black, jelly-like stuff that was also part of the Singapore Style Chicken Rice Set is also part of this, and Chella tells me that this is actually solidified chicken blood. The more you know!

 

Oh, and look at that! It's a whole chicken leg! Yeah, nope, not having that, so I trade with Chella for her dried chicken blood jelly.

Also know what's funny? Of the three of us, I'm the only one who knows how to use chopsticks. I try to teach Chella and Mitch, but with only limited success.

Afterwards, we go out for a little stray around the neighbourhood, which should definitely not have any life-changing consequences.

Outside the dorm, I see what I think is the first bicycle I've seen in all of Thailand.

And then, we're out on a hot and humid but nonetheless nice stray around the neighbourhood. There's also a noteable amount of dogs around, which are definitely not going to become a problem anytime soon.

The main reason why I enjoy this walk so much is that we can't go more than 100m without running into a shrine.

Early on, there's also a nice elderly couple who invites me in to take a picture of their inner shrine.

 

We also pass a house with MANY animal figurines on display outside. 

Eventually, we reach the local main road.

And even there, it's one shrine after the next.

Oh and look! There's a store selling shrine supplies!

As well as some farmers sowing rice. One drives the truck through the paddy while the other two throw the seeds left and right.

 

And then we arrive at the fateful confrontation with this shrine, and its canine guardians.

They get too overprotective of their territory. For a moment I think everything is going to be alright as they keep their distance. But just then, as I turn to leave, I feel a sudden sharp pain in my right leg. I turn around,
stop, and threaten, and the dogs jump back. And then we make our retreat, always wary about the dogs. Fortunately, they don't pursue us, but the damage is done. It's not a bad wound, but it's still bleeding, and that means there's a potential risk involved here.

So, we hurry back home. Thankfully, there's only three more shrines along the way that I need to pay my respects to. I'm not gonna let these stupid dogs take that from me. And it's not like I'm on a death timer right now.

And then, there's the elementary school where Chella and teaches English to children. She even tried to recruit me, but even if they could pay me a competitive salary, there's still no way in Dragon that I'd want to permanently live in these climes.

Anyway, back at the dormitory, I wash out my wound with water, and then we get it provisionally patched up to keep it clean-ish. They don't have a first aid kit here, so we kinda have to make do with what we have.

Afterwards, we book our ride back to the city. This time via one of those yellow-and-green taxi cabs, which you can still order with the Bolt app. Although the app acts up several times, our ride gets cancelled repeatedly, and in the end it takes 45 minutes of waiting until someone arrives to pick us up.

For the route back, we go via the Bang Na - Chon Buri Expressway, which is faster, and only slightly more expensive. This one runs closer to the sea, and goes south past the airport.

While we're still on the countryside, we pass a whole bus full of kids.

And then we get onto the Expressway at its quite literal southern end. If you miss your exit here, you're definitely screwed.

Here's a video of the ride back. Since the Expressway is raised, we get a good view of our surroundings once we're on it, although the concrete sides limit the field of vision somewhat.

By the time we reach Bangkok, it's already evening.

We get some food from the 7-Eleven at the Bangkok Plaza, and then walk back to our Airbnb.

Along the way, Chella gets distracted by a fruit car and stops to buy some fruit.

Once back at the Airbnb, I take out my first aid kit to properly dress up my wound. Normally, this piece earns the dead weight award on my trips. But today, I'm really happy that I brought it along.

However, this is not the end of today. The wound looks good, but after I tell my Puky about it, it strongly recommends that I should get it checked out at the hospital. After all, rabies is a very real danger in Thailand, and although these dogs had an owner, they were still from the countryside, where there are many street dogs.

And so, we head out once again, walking over to the nearby Bangkok Hospital, which is the one that I mentioned was integrated with the Bangkok Plaza. I had hoped I wouldn't need to see it from the inside, but here we are...

The people there are very friendly, and over the next three hours we get it all sorted out. Thankfully, I have a travel insurance that covers the cost of the treatment, which includes getting the wound assessed, getting a quite painful counter-rabies injection under the skin, and finally also getting my first shot of the rabies vaccine. Chella stays by my side this entire time, holding my hand and giving me courage and strength. And now, I'm officially in love with her, all the misunderstandings and uncertainties that led me to this point forgiven and forgotten.

I also get some antibiotics that I should take against infections for the next 5 days, as well as a vaccination plan to complete my rabies immunisation. That includes two more visits to the hospital while I'm here, as well as two more once I'm back in Germany. Also I get this neat little bag from the hospital as the sort of souvenir I never wanted.

And then, it's finally time for us to have dinner, at around 22:00. I have some rice noodles with chicken meatballs and pulled chicken.

With that, this weird day is coming to an end. Getting bitten by a dog is a weird way to fall in love with someone. But then again, I'm not exactly normal myself, am I? So here I am, with my beloved Chella, much more happy then when I first came to Thailand. What else is this trip going to have in store for me? Stay tuned and find out. And until then, be of great cheer! =^,^=