The Bustling and Bright Lights of Bangkok
Trip Start
Aug 04, 2010
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40
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Trip End
Feb 04, 2011
Bangkok, Thailand
Sunday, November 21, 2010
We arrived from Ayuthaya in a mini-bus that let us off in the middle of the city at Victory Monument. As we drove towards the city we were absolutely flabbergasted at how large and sprawling the city is....bigger than any city we have been to here in SE Asia. Wide eyed and bushy tailed we were prime targets for tuk-tuk drivers who want to know where we are from, where we are going and then want to know if they can take us everywhere around the city for 5 Baht (More on this scam later), uggh!! We were starving when we arrived so we opted to jump on the SkyTrain (Bangkok's subway system) and head towards Siam Square, a section of the city that had been recommended as a good place to stay.
When we arrived we made our way over to the MBK center, a huge shopping center with multiple floors including lots of shops and food courts. We opted for the international food court where we got free welcome Thai ice teas and a lunch of Greek chicken shwarma, a Greek salad and some Malaysian rice and chicken skewers. The food was good, but we have had better....we paid the hefty bill (food and drink are very expensive here in Bangkok if you don't eat the local fare) and we shuffled along to find a place to stay.
Although a bit of a dump we finally found a place within our price range ($10) with air conditioning (we are back in the land of heat and humidity), a private bathroom and hot water shower. Feeling a bit more settled, we grabbed our guidebook and set out to explore the city. We ended up at the Paragon center which is one of the newest shopping experiences in Thailand...it is the most luxurious mall we have ever been in. It has a convention center, an IMAX theater on the top floor and every major designer has a store in this HUGE place. As if that isn't enough, this mall has a bowling alley, language schools, multiple food courts and a HUGE gourmet market in the basement. The most astounding thing to us was the LONG line of Thai people waiting to get their share of the newest arrival in the Paragon shopping center - KRISPY KREME donuts, WHAT??? Les had to take a picture of the line, because he wanted to make sure that he had proof of this phenomena to share with all of you.
Even though we aren't big shoppers, we spent the afternoon watching people move through this behemoth shopping experience and for the most part we were very entertained. We REALLY enjoyed the food court and the gourmet market, it is all about the food!!!
Wanting to experience more of the city, we jumped on another SkyTrain and headed to a different section of the city to hang out for the evening. The descending sun brings a whole new experience to light for us...as we walked along the streets we noticed that you could buy everything from knives, to Viagra to tickets for some racy shows - Anything goes in Bangkok and we got a taste of it first-hand. Wanting a taste of home we went into a country western bar, ordered chicken wings (Les' choice of course) and sucked down a few beers for supper, healthy (not!!) but yummy!
Next stop a jazz club in a fancy hotel...we treated ourselves to an evening of cool jazz tunes as well as wine and cheese. Awesome, we felt so sophisticated even though we looked like to scraggly backpackers who hadn't had a shower in a few months. For some reason they let us stay, probably because we swore to them that we could pay the bill.
So this is Bangkok in a nutshell.....for the rest of our 5 day stay in the city we moved around with the Thai people via water taxis, regular taxis, buses and our feet. One day we saw the Grand Palace (even though we were told by at least 5 people along the way that it was closed - not true of course, there is a sign on the front of the palace that informs travelers about this ongoing scam) and took a water taxi to the end of the North route for a beer on the river. Another day we found our way to Chinatown...it wasn't as cool as the one in New York City or San Francisco, but we were glad we experienced it. We did the typical backpackers/tourist scene and spent 2 days on Khaosan Road watching foreigners coming and going, buying all sorts of stuff, drinking a ton of booze and getting their hair braided/dreadlocked. We had heard stories about Khaosan road being just wild, so of course we had to experience it....the cool thing about it is that the road, people and shops are hopping all day and night. There is definitely an energy about this place. You can find just about anything you need, want or don't need/want on this road. It is what it is and unfortunately for us after a day or so we have pretty much had enough. We h ave found that the charming Thai people that we have met along the way change when they spend most of their time working with tourists. We are a bit tired of always having to be on our guard all the time. The guy on the street asking us where we are going is asking so he can entice us to get into his tuk-tuk so he can take us to a gem store for a kick back. The scam is that he lies to us by telling us that a certain city sight is closed for the day or some special religious sight is only open for one day of the year and it happens to be today...then he promises to take us to that site after we pass by his family's STORE to pick something up. He then leaves us there for awhile to look at gems hoping that we will buy some fakes from him. We never fell for this scam but we read all about it on travelers blogs and in the guidebook....wow we just didn't think it would be as prevalent as it is. At every street corner you pretty much have to fight them off. Exhausting!! If this was the only game up their sleeve we might have been able to deal with it all a bit better, but we experienced this stuff everywhere we went even at the train station. At the train station we were guided by a friendly man who told us that we couldn't buy a combined train, bus and ferry ticket to the islands from the ticket window, we would have to go to the 2nd floor to get the bus and ferry tickets from him so he could get a commission on the deal and we would pay a higher price. We knew from our research that this was incorrect information, so we persevered and eventually got the man at the ticket window to sell us the correct tickets.....frustrating because even the train station employees are incahoots with the scam artists. It is so easy to come away sometimes feeling like you just can't trust anyone.
I am sure you aren't feeling too sorry for us and fortunately we have been able to shake off these frustrating experiences with good food, massages, a really cool festival and an upcoming trip to the islands. While we were here in Bangkok we got to experience the annual Loi Krathong festival marking the end of the rainy season. Much like the festival we saw in Luang Prabang, Laos the people make floats to put on the waterways for good luck. Since this is the big city, at the festival we got to see an illuminated boat parade, free cultural dances, musics, fireworks and sample local food. At the festival we ate Muslim-inspired chicken and rice, ancient ice cream, soy milk with fried chines donuts and sweet roti pancakes with colorful strands of palm sugar rolled up inside. AWESOME....as we sat amongst all the Thai people who had come to enjoy the festival, we couldn't help but feel so excited that we were here in the city at this time.
We are coming to the end of our visit here in Bangkok....the islands are calling us. Even though the weather isn't perfect down in the Gulf of Thailand we are hoping for the best and longing for a week on the beach before our 10-day meditation retreat at a Buddhist monastery.
More later....Internet may be spotty on the islands, so we will do our best to keep in touch. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. You are in our hearts and minds during this special time and we are thankful to have all of you in our lives....sending you love and best wishes!!
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We are missing you at Thanksgiving. Dad D.