Bangkok is big

After being up for a good 27 hours I arrived in Bangkok and caught a taxi to my hotel. It’s interesting crossing the International Date Line – instead of a simple 2 or 3 hour time change, you go 17 hours ahead (14 if you’d come from Seattle) – which sure can mess with your internal clock! I think I adjusted to it fine though, and probably preferred the time of flights I had; I was up at a reasonable time the next morning and ready to start the day.

I made Saturday a Wat (temple) sightseeing day. Didn’t go to the Grand Palace but took some recommendations from a friend (thanks Lexa!) to see Wat Pho (largest laying down Buddha) and Wat Arun.

A bit of my observations on Bangkok:

It’s a very busy city. There are a LOT of street vendors (it seems like this is most of what people do for money). Everyone still seems so determined at what they are doing, and the traffic of everything is fascinating. With both car/moto traffic and foot traffic it seems like everyone knows what the other is thinking. The person who looks like they have a better idea of where they are going seems to get the right-of-way, and things just flow smoothly.  People are never scared or jump back if they think they are going to get hit.  It’s all about confidence.  Even if it was a close call, they’ll make it look like it was planned all along. I try to fit in by being determined about my destination – I think it’s working so far.

There are stray animals (and animals in general) everywhere. Lots of feral cats and dogs that also seem to know where they are going and people treat them like they would anyone else. There are frogs, cockroaches, rats, newts, and little crocs (or something similar) in the water. None of these seem to bother anyone, and they don’t go out of their way to squash or “shoo” them away. They seem to just welcome them or accept their presence and walk around them, just like they’d walk around a human. I can respect that, and it’s helped me accept a lot of these foreign species. This morning I was eating breakfast and a cockroach started crawling up my leg, but I just flicked him off and he was on his way.

Every smart person has a moped or motorcycle – they ride them everywhere. I even saw a lady riding sidesaddle on the back of one on my way to the airport. There isn’t really a place you can’t drive with them. Road, sidewalk, alleyway, market street – it’s all the same.   Traffic is pretty bad most of the time, so they usually ride between cars to get to the front of the traffic light. Speaking of traffic lights, they have an interesting take on them. First of all, they drive on the left side of the road here (which somehow I didn’t know). All the traffic lights have a number next to them, colored the same color as the light currently is. Not only does this number show you the time left on the green light (before it turns red, like on our pedestrian signals), it also shows the time left on a RED light (before it turns green). I haven’t decided if I like this or not – I think it makes those 60 seconds seem so long!

The people are nice, but business is competitive for them. Everything is so cheap here, which is great, but it makes tourists a target. They will try to raise prices if they see a tourist. It’s mostly tuk-tuks or taxis, but others too. The tuk-tuks are (rumored) to quote you a low fare and then try to take you all around town to their friend’s shops to spend money etc. Taxis are metered, but will often not want to use the meter, and offer you a fixed price. I haven’t gotten a taxi driver to use a meter yet – besides the one I took from the airport. They will blame it on traffic and that the fare will be much higher. It’s still much cheaper than in the states, but overpriced for Thailand. I hear that this makes life more difficult for the locals because the taxi drivers will prefer to drive tourists rather than locals, since they will make more money. I do my best to barter to balance this out, but in the end you just have to make that flight you’re on your way to.

Okay, soooo what did I do in Bangkok?

First day was all walking. First walked through Khao San Road (below), then by the Grand Temple to go to Wat Pho (also below).

The intricate architecture is pretty impressive, and it is immediately known how much they respect Buddah and their culture.

Then I found a place to eat some Pad See Ew and the waiter sat down and ate with me and talked about American music (CCR, Eagles, James Taylor etc.) and the local weather (it was thundering/lightening at the time). I didn’t realize how much lightening there would be. It’s still at the tail end of monsoon season, so apparently it happens quite often. He was telling me about a few years ago when his house was flooded.

From there, he recommended I check out Wat Arun, which you take a short ferryboat across the river to get to.

Wat Arun was great too, because you could climb up it. The stairs were so steep; everyone was scared to climb down.

Got some ice cream and then went back across the river to head back to the hotel.   Looked for a taxi to flag on the way back (apparently you hold your hand out horizontally, with fingers down – not up in the air, as this is offensive) but most of them were taken and I didn’t want to take a dreaded tuk-tuk.

Walked all the way back to my hotel and was pretty tired by the time I got back, I didn’t think I’d be up for anything that night. But, a man’s gotta eat, so I headed back down towards Khao San Road to find a bite. I found a street that was filled with lots of hostels and restaurants and chose one to sit down at. While eating my meal, lots of Thai people came up with stuff to sell (bracelets etc). One man was doing magic tricks, which was entertaining us all. Hiding matches, card tricks, ring tricks. In the process, I started chatting with the table next to me of two Brazilians from Australia, who also had a French lady that had joined their table. So I joined them and we all went down to Khao San Road together to see what nightlife there was. There was. Quite interesting what you’d find: many different bars playing music, mostly American, some people were break dancing, usual shit show. I liked the name of the bar we were dancing at:

So we got some beer from 7-11 (they’re everywhere) down the street and continued to dance. Yadda yadda yadda, good times were had, we lost the Brazilians at some point and the French and I went to a reggae bar where there was live music (covers of American music of course)

Apparently they close everything down at midnight. 7-11 doesn’t sell beer anymore, but people on the street do.   The police drive through the street and everyone obediently disperses, until maybe 10-20 minutes later when more music starts up and everyone is back in the street doing their thing. We stayed up until 3ish when the reggae bar closed up. A good night!

The next day I was super exhausted, but managed to get enough energy to go to the weekend market in Chatuchak. I decided to try out the bus system. I met some Thais at the bus stop that were going the same place, so they advised me when to get on/off. Traffic was bad, but I eventually got there. The market is ridiculously large. There’s no way you could traverse the whole thing. There were rows upon rows of vendors selling everything from clothes to electronics. I mostly kept to the clothes section and saw some interesting stuff. It gets a bit claustrophobic in the small aisles between rows, but you get used to dodging people & hanging merchandise.

 

They had a parking lot dedicated to motorcycles:

After that it was time to go to bed and get up for my flight to Chiang Mai the next day, which is where I’m writing this now, in a café, while I wait to check-in to my hostel. Chiang Mai so far looks less dirty, but more touristy.

 

You can view all the photos from Bangkok here.

 

Will try to keep the updates coming!