Same old, same old


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Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Bangkok
March 17th 2008
Published: April 8th 2008
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Bangkok was…well, Bangkokky I suppose. I can’t write anything here that you might not have already gathered in my previous correspondence, or from any other travel log. It smelt like it did the last time I was there; there was as much shit, hustling and traffic on the streets as had been before. It wasn’t new to me anymore.

We spent a night and the best of two days there. We organized our Russian Visas, and hung out in Khao San Road. We visited the resplendent Grand Palace, and wondered around the hideously flashy hub of modern Bangkok, Siam Square. Before we got the night train to Nong Khai we decided to do as we were expected to as the tourists we were and spent more than we would have normally spent on a week of dinners back in Chumphon, at Bangkok’s Hard Rock Café. It was Western and that was all.

The night before we met up with a couple of English scholars from the School of East Asian Studies in London and a couple of there Thai friends. We had the opportunity to hang out in a couple of bars off of the tourist circuit and a
BangkokkyBangkokkyBangkokky

Taking in the views over the stinky chao phraya river
part of the Bangkok student scene. This provided me with more things to consider along with all the other things that had been discussed and thought about in previously, in relation to Thai culture. In addition, one of the scholars was a historian, only too willing to furnish us with enormous amounts of history about some of the nations in the region (namely Thailand and Burma). However, since this is supposed to be a travel log, I won’t talk too much about these things here: my time in Thailand has given me so many things to consider and write about that I cannot do them justice here.

This time Bangkok was just Bangkok. By the time we arrived, Bangkok was just the capital of a country which we had examined and talked about for the last year and I was ready to submit my conclusions without further question. I didn’t feel the same mania that one does when in a new and exciting place, nor did I experience the same instinctive reactions to my surroundings. It wasn’t the beguiling metropolis that it had once been. This time it was just a means to an end.



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Picture of GranPicture of Gran
Picture of Gran

the grand palace was very grand


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