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Published: October 8th 2011
Bangkok – The city were anything goes!
After leaving Nepal I headed to Thailand and after saying I didn’t fancy India at the moment the irony was my flight stopped at Delhi for 1 hour before the interconnecting flight, but there was no stamp in the passport. I only had one hour to make the interconnecting flight which is normally fine but the flight was delayed by 30 minutes in Kathmandu and then to make things worse the doors wouldn’t open on the plane when it landed in Delhi. After a stressful time trying to clear the slowest and most stupid security system I’ve ever seen I finally made my plane just before they were about to close the gate, it was rather stressful for a few minutes and I had to run about 1.5km to the gate, which again reiterated just how unfit I’ve become because I couldn’t do it. I had to stop and walk, shameful! But in my defence the food everywhere is so good and so cheap it would be rude not to indulge. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t be doing the same? There will be plenty of time to get my fitness back when
I come home.
After arriving in Bangkok I met up with Maam (a friend I met in Lijiang, China.) Maam kindly or foolishly agreed to show me around Bangkok complete with a mix of touristy and non-touristy sights. As I’m sure some of you will have seen yet more natural disasters are following me, Thailand is currently suffering its worst floods for decades and the main river in Bangkok is alarmingly high at the moment. I think for the sake of my next destination I should stop travelling for a while to try and leave this trail of destruction behind me.
Because my flight to Vietnam is from Bangkok in about a months’ time when my visa expires I’ve only spent a few days in Bangkok for the first stint because I plan to spend another week here on my way back from the North. So disappointingly for many of you (mainly the likes of Gav, Martin, Willow, Nick and Eddy) this blog will probably disappoint because it doesn’t contain too much info about the darker side of Bangkok, something similar to the Hangover 2, don’t panic guys this will be in the second blog I promise.
Just wandering through the streets in the evening is a sight to behold, you don’t know where to look, there are prostitutes everywhere and the gender of many is quite clear to see but some you just have no idea, I guess if you plan to get involved you might want to ask them to take the “loaf of bread test first!” ie: if they can pick it up in one hand then they are definitely male. It is impossible to ignore this side of Bangkok because it’s everywhere, every other shop is a massage parlour and the offer of a happy finish seems to be the standard line at the end of a massage. To set the record straight I’m not talking from experience here, this is what I’ve been told. Clearly none of you are going to believe me but it’s the truth. For a city where prostitution is illegal it’s clearly a massive business out here.
Aside from the above Bangkok is a really cool place, there is loads to see and do and it’s just so easy to sit and people watch for hours, even if I was playing the old Mark and Lard game from
the good old days of Radio 1 “bird or bloke, how the hell should I know, sorry I spoke.”
During my other few days here I went on a hop on-hop off river cruise down the Chao Praya river, visiting the Siam Museum, Wat Arun and the Grand Palace although I made a bit of a school boy error here because I forgot I needed to wear long sleeves and trousers so will have to revisit the palace on my return.
Bangkok is a cool happening place with a very western vibe to it in certain areas. The people are really friendly and it appears to be very safe. Of course as I mentioned earlier it’s difficult to ignore the obvious sex scene because it’s everywhere but after a while you switch off from it and can appreciate the other side to the city. The food here is amazing, I’ve tried so many new dishes most of them have been delicious but you need to be very careful to ask for a little or no spice because my god they do like their spicy food here. A couple of dishes have forced me to make a quick exit
to a 7 -11 store to get milk or a yogurt to help try numb the burning sensation in my mouth. Phad Thai and chicken with cashew nuts have become particular favourites of mine so far. The vast majority of the places I’ve eaten at here have been street stalls, it’s the strangest thing when you are sat on a plastic table and chairs on the side walk eating dinner by the side of a main city road with trucks, buses and mopeds passing by about 1 meter away from you. It can make conversation a little difficult with the non-stop sound of car horns and the loudest tuk-tuk’s I’ve ever heard. It’s like pimp my tuk-tuk, they are the most vibrant colours and designs with the loudest F1 style exhaust on them.
So this has been my first leg of Bangkok, it’s been great fun and given me a chance to explore and get to know the culture from a locals perspective having been hanging out with Maam for a few days. I will do my best to make the second Bangkok blog full of more of the things you all clearly believe Bangkok is renowned for. Nick,
sorry to disappoint but there will be no photos of high speed Ping Pong balls being fired from…………. mainly because my camera skills are so poor! Until the next update.
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