It is Christmas Eve Day as I write this blog entry.

Bangkok is a fascinating city and it is a city of constant surprises. It is so diverse and so huge that it would take years of exploring just to have a clue about what makes this place tick. I will only be here for about a week so I’m just seeing such a small part and such a limited variety of the spice of this city. It is so overwhelming.

I’ve only been to a couple places in the few days I’ve been here and I have seen so much variety and so many strange and wonderful things. In order to put some organization to this entry I’ll describe what I’ve been doing the last few days, give my thoughts on Bangkok and include a bunch of pictures.

I arrived at the Suk 11
at around 2:00 AM on Tuesday morning (Dec 21st) and fortunately there was someone there to check me in. I was worried about that. She showed me to my room
and I threw my backpack down and went walking around up and down Sukhumvit Road. Sukhumvit is one of many, many busy districts throughout Bangkok with a huge variety of stores and its very multi-cultural. At 2:00 AM there were hundreds of sidewalk vendors selling their wares, food stands still open, taxis looking for fares, bars still open (although they are supposed to close at 2:00 AM it doesn’t appear that this rule is universally followed) and many, uh, ladies of the night around making indecent propositions to me. I walked around for an hour or so, still wired up after the long flight, and went back to the hostel. There were a handful of people hanging out in the common area and I sat down and talked with them for a bit, had a beer with them and then went to bed.

The Suk 11 came highly recommended on some of the travel websites I use, particularly Bootsnall.com. It is located on a side alley on Soi 11 about ¼ mile off Sukhumvit Rd. It is truly an oasis in the insanity of Bangkok. The rooms are clean but somewhat Spartan and the showers have plenty of hot water. There must be 100+ rooms from dormitory style with 6 beds to single, en-suite rooms and everything in between. The common areas are where people hang out, there is a large open-air area on the ground floor with tables and chairs that is quite nice except for the mosquito’s that come out each evening. There is also a TV room with videos that doesn’t appear to get much use.

There are an amazing variety of people that come and go at the Suk 11. I have seen and met people of dozens of nationalities and people from 18 years old to 60 years old. It’s probably a 50/50 ratio of men to women. Some stay just the night, others stay longer. I had dinner last night with an Italian guy in his 20’s who has been staying at the Suk 11 for seven months. I had breakfast this morning with a guy in his 50’s from Florida who has been here for 6 weeks and is looking to move to Bangkok permanently. People come and go all day long and it is fascinating to hear all the languages and accents. It truly is a microcosm of the people I’ve seen so far in Bangkok.

The weather here is quite nice, topping out in the 90’s during the day and getting down to the 70’s at night. The sky is mostly clear (as clear as it can be in pollution-choked Bangkok) and there has been no rain. There is a bit of humidity but it is not overbearing and a gentle breeze most of the time. Air conditioning in the room and on the trams and buses is very welcome though. November through February is the best time of the year (temperature-wise) in southern Thailand and I am told that the other 8 months of the year can be miserable due to extremely high humidity and/or monsoon rains – I should be long gone by then! In other words, great weather here. One reason I am writing about the weather is to contrast it with the weather right now in Rising Sun, Indiana and the neighboring midwestern areas. I got an e-mail this morning from my friend Kacey Hayes and a blog message from my friend and favorite cat person, Linda Perin telling me about record snowfall in Rising Sun and the miserable cold temperatures. Although they will have a beautiful, white Christmas the folks in that area generally are not prepared for snow, many are scared to death of driving in it and most of the area literally shuts down until the snow and ice are cleared or it melts. I wish I were there with you guys!!!!

The vendors and touts here are quite persistent but not overly pushy or rude. The all ask for your business or attempt to entice you into their store, taxi, tuk-tuk, etc. and I find I spend most of my time politely telling them “no thank you” and just keep walking. If you slow down or show the slightest interest in what they are selling then they really get interested and become quite persistent.

The best analogy I can come up with to describe the streets and scenes of Bangkok (at least what I’ve seen so far) is “Tijuana on Acid”. Anyone who has been to TJ knows about the street selling and aggressive vendors and touts selling anything and everything. (Just to note: Tijuana has cleaned up over the years). Bangkok just seems much more immense and much more intense than I imagined. The multitude of vendors selling many similar items is the same as TJ and preponderance of same type stores that sell quality, hand-tailored men’s suits and clothing, massage parlors as well as bars is very amazing. How can so many people and places sell virtually the same product or service and remain in business? It must be purely a numbers game in that there are so many foreigners here and many with lots of money (especially compared to the Thai people) that it just takes a few sales per day to make enough money to survive.

The traffic in Bangkok is horrendous, I would never, ever, ever drive in this city, it is plain nuts! There are lanes of traffic but no one uses them, there is a constant flow in and out of side streets and in between lanes with the always-present horn noises. For me (and others from the USA) it is more confusing in that they drive on the left side of the road and on the drivers seat is on the right side of the car (exact opposite of what we’re used to). Crossing the road takes some getting used to in that I’m used to looking left first but if I do that here then a car in the close lane will hit me from the right…. You must be constantly aware when walking the streets, the drivers have to be aggressive or they would never get anywhere. When crossing busy streets it is best to cross when the locals cross and do what they do, that has helped me get around and probably kept me from getting hit!

The main forms of mass-transit in Bangkok are the taxi View image, tuk-tuks (small 3-wheel motorcycles) View image and motorcycle taxis View image. They all appear to be useful in getting around and you just have to trust the drivers to get you where you are going in one piece. Amazingly, I have yet to see an accident on the road but there must be many that happen.

Here are some other pictures of various things around Bangkok. Here is a long boat taxi on the river. View image
The river is a main transportation route through part of the city with many long-tail boats and busy river-taxis View image
plying the dirty waterway surrounded by homes View image,View image
and high-rise hotels View image
and buildingsView image
. Also, I used my first squatty-potty View image,View image,View image while exploring near the river. There is a guy that charges you 5 baht to use the toilet, I don’t know if it’s official or if he just hangs around to scam guys like me who need to go and won’t argue.

That's it for this blog entry. Everyone have a Merry Christmas. Lots of love from me here in Bangkok!!

Thank you for reading this. I hope to make this blog both interesting and entertaining. Please post a comment and let me know your thoughts, observations or counsel. Hearing from readers and knowing I have an audience is a great motivator and will be a great morale booster during down times on the road. Don’t forget to bookmark this site and tell a friend! Please feel free to e-mail me at “JeffMichie at Yahoo Dot Com”