Bangkok
I’m starting to think this is my favorite city to be visited or at least the favorite of the big ones. The Thai people are wonderful. This is the only large city I have visited where the people are so easy-going and laid back. They are genuinely friendly and it is unfortunate that so little English is spoken being a hindrance to really meeting anyone. Tourists are here, but tourism is a minor part of what is this city. It is vibrant, hard-working and active. I find it to be much cleaner and quieter than I expected based on writings. It’s another one of the many cases where I don’t find a place to be what it is said to be. It’s quite possible that some of the notoriety for Bangkok is based on the past and things have changed. It’s also probable that the notable things get exaggerated. For instance, Bangkok is known for pollution. While the canals are pretty gross, the air seems very clean for 10,000,000 people. The government built a subway system and my favorite mass transportation system – skytrain. They are so heavily used that it is quite possible that they have helped. Many people also drive scooters. The craze here is the modern scooters that look like full-blown motorcycles. Being that they have four-stroke modern engines their noise and exhaust levels are very low. Marrakesh could use these new bikes!
I found some sleaze. Yep, it is here. No, it is not a major part of Bangkok. When I remember Bangkok it will be memories of nothing to do with what Bangkok is so famous. I will remember the smiling faces (I think one of the many names for Bangkok is City of Smiling Faces or something similar). I will also remember the modern buildings, ancient temples with all of their buddhas, the people praying at the large and impromptu temples throughout the city, flowering tree-lined streets, flaming-pink taxis, orchids everywhere, street vendors, smells of curry, chilies and sewage (!), tuk-tuks (three-wheeled open taxi), skytrain and beautiful women. I am truly stunned by the beauty of the Thai women with such a variation in looks from India to Japan to Indonesia as well as European – I assume a lot of travelers ended up staying here or at least left their DNA behind.
The sewage issue is probably the worst thing here. It is worse than Havana. I believe both of them have problems with high tides and the sewer lines. The touts are relentless, but they really do not bother anyone. They come up to you and say “where you going” so you know right away with who you are dealing with. If you just ignore them, they recognize this quickly and leave you alone. They all want you in a taxi and are happy to show you a pamphlet of naked women. Very odd! Supposedly, the taxi takes you for a ride to their cousin’s restaurant or such, but I have not had a taxi veer from the requested path. One wanted to take me somewhere when I made it clear I had to get to the Vietnam embassy before they closed soon. That discussion was ended quickly. The massage parlors are everywhere. I think there are so many of them that the city has an abundance of women over men. There are definitely more women than men in this city and that is my only conclusion about why. It appears many of the massage places are legitimate. The ones that are not are pretty tame as far as touts.
This city so large that it would take a month to start seeing most of it. I did not do some of the major attractions because Pamela and I will do them in July. Vietnam would not give me a six month visa so I will either come back here in September/October or I will go to Jakarta for it. Tomorrow I head to Borneo via Kuala Lumpur’s airport. I bet Malaysia is a great country, too! In two weeks – Vietnam. I will be seeing orangutans over the next two weeks and I am very excited about this. How will they compare to gorillas and chimpanzees? And humans?
P.S. More pictures posted for Madagascar and Egypt. Egypt is partial and I will upload more over the next two months before I get back to Nairobi’s slow net.
Tags: Asia, thailand
vagabondrick
I’m glad that you got to see so much of Bankok and enjoyed it so much too. I have a lot of fond memories too – as well as a few very humorous ones.