Oh, beauty.
We arrive in Bangkok, and the airport is the first to strike.... it was so clean! Everything is in order, the walls are white, the floor is white, the lines are formed in actual lines, and people are smiling. We read, prior to leaving Canada, that first time travellers could be in for a 'culture shock' when first entering Thailand ..... we scoffed at this idea after being in India, thinking that nothing could ever compare. While we were right in the sense that it wasnt a culture shock (nothing could be anymore) but of more a reverse culture shock! We are so used to India that this new, foreign landscape, in all of its cleanliness and order, still allowed for a shock.
We hopped into a 'prepaid taxi' and sped off to Kho San Road (the famous backpackers area of Bangkok) area, where we were staying a few blocks away. The higway sped by with amazing amounts of greenery, gold plated signs devoted to the king and very little air pollution. Things came to a screeching halt once we arrived into "Old Bangkok" where we experience Bangkok Traffic Jams in full force; after India we thought that we would be grateful for line painted roads and street lights, but after the 3rd red light that lasted 25 minutes (NO JOKE!) we werent happy with our wish being true. 2.5 hours later, a few small marital squabbles and 6 blocks of walking in 95% humidity with our bags to our hostel later (our taxi dropped us off on the wrong road) we had officially 'arrived'.
Stripping down to the basic necessaties of clothing (it is SO hot and humid here), and finally feeling the freedom as a woman to bare my arms and legs again, we began our first stroll through the Old City. How can a person describe the sights, the smells, the sounds without being a novelist? I will try.
Each road has more food stalls, small counters adorned to bikes, mini restaurants and BBQ stands than you would think physically possible. People crowd around plastic chairs, sipping on cheap cold beer in cans (it is legal/tolerated for tourists and locals alike to drink anywhere they find a seat or a beer, including grabbing a beer out of the cooler in the hardware store to enjoy while shopping for power tools).
The air smells of frying noodles, BBQ pork and chicken, a mixture of raw and cooked seafood, fried egg, soup broth, flowers and open waterways (not sewer, just water from sinks, etc, adding to the fish smell).
On each road, somehow precariously wedged in between all the other food stands, there is a food market. A food market (often running primarily in the morning/afternoon or night) is a delightful mixture of food stalls, an organic produce market and the best sports bar you have ever seen - with a few clothing stalls mixed in.
Then, in between more food stalls you thought possible that are wedged in between massive food markets, there are clothing and trinket shops. I am not sure of the legalities, but it seems that you are able to set up a shop on any stretch of sidewalk that is not already consumed by the aformentioned food stalls and markets. The clothing shops sell everything you could ever want, ranging from childs trinkets, to fire spinning toys, to skanky foreign clothing to dried fish eyeballs hung decoratively from a string. :)
If you have a chance, or remember, to look up to the sky from the physically impossible food stalls, precariously placed food markets and sidewalk shops you will find streets decorated with rice paper lanterns, streamers and the ever present gold plated monuments for the king.
This was only two blocks! Kho San is a circus, an area much like that of any city on say, Canada Day. It is a travellers circuit on steriods, with so many things to keep the sensations alarmed. The beauty of Bangkok City, though, is that it takes about 4 blcoks to remove yourself from the craziness, and you will find yourself in a local bar, listening to thai kareoke, eating thai beer snacks and smiling at locals.
Outside the tourist area, we are finding here that less people speak English and even less signs are in English than in India (which we had misthought would be the opposite) This has so far led to some interesting experiences (always safe, though, which is a breath of fresh air) and to some interesting meals!
After 4 days in Bangkok, a great meet up with a fellow friend from my nursing class (which led to the awful 12 hour bus ride with Amaris' first "ChangOver", as we later found out the cheapest beer uses fermaldehyde as a preservative, giving most tourists and awful hangover) we headed over to 'Paradise Island'.....
time for some sun fun!
We arrive in Bangkok, and the airport is the first to strike.... it was so clean! Everything is in order, the walls are white, the floor is white, the lines are formed in actual lines, and people are smiling. We read, prior to leaving Canada, that first time travellers could be in for a 'culture shock' when first entering Thailand ..... we scoffed at this idea after being in India, thinking that nothing could ever compare. While we were right in the sense that it wasnt a culture shock (nothing could be anymore) but of more a reverse culture shock! We are so used to India that this new, foreign landscape, in all of its cleanliness and order, still allowed for a shock.
We hopped into a 'prepaid taxi' and sped off to Kho San Road (the famous backpackers area of Bangkok) area, where we were staying a few blocks away. The higway sped by with amazing amounts of greenery, gold plated signs devoted to the king and very little air pollution. Things came to a screeching halt once we arrived into "Old Bangkok" where we experience Bangkok Traffic Jams in full force; after India we thought that we would be grateful for line painted roads and street lights, but after the 3rd red light that lasted 25 minutes (NO JOKE!) we werent happy with our wish being true. 2.5 hours later, a few small marital squabbles and 6 blocks of walking in 95% humidity with our bags to our hostel later (our taxi dropped us off on the wrong road) we had officially 'arrived'.
Stripping down to the basic necessaties of clothing (it is SO hot and humid here), and finally feeling the freedom as a woman to bare my arms and legs again, we began our first stroll through the Old City. How can a person describe the sights, the smells, the sounds without being a novelist? I will try.
Each road has more food stalls, small counters adorned to bikes, mini restaurants and BBQ stands than you would think physically possible. People crowd around plastic chairs, sipping on cheap cold beer in cans (it is legal/tolerated for tourists and locals alike to drink anywhere they find a seat or a beer, including grabbing a beer out of the cooler in the hardware store to enjoy while shopping for power tools).
The air smells of frying noodles, BBQ pork and chicken, a mixture of raw and cooked seafood, fried egg, soup broth, flowers and open waterways (not sewer, just water from sinks, etc, adding to the fish smell).
On each road, somehow precariously wedged in between all the other food stands, there is a food market. A food market (often running primarily in the morning/afternoon or night) is a delightful mixture of food stalls, an organic produce market and the best sports bar you have ever seen - with a few clothing stalls mixed in.
Then, in between more food stalls you thought possible that are wedged in between massive food markets, there are clothing and trinket shops. I am not sure of the legalities, but it seems that you are able to set up a shop on any stretch of sidewalk that is not already consumed by the aformentioned food stalls and markets. The clothing shops sell everything you could ever want, ranging from childs trinkets, to fire spinning toys, to skanky foreign clothing to dried fish eyeballs hung decoratively from a string. :)
If you have a chance, or remember, to look up to the sky from the physically impossible food stalls, precariously placed food markets and sidewalk shops you will find streets decorated with rice paper lanterns, streamers and the ever present gold plated monuments for the king.
This was only two blocks! Kho San is a circus, an area much like that of any city on say, Canada Day. It is a travellers circuit on steriods, with so many things to keep the sensations alarmed. The beauty of Bangkok City, though, is that it takes about 4 blcoks to remove yourself from the craziness, and you will find yourself in a local bar, listening to thai kareoke, eating thai beer snacks and smiling at locals.
Outside the tourist area, we are finding here that less people speak English and even less signs are in English than in India (which we had misthought would be the opposite) This has so far led to some interesting experiences (always safe, though, which is a breath of fresh air) and to some interesting meals!
After 4 days in Bangkok, a great meet up with a fellow friend from my nursing class (which led to the awful 12 hour bus ride with Amaris' first "ChangOver", as we later found out the cheapest beer uses fermaldehyde as a preservative, giving most tourists and awful hangover) we headed over to 'Paradise Island'.....
time for some sun fun!
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