Home » Thailand » Southeast Asia 2000 - Travel Diary, Part 2: First impressions of Bangkok

Bangkok never became one of my favourite cities, but the visit there was certainly interesting. The main problem is getting used to all the different impressions that are coming at you all the time. The streets are crowded with all kinds of people, food is being prepared and sold everywhere, stray dogs are all over the place, the volume of traffic is enormous and there are all kinds of different sounds and smells. It is very hard to find peace and tranquility in Bangkok, except in some of the temples. We spent the first three days wandering around the city, getting used to the pace and learning how to deal with "new friends" that had all kinds of "fantastic offers" for us.

Southeast Asia 2000 - Travel Diary, Part 2: First impressions of Bangkok

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 18:18:27

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tour, he made the decision quite easy.

He showed us a notebook where various people had written about their experiences with their trekking tour, all of them being very pleased. Everybody had written in their own language, including quite a few Norwegians, so it could hardly be just a fake.

Mr. Prakit informed us that there was no Malaria in the trekking area, so we didn't need to take any pills. We were getting pretty tired of Bangkok, so we eventually decided to go trekking quite quite early. Mr. Prakit provided tickets for us on the night train to Chiang Mai already on July 3. In total we paid about 3400 Bath each for the train ride, a 3-day trekking tour and two nights at a nice hotel in Chiang Mai. We thought it was very cheap.

From the station we took a taxi back to our hotel. The taxi was metered and he ride cost only about 50B, so clearly this was a good way of getting around in Bangkok. The meter started at 35B and ticked slowly upwards. We left most of our stuff in the room, took a quick shower and went down to eat at the hotel restaurant. I had some more Macaroni with chicken and egg, which again was great.

Out on the street we took a taxi down to the Patpong area. It is on the opposite side of the town, but the ride was still only 70B. This area is famous for its nightlife with various sex clubs/shows, but to be honest I thought it was quite pathetic, a typical tourist trap. It certainly didn't have any of the charm of Amsterdam's Red light district.

From what we had heard in advance, I was expecting a large area of streets lined with sex clubs. This wasn't the case at all, as in fact, there seemed to be only two streets of containing such clubs. However, even these streets were mostly filled with stalls selling tourist stuff, and the area was so packed with tourists that it was difficult to walk around.

Each time we walked past a sex club, several people would come running over to us, shouting about "pussy doing this, pussy doing that and pussy doing godknowswhat" at "no cover chaaaaarge". None of us liked the area very much, so after walking around for a little while, we decided to look for an Internet cafe. However, the cafes in this area were about five times as expensive as in Banglamphoo, so we didn't bother with them. Before taking another taxi home, I had a small meal at KFC, because I was still a little bit hungry after the small Asian meal earlier.

Although taxis were a convenient form of transport, a problem was that most taxi drivers had very poor knowledge of Bangkok. A typical conversation with a taxi driver went something like this:

- Can you take us to Thanon Samsen, please?
- Huh?
- Thanon Samsen, can you take us there?
- Huh?
- Thanon Samsen, please!
- Huh?
- Thanon Samsen, I'll show you on the map. Look, there it is, Thanon Samsen!
- Huh?
- See, right here on the map, Thanon Samsen!
- Huh?
- Thanon Samsen, look we are here in Patpong, and want to go to there, Thanon Samsen.
- Huh?
- Okay, just forget it, take us to Khao San.
- Aaah, Khao San. Okay. No problem.

Khao San is the main "backpacker street" in Bangkok. It is filled with cheap hotels, restaurants and internet cafes. There are hardly any local Thais around, and the place is full of Westerners. It's probably a great place to stay if you don't want to feel like you are in Thailand. Fortunately, Khao San was located in walking distance from our hotel, so we could go there by taxi and then walk home.

Back at the hotel, we checked the bathroom thoroughly without finding any signs of cockroaches. Apparently our protection measures were working! We relaxed in the room for a while before going to bed. It took some time before I fell asleep, though.