Sitting here in the Thai Noodle restaurant at the Bangkok Airport (I’m here because they give free wifi for customers) I have very little time to do a reflection on my time in Bangkok and Thailand as a whole. So you will get this crappy one with a promise of a better version in the very near future.
I really loved the islands in the south of Thailand. In fact I really really want to go back. Bangkok on the other hand I am tired of and I am really ready to leave and never come back. This place could be very enjoyable for some but not me. It is just too crazy. Too crowded and too dangerous, just crossing the street in some places is risky business.
The picture below is in a Chinatown night market. This picture, I am assuming, is an example of a light crowd since it was taken early in the day and the place doesn’t get good until 6PM according to the shifty tuk tuk driver that was trying to convince us to go later.
The taxi drivers drive like maniacs and the seatbelts in their cars do not work properly. On the way over here the taxi driver was weaving in and out of traffic at 150kph (~96mph or something I dunno) and my girlfriend sitting next to me had no seatbelt! Ridiculous right?
The tuk tuk drivers NEVER leave you alone, and I have learned that if a random person is nice to you, telling where you should go and things you should see they are a tuk tuk driver or in league with a tuk tuk driver or association of tuk tuk drivers. If you do not sere a tuk tuk you can be sure there is one around the corner. They will also tell you lies to get you to jump in the tuk tuk. If a tuk tuk driver ever tells you that the place you are going is closed they are LYING!
At least most of the salespeople were not that bad. Some never give up but that was only a few. But wow the river here is a stark contrast to the pristine waters of the islands. The river and canals are just brown. Period. No clean looking blue water anywhere in sight. I have yet to figure out why it is brown though, since brown water isn’t necessarily polluted.
Here is a picture of the water in the river. All of the water looked like this:
For comparison here is what the water around Koh Phi Phi looked like":
But anyways, I digress. Back to the topic at hand!
I think the worst part of the 7 days here was the pollution. Smog, weird smells, and smoking. That sums up most of what you will experience walking around Bangkok during the day. I seriously feel like I cut about 20 years off of my life after all the time we spent walking around out there. Smog laws seemingly are not even a suggestion here.
But truthfully the city does have a wonderful nightlife, lots of bright lights and things to do. We went and saw a movie at the Paragon Cinemas and I can almost guarantee that you will not have a better cinematic experience anywhere in the entire world. We paid 700 Baht (~$24 USD) and we got an entire couch in the back of the theater it was WONDERFUL. And the malls here are absolutely amazing. On the Siam stop on the skytrain, as soon as you step out there are malls for days.
Also as with the other places in Thailand the food was good and inexpensive. I think that if I was more of an extrovert and liked busy places I would have loved Bangkok. But alas, I am not.
Goodbye Bangkok, you seem like a wonderful city may your next tourists love you! I sure didn’t!