Recovery Day
Trip Start
Jul 09, 2008
1
3
12
Trip End
Aug 19, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Saturday, July 12, 2008
We decided to mix it up a little and take the boat back to our hotel, which turned out to be really nice (it's cooler by the river), and cheap (well actually it was free, but we think it's because they forgot to make us pay). So, other than Susan almost giving a monk a heart attack by leaning on the 'monks only' rail of the boat while he stared at her with a great deal of angst until Nick pointed out her indiscretion (women aren't allowed to touch monks, or stand near them, or touch their stuff, or stand near their stuff, etc.), we got home without incident. The rest of the day was taken up with a nice swim at T and Justin's beautiful rooftop pool, where we met Elka, a teacher from Austria who just arrived with her boyfriend. Elka was planning to leave with T and Justin to go to Chaing Mai, but her boyfriend has been in the hospital for 24 hours with food poisoning (basically the whole time they've been here). Awful. After T and Justin left Bangkok on a bus, the three of us had an excellent dinner and conversation. The six of us plan to meet up in Chiang Mai later this week and take a cooking class together! Get excited, everybody who will see us after we return! Tomorrow mornig, we leave early in the morning for Kanchanaburi, where we are going to visit a "Tiger Temple" and Nick will proceed to get eaten by tigers and it will be all Susan's fault (more on that in the future).
Last of all, we wanted to give a brief summary of Bangkok. Keep in mind we've never been to Asia but we think Bangkok is at least slightly comparable to other super cities in the developing world. Susan thinks that Bangkok compares (favorably) to Nairobi. It is, in short, dirty, out of control amounts in terms of growth and crowding, features a cutthroat attitude among many of the people, a LOT of street vendors (think Chinatown... on crack), and an incredibly vibrant night life.
Dirty: Many of the tuk-tuk drivers and city workers wear those SARS masks when outside, and when experiencing the type of air pollution present, it seems like a reasonable action to take. Not to mention, the garbage levels are out of control, as it is always strewn about the streets and the sewers are so high as to give off an incredibly foul odor all the time.
Crowded, etc: Bangkok is packed with cars, people, etc. The roads are crazy. If one was under the impression that people from Massachusetts don't know how to drive, you all can imagine Nick's surprise at the lack of signalling, constant honking and complete ignoring of most traffic rules by the tuk-tuks and motorcycles. Although Susan and our friend Justin (recently in town from Mumbai, India) have seen worse in other countries, Nick has not. Traffic jams are present on some roads for hours each day and night. Being from the Midwest and small town New York, we've never been real fast walkers, but it's hard to get used to having to constantly stop and squeeze by groups of people while meandering through the tight area of the sidewalk not encompassed by the stands and tents of street vendors. Speakings of which, there are probably about a million street vendors in this city (this is more of a roundabout estimation than hyperbole). They are everywhere, both day and night, adding to the claustrophobic feel of the city and also making it very hard to figure out where you are, since most street signs and land markers are blocked due to their presence. Zoning? Can't see there's much, especially as you move out from the city center to the developing surrounding areas as well.
People: City life is . . . competitive? And as a tourist with a big fat dollar sign target on our backs, it often seems everyone is trying to live it up at the expense of others. Almost everyone here will blatantly lie to us if they can make a baht off of it, and since we don't know the language, we are often in a position when we can trust no one, even when they are being helpful, which is frustrating. Along with all the street vendors, salesmen, and drivers in this city, it seems from the eye of tourist that a large part of the population is straight hustling to get by.
Nightlife: We saw enough of this town in a few short nights to know that this city never sleeps. Susan and I came out of our hotel at 7 AM this morning to catch the bus to Kanchanaburi to be greeted by a group of Brits singing Happy Birthday and spilling beers, completely sloshed and apparently not done for the night. Everywhere we went at night featured bars, clubs, night markets and brothels (most with no signs of closing), and we didn't even see many of the neighborhoods that are known as being particularly wild.
This description may seem negative overall, but really that was the overall feel of the city. Bangkok was fun and unique and we enjoyed ourselves there. It was a good base for the start of our travels. For Nick, however, as a Thai citizen (in theory), he would be unlikely to choose Bangkok as his city of residence. Overall, it's a great place to visit for a little bit, though! Definitely a must-see for its energy and overall craziness!
