What a city!!! The modern stores and conveniences (like cell phones…oh, and the Thai are as bad as the US as far as everybody everywhere is always looking at their damn phones!) live side-by-side with decaying infrastructure, massive traffic congestion, and Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Armani!!

We arrived at about 2:30 pm on Thursday, Sept 8 after 48 hours of travel in a 57 hour day. Buzz grabbed a little sleep on the plane and I watched lots of movies. Going through Immigration and Customs was very simple. Then we tried to make a phone call to the place we are staying on a public phone when we had some difficulty getting a sim card for our phone. (The problem is still not solved (thanks, AT&T, and still don’t have one). Twenty frustrating minutes later, we went to the taxi stand, reserved a taxi, and asked the taxi stand employee to call the number for us. We flew down the highways until we were about 2 miles from our “home”. Then it was a massive traffic jam. I think we stood through about 6 rotations of a single light without moving an inch. And the lights are very long here. Yet, we did not hear a single horn blow or angry word. The Thai are a very patient people; these traffic jams would drive a NY taxi driver to road rage! We finally arrived at our Air BnB at about 4pm. It is lovely and clean and very high up, the 30th floor. A little bit of a contrast between our stay with Janice and Kyle on their 6 acres in the mountains but fun for a few days. We are so high up we can hear hardly any traffic noise but the insulation between apartments is non-existent so when they are in their kitchen, we share their noise.

We ate an early dinner at a so-so Thai restaurant down the street and I was in bed by 8:30. Buzz followed not too far behind but my mind was ready to get up at 4am so here is  picture of sunrise over Bangkok.

Friday we chilled in the apartment, bought a few groceries, napped, and found an awesome Thai/Italian restaurant for dinner. Listening to the Carpenters and Tony Bennett sing to us during dinner was pretty surreal. But the Fried white fish with lemon grass and chicken in Pandaman leaves were awesome. We are fairly certain that the table next to us was filled (twice) by white men and their “companions for hire”.

Walking down the sidewalk in Bangkok is similar to the sidewalks in Panama City, Panama….use at your own risk. Holes, raised utility access, poles, and uneven pavers are just a few of the hazards. It is hard to look around because if you take your eyes off the sidewalk for a minute, it could turn into a very bad decision. Crossing the street, you literally take your life into your hands; the billions of motorcycles that weave among the cars are very hard to avoid and the motorcycles all make their own lanes, zigging and zagging between cars. There are some pedestrian crossings but they are basically ignored by the drivers. Minutes count down for the light to turn and then there is only 15 seconds to cross and you still have to watch because many cars and motorcycles ignore the red light. Pedestrians have no right of way here at all….not even on the sidewalk. There were motorcycles on the sidewalks tonight, too. At one place we crossed, it was such a tight squeeze between cars and other pedestrians, my dress got caught on the license plate of a car. I was panicking because I figured the second the light changed, they would just run me over!! Plus, they drive on the opposite side of the road, so you have to get used to looking the other way first! Having said how crazy the traffic is, we were amazed that we did not see one traffic accident the entire week in Bangkok. Absolutely amazing!

 

Now, you are probably saying to yourselves, “why the hell did you go there, then?” Because Thailand is a beautiful country and with many amazing and unusual sites. The Thai people are calm  and so very friendly and wanting to help. Many times we would stop and try to figure out how to get somewhere or how to use something and people would stop to ask if they could help even if they didn’t speak English very well. We love stepping out of our comfort zone and trying to figure things out and experiencing things you can only experience in the place you are touring. A sense of accomplishment is felt at the end of the day when you negotiated your way around town and made it back safely. We enjoy being citizens of the world.

Factoid for the day: There are more 7-Elevens in Thailand than there are in the US. There is literally almost one on every block in Bangkok. Over 3600 in Bangkok alone. Most of them are very small but have an amazing array of food, drinks and sundries (what the hell are sundries anyway?)

Bangkok is a huge city (over 6.3 million ppl) and has all the large city problems and opportunities, they seem magnified because you don’t speak the language. Almost all road signs, menus, store signs, etc are in Thai and English. And many times at restaurants, they have a picture menu if no English. They are definitely up to date on technology (Grab app for taxi rides, Uber is big here, too) but the physical lay out of the city and its infrastructure is not keeping up. We ran into an electrical crew fixing some wires at a major intersection:

Saturday we ventured out to a floating market. When we were here before, we went to the big touristy floating market but this time we picked a more local market and it was so very cool. 75% of the people there were Thai. We cruised around, had a salt baked Snakehead fish lunch, and took a long boat tour through the canal with a running Thai commentary with “look, right side…bananas” thrown in periodically!

Sunday we decided to tackle mass transit and headed on the Metro (subway) to Lumphini Park which we visited on our last trip in 2009.  Actually, the mass transit was quite easy to negotiate; almost all signs are in English in addition to Thai. We took the subway to the skytrain. Komodo dragons cruising around the park is the reason we wanted to go back. Well, the Komodo dragons were a bit of a disappointment, not many of them and the ones we saw were very small. We figured it could be because of 2 reasons: either they were hiding in the water because it was the heat of the day and last time we were there first thing in the morning or they have culled the population because they were getting so big.

Then we headed to a spa and had a fish pedicure and a massage. The fish tank is filled with garra rufa fish who eat the dead skin off your feet. The first sensation in one of tickling then it settles down. The fish in this spa were not too hungry so we will have to do it again elsewhere. We both had 30 minute fish pedicures, Buzz had a 60 minute Thai full body massage and I had a 60 minutes foot and leg massage and it costs us about $30 total, including tip.

Monday was stormy so we took our time getting going and doing research on the next leg of the trip. About half of the rest of the trip is unplanned as yet. Then we headed out to lunch where the Fish with Four Flavors spice made Buzz throw in the towel before finishing. His face was turning red! My passion fruit smoothie and Pad Thai with shrimp was perfectly un-spicy.

On to Pantip Plaza, Bangkok’s IT Mall. It is so crazy! 4 floors packed with 100’s of IT related stores selling (almost) every electronic gadget and doodad know to man. But, of course, they did not have the one thing we wanted!!

Monday night was a lovely dinner at a different Thai restaurant down the street. We started eating outside on their patio but the rain drove us inside. Tom Yan, one of my favorite Thai dishes, was perfect accompanied by spicy mango salad with peanuts and chili lime dressing. Buzz had a version of prawns with cashew nuts which he asked for medium spicy and it was very tolerable.

Tuesday we headed out to a different part of town to a new Air BNB. We wanted to visit the Governor’s Palace and Wat Arun which we missed on our last trip. The Emerald Buddha Temple was astounding but the Grand Palace was very disappointing; you did not get to go in anything. The outside grounds were nice but that was all you saw. We had to “borrow” clothes because Buzz could not wear shorts in and I had on a sleeveless top even tho I had brought a wrap for my shoulders. They said no and gave me a blouse (12 sizes too small) and made me tie my wrap around my waist.

It was very crowded and I hate to say it but Chinese tourists are a pain in the ass….they are very loud and pushy.

 

Tuesday night we stayed in Four Sons Village which was near Khatosan Road which we discovered was the backpacker area. We stayed on a fairly quiet street with shops and restaurants but a block or two down, it was sheer madness!

Our room there was ok for one night but just barely bigger and nicer than a prison cell.

Gotta love some of the signs you see…..

Ok folks that’s it from Bangkok. On to Phuket in the southern part of Thailand and the beaches. Peace to all… no exceptions.