These first four days in Bangkok have certainly been an eye-opening introduction to Thailand. Our hotel is in the old city, so it was about a 45 minute taxi ride from the airport. Talk about a crazy, frenetic city!! Our lonely plant book says Bangkok has 7.7 million people but it feels like twice that many. We were amazed at how our taxi driver was able to weave in and out of the traffic without getting any dents or scratches……there were cars, motorcycles, scooters and of course, “tuk-tuk’s” (which basically look like a motorized rickshaw) coming at us from every direction. So far, we haven’t taken a tuk-tuk ride yet because we’ve been able to get where we needed on foot or took a taxi, which with AC was MUCH more preferable with the heat and humidity!
Ah, the weather. I tell you, this place makes Puerto Rico feel like an arid desert. The moisture in the air just hangs on you and with temperatures in the low 90’s, it’s pretty suffocating. Add in the air pollution from so many vehicles and it’s no wonder I have a bit of a sore throat.
Our hotel is perfect and the service is impeccable. It’s situated on a small canal off the main Cha Praya river and it has a nice little pool to cool off in as well as a rooftop deck. One of the issues we’ve had to adjust to is not being able to drink the tap water, or even brush your teeth with it. Conveniently, the hotel provides us with 2 bottles of water a day, which is more than enough for basic necessities. Of course, because of the heat and humidity, you’re constantly drinking water as well so it’s a good thing that there is a 7-11 on just about every corner. In fact, I’m quite sure that somewhere in this city is a 7-11 with a view of another 7-11. The water bottles you end up carrying around with you are about the size of an infant and I was either cradling it like one or carrying it at my side like a rifle. Either way, though, it was reassuring to know we had access to clean drinking water. The other reason we found ourselves in 7-11 regularly besides getting water was just to have a blast of AC…..ahhh……heaven!
It really hasn’t been all bad, it’s just that we’ve had our fill of huge cities and are looking forward to getting away to some smaller and more manageable areas. I will say that as wild and crazy as this place is, there is barely any litter on the streets - it seems like you are always seeing someone sweeping up in front of their store or house. This may be because there are so many street vendors selling tasty eats so they want to keep the area clean……or they just take pride in their city.
We did go see the movie “Hangover 2”, which was a hoot. We found a theater near one of the mega huge shopping malls in the city after taking the Skytrain across town. Now that’s a great way to get around the city! Imagine the Seattle monorail except about 10 times more extensive. Anyway, the movie was filmed here in Bangkok so it was fun to see it here. It helped it was in English with Thai subtitles. The interesting thing is that before the movie started, the national anthem came on over the sound system and on the screen everyone was instructed to stand in homage to the king. I remembered reading that they do this before all movies or other public gatherings. Let me tell you, these people LOVE their king! Apparently, he’s been a bit sick lately so there are posters of him all over town and everyone is hoping he gets out of the hospital soon.
At this point, our plan is to take the train tomorrow morning to a town a couple of hours north called Lop Buri, which has a very large population of monkeys that are supposed to be quite entertaining. We’ll spend a couple of nights there and then take the train back to Bangkok where we’ll go directly to the airport and fly to Chang Mai. We’re planning on doing some fun things up in that part of the country, like take some Thai cooking classes and spend a day at an elephant reserve, So that’s it for now, folks……hope everyone is well!
Ah, the weather. I tell you, this place makes Puerto Rico feel like an arid desert. The moisture in the air just hangs on you and with temperatures in the low 90’s, it’s pretty suffocating. Add in the air pollution from so many vehicles and it’s no wonder I have a bit of a sore throat.
Our hotel is perfect and the service is impeccable. It’s situated on a small canal off the main Cha Praya river and it has a nice little pool to cool off in as well as a rooftop deck. One of the issues we’ve had to adjust to is not being able to drink the tap water, or even brush your teeth with it. Conveniently, the hotel provides us with 2 bottles of water a day, which is more than enough for basic necessities. Of course, because of the heat and humidity, you’re constantly drinking water as well so it’s a good thing that there is a 7-11 on just about every corner. In fact, I’m quite sure that somewhere in this city is a 7-11 with a view of another 7-11. The water bottles you end up carrying around with you are about the size of an infant and I was either cradling it like one or carrying it at my side like a rifle. Either way, though, it was reassuring to know we had access to clean drinking water. The other reason we found ourselves in 7-11 regularly besides getting water was just to have a blast of AC…..ahhh……heaven!
It really hasn’t been all bad, it’s just that we’ve had our fill of huge cities and are looking forward to getting away to some smaller and more manageable areas. I will say that as wild and crazy as this place is, there is barely any litter on the streets - it seems like you are always seeing someone sweeping up in front of their store or house. This may be because there are so many street vendors selling tasty eats so they want to keep the area clean……or they just take pride in their city.
We did go see the movie “Hangover 2”, which was a hoot. We found a theater near one of the mega huge shopping malls in the city after taking the Skytrain across town. Now that’s a great way to get around the city! Imagine the Seattle monorail except about 10 times more extensive. Anyway, the movie was filmed here in Bangkok so it was fun to see it here. It helped it was in English with Thai subtitles. The interesting thing is that before the movie started, the national anthem came on over the sound system and on the screen everyone was instructed to stand in homage to the king. I remembered reading that they do this before all movies or other public gatherings. Let me tell you, these people LOVE their king! Apparently, he’s been a bit sick lately so there are posters of him all over town and everyone is hoping he gets out of the hospital soon.
At this point, our plan is to take the train tomorrow morning to a town a couple of hours north called Lop Buri, which has a very large population of monkeys that are supposed to be quite entertaining. We’ll spend a couple of nights there and then take the train back to Bangkok where we’ll go directly to the airport and fly to Chang Mai. We’re planning on doing some fun things up in that part of the country, like take some Thai cooking classes and spend a day at an elephant reserve, So that’s it for now, folks……hope everyone is well!
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