BANGKOK - Thailand

With Mimi at Wat Arun

Bangkok. Just the name itself sounds exotic and, at least for me, sends a jolt of excitement up the spine. Many of my friends who have visited/lived in Thailand speak so highly about the country, specifically Bangkok, that I always knew that at some point I would make my way there. The book/the movie  “The Beach”, where backpacker Richard initially lands in the city and makes his way to an island out west, has served as an inspiration for my travels for years. So what is a devoted vagabond to do when one of her best friends, Mimi, is currently in Bangkok (BKK) and she has some free time on her hands? She buys a ticket on Monday and flies there on Wednesday. Naturally.

I touch down in BKK, the city which I hear gives energy and takes energy. BKK is vibrant, it’s fast paced, as it’s a metropolitan area it’s a bit dirty, and the air is filled with various aromas such as incense, street food, jasmine flowers and gasoline fumes. Sensory overload in the best possible way. This is a city where you can, and you will, have lots of experiences! Organized chaos is how I would describe it.

Wat Pho

So what was I up to? Well…visited a cat café, the Grand Palace (the gold gleaming buildings brought tears to my eyes), Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha), Chatuchak Weekend Market (also called JJ Market), Ladmayon Floating Market, shopped at MBK Mall, climbed up Wat Arun (temple/pagoda), chilled at Lumpini Park (where huge komodo dragons roamed around) and much more. This post is a bit hard to write as I don’t just want to describe the sites previously mentioned. BKK made such an impression on me that I wish to accurately paint you, my dear reader, a vibrant picture of the city. I will do my best to present the various faces of Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (BKK in Thai).  

Let’s start with traffic – a character in itself in BKK. Streets are veins and cars/tuk-tuks/motorcycle taxis are all part of the blood that keeps pumping through the city. A ride home with a tuk-tuk from a club is not just a ride home – it’s feeling alive and feeling part of the flow of BKK. You also feel rather alive during rides in taxis. The drivers maneuver their vehicles rather intensely. Before you get in, you have to tell them to use the meter in order to get the accurate price. I am afraid next time I get into a taxi in Europe I will be asking - “Meter?!? You use meter?!?” Bangkok Mass Transit System, commonly known as the BTS or the Sky Train, is amazing! Even I understood how to use it! Much easier than the public transport system in Sweden. I was so happy about this I wrote my parents and sister and told them. In BKK you also use boats as a means of transportation on the river Chao Phraya. I love being able to experience things while sitting in a boat and at the same time get to my destination.

Breakfast

One of my absolute favorite parts of the trip was the food. I have always heard it’s supposed to be a real treat in Thailand. And so it was! I had Pad Thai which was way better than anywhere in the West of course, green curry, Massaman curry, mango with sticky rice for dessert, taro (also a dessert),  young coconut water, fried tofu as well as dishes I don’t know the names of and probably don’t even know what exactly I ate but was sooo good! Street food is very cheap and so tasty!! It’s absolutely wonderful! Almost every day we had "meat on a stick" and rice for breakfast and it was very filling. 

When you shop for things at a market, you need to bargain. This is something I am not too comfortable with although I have of course done it over the years. However, the Thais are polite and even though I didn’t enjoy doing it, the process was less stressful than in other parts of the world.

For a tourist, it’s cheap to pamper oneself. This can be done by enjoying a foot massage at Chatuchak Weekend Market, sticking your feet in an aquarium with fish to get a so called “fish massage” or going for a traditional Thai massage. All great experiences. Although the Thai massage left me with bruises, and also an unexpected compliment: At one point, the massage lady lifted up my shirt, checked out my boobs and said “so beautiful”. Well thanks Thai lady…I guess.

There are many reminders around that you are in fact in a Buddhist country – if the many decorated temples were not cues enough. There are signs to leave seats for monks on trains, and rooms at the airport designated for them. However, when we visited Wat Arun, a temple/pagoda, for a split second I was totally thinking like a Westerner. I thought the visitors to the temple bought something and got it blessed by the monk to take home. Wrong! They bought a bucket filled with necessities and donated it to the monk. Hello Western capitalistic view point.

I feel there are two kinds of experiences you can have in BKK. The, what I would like to call ”expected amazing experiences”, something you may have read about in guidebooks etc, and the more random, “unexpected amazing experiences.” Let me give you some examples:

Getting blessed

The expected amazing experiences (not to say they are bad or less in any way, shape or form): visit to the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. Unexpected amazing experience: finding an area within Wat Arun where we got blessed by two monks. The procedure went down as follows: We got splashed with holy water, got marks on our faces made by a candle stick, a golden sticker placed on our foreheads, and received a bracelet all while the monks were chanting. You can also have unexpected amazing experiences just walking down the street in BKK by seeing a shrine on the back of a moving truck and catching glimpses of altars in various alley ways.

Expected: the energy you feel when you enter the infamous Khao San Road, a heaven for backpackers and a place to party. Unexpected: finding yourself having drinks with crazy Scottish guys and dancing hand in hand with strange girls at a club located on Khao San Road. 

Expected: hearing before your trip that Thai people are very nice and experience time and time again that this stereotype is true. Unexpected: bonding with a lady selling mangoes so much that each night we came to her she smiled big and LOL-ed (yes, she sure did Laugh Out Loud). 

Expected: having a great time with one of your best friends, the one that you came to see in BKK (DUH!!!). Unexpected: an unplanned meeting with a former Webster University friend, Richa, and meet ups with a friend to a friend, Patty, a BKK girl, who showed us around.

Soi 38

Many thanks to my dear friend Mimi for being such a great guide. With her by my side I got acquainted with BKK quickly and could maneuver around the city with ease. And also many thanks to Patty, who made us feel a bit like locals, which essentially is every traveler’s dream. Patty was the one who introduced soi 38 to Mimi who then introduced the place to me. So what is soi 38 you say? It's a location, very close to where we were staying in Thong Lor, where vendors sell the best street food I have ever tasted. My absolute, without a doubt, favorite place in BKK!

So would I go back to Bangkok?..I KNOW I will be back…

Next week's blog post will cover the side trip Mimi and I made, to Krabi and the wonderful Thai islands.