Thailand was a lot of fun. I left at the 5th of january and stayed there for about three weeks.
It sure was a lot of fun being there.
I stayed over at friends who live in the vibrant heart of Bangkok and for the most of the time I stayed in and pretty close by Bangkok.
I really snorted up a lot of great culture and exhaust fumes.
Thailand is a country filled with friendly people and has a relaxed life style.
It might look chaotic and you might get easily lost in the amount of traffic that mainly exists out of taxis, tuktuks and motercycle/scooters.
But once you get the lay of the land and you start to learn you way around it is a very pleasent city to stay at.
The best way around in Bangkok is via the skytrain network.
Sadly enough it's network is very limited and only reaches some parts of the city.
So you end up in a taxi pretty quickly.
Not that this is a bad thing because they are ridiculously cheap. You can ride in a taxi for about an hour for just under 2 euros including tip. (about 85 baht).
Another option is taking a motorcycle taxi, but this option is not for the faint hearted. The motorcycle, more like a 150cc scooter, swerve with a dazzling speed through traffic.
So if you are not feeling like sitting at the back of these rollercoaster rides you can always take the bus.
Although the bus is faster then taxis because of the special buslanes, its not much comfortable. They are often full, so you have to stand, and they are not airconditioned, so they are VERY hot.
What so ever, you should never be in a hurry to get somewhere if you live in Bangkok.
Bangkok sure is the city to do cheap shopping.
Everything can be bought in small shopping street boutiques like these:
And ofcourse everything is very cheap.
You have an option between fake brands, no brand or the real deal. The real deal is always cheaper in the west because of high import taxes, and fake brands can get you troubles at customs. Still there is a lot of good things to be bought for cheap.
How about some new teeth for grampa?
Two things that you will come across all over in Thailand are the king and budhism. Both are very popular.
Images of the king are visible everywhere. You can see them at trainstations as the above, but also about every 10 metres along the highway or just on a window sill or ten foot tall on a wall.
The other one is budhism:
Budhism is the religion in Thailand. You can find shrines with budha all over the city. In front of stores, next to the road, on city squares or ofcourse near a temple like the one above. A lot of the Thai stop and stand in front of every budha shrine they come across and make a small bow before they continue their way.
Thailand really is a busy country but it seems that it's just a shell and inside the shell there is actually an oyster of calmness and friendlyness.
Hope to go there again soon!
More later when we go a bit in depth