My Bangkok Love Story 2008

Bangkok may be known to many as an exciting city. Travel guidebooks, online reviews and even Singaporeans who have been there have written and spoken about the Thai capital city as though it is one fabulous metropolis, nothing less than an impressive place! But when I got there, Bangkok seemed like a whole new spot to me as the city didn’t appear as exciting as the way it's been described the entire time! How come?...

When I arrived in Bangkok, I find Bangkok just like any other ordinary developing town. Geographically, Bangkok didn’t look very remarkable to me. It’s urban development didn’t seem ‘that’ impressive either, and the shopping (which I later did) wasn’t very terrific too. So I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t stay in Bangkok long enough to know of its greatness. Or maybe I didn’t go to places where the impressed Singaporeans and travel writers of Bangkok had gone to. So with all that perhaps, I couldn’t understand what it was in the city that those people had found really groovy about. But having said all these however, Bangkok wasn’t too bad a place for me after all. I mean, I still had fun during my stay there. It’s just that, it was nothing like expected...

ARAB TOWN


In my three-day two-night visit in Bangkok, I had stayed in a hotel in an Arab town. The hotel was all right and so was the town. But the large Arab population there had made me feel a bit displaced initially.

In the Arab town, Arabs dressed in their traditional Arab clothing were everywhere. So I saw men dressed in their white, long, ankle-length jillaba and women, in black abaya hanging around the area.

Most Arabs there too were seen either as couples (an Arab man with an Arab woman) or with their families. Very few were on their own. A few adult Arab men though were in casts and wheelchairs, seemingly to have been discharged from a nearby hospital...

In the Arab town, Arab cafes and restaurants packed the streets, signposts in Arabic language filled the area, and convenience stores with Arabic names lined the main road.

One shop that I remember seeing was selling only Arab men’s footwear, while a cafe across the street had a typical Middle Eastern decor. Indoors in my room, however, was a TV channel showing Arab programs.

So to speak, the Arab Town was one that was filled with a very distinctive Arab influence.

On one hand though, this (Arab influence) was good (for me) since the Arabs there were largely Muslims and so halal food in that part of town was quite readily available.

But on the other hand, the entire Middle Eastern environment, as I’ve said, did make me feel a bit out of place, in particular at the start of my stay, as I found, upon arrival, a different sort of majority and a totally non-Thai surroundings.

Luckily though, it took me only a day to get all accustomed to the Arab ambiance. So by my second day there I wasn’t feeling displaced anymore and was enjoying myself to the max, which was a good thing.

CHATUCHAK WEEKEND MARKET


On my second day in Bangkok I went to check out Chatuchak town. Nothing much was around except for a well-known weekend market called the Chatuchak Weekend Market.

I went there with Kenji. We got there by cab, which we took from the major road outside ‘our’ hotel. The cab and the cab-driver were alright but the journey wasn’t quite I remember.

In the cab I prayed hard that we would get to Chatuchak in one piece. The cab-driver who fetched us there seemed fine, but the way he was driving had every reason for me to worry about.

At the market however, numerous stalls were lining the roadside on the area outside. Inside the market on the other hand, were million more shops, each selling different stuff, all in its own colored group zones.

The Chatuchak Weekend Market was massive no doubt, but it was not like a market I haven’t seen or been to before...

That Saturday morning that I was there, Chatuchak was filled with so many visitors, both local and non-local people. I saw many people window-shopped and numerous other visitors shopped a great deal.

As for me, I only got myself a Thai sarong skirt whilst Kenji got himself about 3 Jigko t-shirts. It’s not that there was nothing to buy there, or were the things not affordable.

At the weekend market, things were of all sorts that one can get just about anything there. And, the products were all so cheap that getting excited on any of them was just so easy.

But I was just happy to be at the place to see what’s in-store and experience the ambiance. Most things sold in the market were considerably unnecessary goods to me anyway, so I thought it pointless to spend my money on them.

Still, I won’t mind going to the market again if I were to ever re-visit Bangkok in the future. I mean, I quite like it as a whole and overall I find it a ‘cool’ place to visit, so why not for a second time, right?

TAXI IN BANGKOK

In Bangkok, taxis were simply abundant. I took taxi to get to places many times throughout my stay there in fact. The first time I took a cab was at Phaya Thai when I was making my way home to Sukhumvit Soi Sum. I was then with Kenji, Kuma-san and Akira. The cab fare had costed us only about 47THB (S$1.90), which was cheaper as compared to 35THB (S$1.45) per adult ticket per trip on a skytrain. Personally, I prefer taking cabs to skytrains if given such choice. But this idea would backfire if cabs were taken during heavy traffic and when cab drivers decided to cheat on his passengers. Speaking of which, Kenji and I got cheated by a cab driver once...

On our last day in Bangkok, a taxi driver driving us home from Siam Paragon decided to make rounds near Chit Lom. We thought something seemed amiss with regards to the direction the taxi driver was taking. Also, the taxi driver was behaving as though he was unsure of the lanes he was on - he even slowed down in the middle of nowhere at one point of time. We tried asking the driver if he knew where he was going but his reply sounded pretty positive. A short while later, we noticed the cab fare had increased to about 63THB (S$2.60 - 2 times the ‘real’ fare) and we weren’t home yet! Plus, the driver had taken a left turn at a T-junction instead of right where past taxi drivers had. So Kenji and I decided to get off the cab in the end. But of course we did this only after making sure we both knew where we were exactly. So we got off the cab and walked home in the hot and humid city that afternoon. Luckily we were only about 2 skytrain stations away from our accommodation. But we still reached the hotel drenched in our own sweat. Still, we were glad we chose to discontinue our journey with the cab as we were sure we would have to pay the driver a lot more than what we already did.

THE OTHERS

The Grand Palace

Negotiating in advance with a driver on the tuk-tuk fare

Lionfish at the Siam Ocean World in Siam Paragon

Kenji at Tha Tien jetty along Chao Phraya River

Actually there are still plenty more things to write about on my recent Bangkok trip. For example, prostitutes on Sukhumvit, smelly streets all over Bangkok, places that Kenji and I visited such as Siam, the Grand Palace and Chao Phraya River as well as the other public transport that we took, which include the skytrain, tuk-tuk and the MRT. But it seems like I will probably write about the above-mentioned issues on some other day if I feel like it. As of now, I guess I will use the time and space to just conclude what I have written thus far. So in my brief stay in Bangkok, I believe that I have discovered Bangkok to be a place not quite exciting on its own. In my opinion, effort is needed in Bangkok to make my stay awesome. Having said that however, I really don’t mind going to Bangkok for a second time actually. For this time I’m sure I will be better equipped with idea and know more of what I would like to see and do in the city. So yeah, cheers to Bangkok and khàwp khun to everyone for reading this post.


References:

Map of Thailand, Available [Online]: http://www.divetheworldthailand.com/map-of-thailand.php, 17/10/08.

Wikipedia, Bangkok Love Story, Release and reception, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok_Love_Story, 29/08/08.