I suppose that each traveler has a favorite city, the one where he travels a good part of his trips almost without wanting to. Where he finds many of the things he seeks when traveling, where he is well. Ours is Bangkok, the same that so many hate. Don't ask us why, we don't choose it. Whenever we have a close trip we make it coincide with this city, and we spend here at least a couple of days, just enough to take off our overalls.
In our last romance with Bangkok we were not alone, Lety's parents accompanied us, or rather we accompanied them, and so happy to show the wonders of this city! The romance began where many others end: at the airport. Lety spent a long night there more badly than well, hoping to meet again the next morning with some well-known people ...
The first to arrive was Rober, after stopping his trip and spending almost a month eating croquettes in Spain, he came back wanting more! But Lety was still nervous, she hadn't slept at all, although she didn't look tired. Emotion could with her ... would her parents have managed to catch the right plane in Milan to Thailand? And the scale in Saudi Arabia? Would you know how to fill in the entry forms to Thailand, all written in English, with the knowledge learned in the last month by your father?
YES! There appeared as hot dogs in the exit door number two, with their backpacks on their shoulders like two new backpackers, two authentic backpacks!
For them it was their first Asian time, for us our first time as tour guides. They hallucinated every moment, we did it with them. We spent the first 3 days of its three Asian weeks in the Thai capital, and it was a great start!
We visited the Royal Palace after passing our first test as tourists ...
- “The Palace opens at one”
- "How can it be?"
- "I can take you to other places before and then I'll take you there" ...
Obviously the Palace opened, as every day, at 9 in the morning ... some things never change and the scams are still present. From there we walked to the temple Wat pho, with its immense reclining Buddha. On the way we check the passion that Thai people have for religious statuettes in an antique market.
We had time to tour the 15 most important ferry stops in the Chao Praia river, paying the ticket as locals, and of course, as tourists (4 times more expensive!). We also cross it from one end to the other to scale the Wat arun and contemplate the views of the city from there. There are many more temples in Bangkok, you can take a look here.
We test as 4 or 5 brands of beer (Chiang, Singha, Tiger, San Miguel ...) to accompany the delicious Thai dishes (more information about Thai food here), and of course, the odd padthai! Without forgetting the super spicy crocodile!
We took taxis most of the time, and most of the time we were touched by a crazy taxi driver, in a good way (like the one who didn't stop singing and laughing, although a little scary he gave) and in the bad one (like those that did not put the taximeter or joke, and if necessary they left you in the first corner after riding).
Something curious is happening in Bangkok with transportation. We knew about traffic jams, but not as exaggerated as the ones we encountered this time! Also, what happened to the tuctucs? Now they are only for tourists who prefer to pay more to go swallowing smoke and without air conditioning ... Although if you travel you only have a very good alternative ... the mototaxis! Another novelty for us! We will leave them for next time.
What we did not leave for next times was to pass by Rambuttri and Khao San, where almost all the stalls of padthai and fruit have given way to those of kebabs, pizzas and insects (these more than to sell are to pay to photograph them).
Hard days, sooo hard. So we gave ourselves a whim, that's why Cassetta / Bez are here, and we allow ourselves a little hotel with a pool, come there!
The adventure continued through the temples of Angkor, in Cambodia, but we leave this for another episode.
If you are interested in making a trip to Bangkok you can take a look at our “Bangkok guide for backpackers”.
