For most people, if you think of Bangkok, you'll probably think of Khao San Road. Or The Hangover 2, which I haven't watched but assumed the title would inevitably be relatable. Hopefully not the face tattoo though.
After speaking to the people who work and live there throughout my travels, it became evident that there is so much more to Bangkok than the hedonistic backpacker haven / tourist trap of Khao San Road, but as a new traveller just arrived in the capital from London with 3 hours of sleep and the onset of jet lag, I wasn't quite ready to leave the backpacker scene just yet. Throw in a good measure of culture shock and I shamefully only strayed the mile or so radius of my hostel once during my stay!
After 12 hours of flying, 4 films, 3 TV episodes, plenty of free wine and even more free food (which I eventually had to turn down - a true sign of the extent of my travel nerves!), I finally touched down in Bangkok. I'd had my first blast of heat during my midnight layover in Doha, but nothing could prepare me for the hot humid Thai air that hit me as soon as I stepped off the plane. A swift pass through immigration and the baggage collection point, and I was finally on my way into the city.
The hot air didn't last long though, as the heavens opened and I had my first experience of a tropical downpour. And man, did it pour! Suddenly I didn't mind about getting stuck in the rush hour traffic and spending a bit longer in the taxi. This was to become a recurring theme in Bangkok, when around 4pm everyday, there would be a flash of lightning and a rumble of thunder, and for an hour the streets would be flooded with a deluge of monsoon-like rain. The English drizzle was nothing compared to this! As the first raindrops appeared, so did my regrets about deciding to travel South East Asia during rainy season, but I soon realised it was actually a blessing in disguise. Far from being a nuisance, I began to look forward to this quick interval of relief from the sticky heat, as soon enough the sun would be beating down again and the streets would dry up as if nothing had ever happened.
We pulled up outside my hostel down a little side street just a few blocks from Khao San Road, and I hopped out, swung my backpack on and made my way to reception, awkwardly smiling at other travellers as I went. Soon I was being shown around by a friendly Australian, who left me in my dorm with an invitation to happy hour downstairs at the bar. I slumped down on my bed in a heap... and remained there. Suddenly it hit me that I was actually here in Thailand, about 9,500 km from home, and completely on my own. What on earth was I doing? The nerves which had left me on the plane were back and, far from wanting to go out and explore my new environment, the temptation to just go to bed and pretend it wasn't happening was high. The last thing I wanted to do was go downstairs and attempt small talk with strangers at the bar. But after a quick pep talk to pull myself together and a reminder that I was here to push myself out of my comfort zone, I took a deep breath and made my way downstairs.
As with most things, it turned out I needn't have worried, as I was only awkwardly scanning the room for potential friend-targets for approximately 1 minute, before a girl took pity and invited me over to come drink with the hostel workers. It wasn't long before I was making the rounds and sitting with a new group who would go on to become my Bangkok crew for the rest of my stay. Multiple Changs and a game of drinking Jenga later, it was difficult to believe that just a few hours ago I was worrying about how I would meet people!
Before I knew it, I found myself stood amongst the flashing lights and booming chart music of, you guessed it, Khao San Road. Rather than the exotic, other-worldly experience I'd been expecting, I felt like I had zoomed straight back in time to my 19-year-old gals' holiday walking down the Magaluf strip.
Just a few hours into my Thailand adventure I was already ticking off the backpacker clichés one-by-one as, with a bucket of God-knows-what in hand, we approached a tiny Thai lady selling an array of BBQ'd scorpions on a tray. Embracing the "say yes" attitude, I sampled a pincer (I may be all for new experiences but judging by the others' reactions, I wasn't quite ready for the whole thing). Crunchy, chewy, and pretty much all shell, this was one local speciality I was happy to try just the once. I was now just one pair of elephant pants away from having the full backpacker bingo set!
The rest of the night was spent dancing in the street with the crowds of other sweaty tourists (or, in the case of one of the Bangkok crew, warding off lady boys) before crawling back to the hostel in the early hours of the morning, ready to catch up on all those hours lost in the change of time zone.
The next day started fairly late, sleeping off the remainders of jet lag and a banging hangover. Ready to face the concrete jungle, I peeled myself out of bed and joined the rest of the crew for lunch in a little riverside tavern, enjoying a very authentic meal of club sandwich.
One of the first things that you notice about Bangkok is the smell. As my first Asian city, a whole host of foreign smells, sights and sounds hit me as we ventured outside during the day - and not all of them were pleasant. There's no denying it, Bangkok is a dirty city. A cacophony of tooting horns became the soundtrack of the city, while exhaust fumes from the hoards of cars and tuk-tuks poured out into the smoggy air. As we ate our lunch, wafts of hot sewage would float past us, and we watched, mouths open, as a young boy splashed around in the opaque brown waters of the litter-strewn river flowing beneath us. After travelling around South East Asia for 4 months, these unfamiliar smells and sights became a normal part of most, if not all, of the capital cities, and it was soon easy to look past them and see all the good things instead. However, in those first few days in Bangkok, it was something I struggled to adjust to, and only lent to the permanent state of culture shock I found myself in.
After an afternoon sheltering from the heavy rain with a game of Scrabble, a couple of friendly flying squirrels, and some local children throwing firecrackers at us, I was ready for an early night, agreeing to a bedtime tipple of just one Chang...
But suddenly I was back on Khao San Road again. Those damn Changs! We didn't stay there long though as we hopped into our first tuk-tuks, racing each other through the traffic like we were in a surreal game of Mario Kart with flashing lights and Justin Bieber hits. The roads began to empty as we arrived at what appeared to be the seedy side of the city, where we had agreed to experience another one of Bangkok's notorious sights - the ping pong show. I'll leave this one to the imagination as the less said about it the better, though it was a sight I definitely would not have regretted missing out on. Knowing the corruption and exploitation of the women who are involved in this industry heightened my guilt of seeing it even more. It was a lesson I learnt early on that just because something is a popular tourist attraction, it doesn't make it OK to go to. After a bucket or two of vodka lemonades to erase the images from my mind, I promised myself to ensure that the rest of the experiences I had on my trip would be ethical ones.
The next day, I ventured beyond Khao San Road to explore the more cultural side of what Bangkok had to offer. We aimlessly wandered for hours, escaping the frenzy of the streets within the peaceful walls of Buddhist temples, where we watched monks clad in orange robes go about their daily chores and prayers amongst serene golden Buddha statues and an aromatic cloud of incense. We browsed the assortment of patterned clothes and souvenirs displayed on the rows of market stalls, and we covered our noses as we walked through hot narrow alleys of fishmongers hidden underneath corrugated metal panels, stepping over the day's, or possibly yesterday's, catches while swatting away the swarms of flies that buzzed around us. Finally, after a pretty poor attempt at bartering over the backpacker staple of a sarong, we reached our destination of the day: the Royal Palace. Only to be turned away at the entrance. It turns out we had severely underestimated the strict dress code, and my patterned trousers and sarong-over-shoulders combo was not appropriate wear for a royal residence - I don't blame them really, it was a pretty dismal fashion faux pas. So it was a tuk-tuk back to the hostel!
Finally my time in Bangkok had come to an end. I had certainly started my trip off with a bang, but this nature girl was looking forward to escaping the crazy city life and heading somewhere a bit greener. I waved goodbye to my Bangkok crew as we went our separate ways across the country, sad at the thought that goodbyes like these would become a recurring theme throughout my trip.
And I was back on my own. But I couldn't be sad about it for too long as it was time for the next chapter of Thailand - to the North!
Love, Beth xxx
(While in Bangkok, I stayed at Back Home Backpackers at about £8 a night - a basic but very friendly and sociable hostel located down a quiet road just 10 minutes from Khao San Road. Tip: you can order food from the restaurant just a few metres away and have it sent to the hostel to eat!)
No comments:
Post a Comment