Ready to roll...

My impressions of Bangkok are constantly changing by the day and I think it might take some time apart before I really know how I feel … It’s not you it’s me! The extremely dirty polluted streets, air and waterways remain top of mind, but are less confronting as time goes by. As the headache and cough I earned after 20 minutes standing at a major BK intersection passed, so to does the clammy, gritty grime feeling of your skin after a day in the humid smog with a good douse of undrinkable water.

The second most striking thing about Bangkok, particularly the City centre and tourist hubs I’ve orbited, is the enormous number of people trying to make a living on every square inch of space available. Street stalls selling cheap imitation clothing, trinkets odds and ends, tuk tuk and taxi drivers stalking a fare, food stalls and carts offering fresh fruit, ecoli laden small goods, icecream sandwiches, roadside restaurants, beggars, hustlers and prostitutes… you can get anything for a price in Bangkok.

Such a big busy, dirty city, packed with locals chasing a cut of the tourist dollar is tiring. It’s taken some time to work it out. For example a tuk tuk driver earns about 200 Baht (around $8 AUD) commission for every jewellery store, tailor, boat ride, ping pong show,whatever he takes a tourist to, plus a percentage of any purchase you make. So if you’re offering 100 Baht for a cross town fare the maths is against you getting where you want without a stop or two.

All up I guess I found Bangkok to have some good, some bad. It certainly didn’t live up to my lofty expectations but was a great place to start the adventure and you couldn’t ask for a better exchange rate at which to learn some lessons. While I would love to have got ot of Bangkok to explore other parts of Thailand... there's always next time.

Hot!

Cheap imitation clothing - my bag’s 4kgs heavier than when I arrived!

Cheap Singha beer – a friend in need is a friend indeed

Cool crew on the road – Boonma the Thai teacher from the North of the country, and Pat from Brizvegas on a tour of self discovery

Delicious Thai cuisine on every street corner

The smiling local faces … that aren’t immediately followed by the lines, where you from? Where you going? Tuk tuk?

Chao Phraya River – respite from the concrete jungle

The King… apparently!?!?! The whole countries united in their love for him

The temples and Monks… bringing sexy back, orange robes are so this season

Tuk tuks

What?

• Pollution – grey streets, grey skies, in your lungs and in your eyes
• Amazing grand and lavish temples, monuments and landmarks one street, homelessness, poverty and collapsing shanties the next.
• ing pong shows – very pricy and not all that they’re cracked up to be
• So much traffic… going nowhere slowly

Look out London here I come!