Bangkok: Story of a City (Bangkok)

Member Name: Krystles

Product:	Bangkok
Date:	28/03/09 (236 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots to see and do, great food and markets

Disadvantages: Sleaze is a little too apparent, not great for kids

For a city that we spent less than 24 hours in, there's certainly a lot to say. We arrived in Bangkok en-route to London, and made it through immigration and customs with no dramas. It took roughly an hour to get to the hotel and after checking in and phoning home we hit the streets.

There were a few markets setting up on the main road outside our hotel so we wandered down past them all, after being hassled to buy by most of the marketeers. We also encountered a driver who offered to drive us round for an hour to see the sights for roughly 2 pounds and decided it would be the easiest way to look around given that we only had one night. The bike thingy he drove us round in was fairly terrifying as we weaved past buses, trucks, cars and motorbikes. The roads have no sense of order, no lines are marked and although there are speed limit signs everyone seemed to ignore them. We saw a family of four on a motorbike, and a couple on a motorbike with their puppy which was quite cute.

After seeing a local temple, and a couple of large shopping districts our driver took us to a place for dinner. We ended up at a genuine Thai restaurant and got some fantastic food before the rain began. After dinner our driver kept offering to take us to a light show. At least that's what we thought he was offering being such naïve bumpkins and were thinking about taking up the offer to see a lovely light display when it suddenly dawned on my husband that he was saying live show. We politely declined. We had about an hour to kill before the night markets started so we asked if the driver could take us somewhere where we could get a drink. We thought a bar or pub would be the most logical place, but he had other thoughts. He took us to a place that was advertised as a karaoke bar, but we didn't see any karaoke. We were greeted by a line of young girls and my husband received several offers for a "special Thai massage". We had one drink (because we didn't want to be rude) before leaving. From here we were able to walk to the night markets and discovered that offers of special Thai massages were plentiful.

By the time we got to the markets the rain was pouring down. It was actually quite pleasant because the weather is so humid. Most of the markets had similar goods like, DVDs, t-shirts, jewellery, bags and shoes, and everyone bartered until a price was agreed on. We bought a few things, but couldn't go overboard because there wasn't much room left in our suitcases. On the sidewalks next to the markets there were strip clubs, most of which you couldn't avoid seeing in. We couldn't walk 2 metres without being asked to come see a ping-pong or banana show. After a couple of hours shopping we headed back to the hotel and went to bed after a quick drink in the hotel bar.

Despite the strip clubs, brothels, sex shows and general seediness of the place we would like to come back and spend a little more time in Bangkok. Although it was a smelly, hot Asian city, it was also a very colourful place. Can't say I'd want to live in Bangkok, but the atmosphere is great, the people are friendly and the city is definitely a good place to visit.

Summary: Great food, great people, great time!