A city unlike anywhere else in the world (Bangkok)

Member Name: aylawarner

Product:	Bangkok
Date:	28/04/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A crazy and diverse place, lots of things going on, great atmosphere

Disadvantages: Lots of traffic pollution, very busy

Bangkok is a complete mayhem of a city and the hustle and bustle of the place is just mad. You will never find another place quite like it. Everywhere you go there are taxis and tuk tuks speeding past you, market stalls along the streets, people trying to lure you into shops and bars, and hot food steaming from food carts in the roads. The amount of things going on never ceased to amaze me and for a first timer, it can be a very daunting.

Bangkok was the last stop on mine and my husband's 5 week trip to Thailand, and I'm glad it was last as we just wouldn't have known what to do with ourselves if it had been our first stop. As soon as we arrived in the capital city, we realised it was, both literally and figuratively, miles away from the relaxed and quiet beaches of Koh Samui and Koh Tao. Upon arrival we were herded into a tuk tuk and zoomed off on the busy streets to Koh San Road, the main street for accommodation, shopping and nightlife. The roads were awful - on our stay here we noticed how much traffic there was and the amount of smoke bellowing out of the cars was horrid. It flew straight back into your face and we had to ride in tuk tuks with our hands covering our mouths in fear of inhaling all the smoky pollution. We only stayed in Bangkok for 2 nights but we both left with sore throats which I can only assume was from the pollution of traffic.

If you're looking for somewhere cheap, exciting and diverse to stay then Koh San Road is the place to go. There are literally hundreds of different types of accommodation to stay in suiting all budgets. It's also a perfect place to stay as it's in the centre of everything and the markets here are incredible. They're usually open all day and the entire street is filled with market stalls ranging from clothes, books, pirate DVDs and souvenirs. We spent ages, like hours, just walking up and down buying loads of bits and bobs and everything is sooooo cheap! I bought some gorgeous Thai lamps for only about £1.50 each and named brands men's T-shirts were only about £1. I bought a bag, skirt and top and it only came to around £3 for the whole lot! I could have stayed here for days! There are also loads of bars, restaurants, internet cafes, shops and nightclubs on the road and some wonderful street stall food sellers - 30p for a dish of Pad Thai!

There are a few things to do in Bangkok including visiting the many temples and the Grand Palace. The Reclining giant Buddha in Wat Po temple is amazing but I think the Grand Palace (where the King lives) was a little over the top. It was just full of hundreds of temples and statues all looking pretty much the same and it was just too much for my liking (although I wouldn't have said that out there because you can get arrested if you say anything against the King!). Jim Thompson's House is also a pretty attraction to visit.

Getting around is easy with cheap taxis or hop in a tuk tuk for a Thai experience. A really friendly guy took us to the passport office to renew our visa, which was about a 40 minute trip out of town to get there. He sped us along the motorway (if you can call them that) in this tiny little thing that reminded us of a golf cart, swerving in between cars, and we really were quite afraid for our lives! When we got there he showed us to the passport office and waited an hour for us to queue up and get our visas just so he could get the fare on the way home - it's not very nice to see how obviously poor they are, this guy was desperate for our service and he was so nice so we made sure we gave him a big tip (well it was a big tip for them but when we worked it out the entire journey, over and hour and a half driving and an hour waiting in between, cost us only about £5!). There's also the ferry which goes along the river stopping at various points which is a nice change from the busy city roads.

Although the people are very friendly and it's not really very dangerous in Bangkok, there are a couple of things you have to be careful about. I'm sure you've heard about it before, but the Thai people who tell you that that the place you want to go to is closed and try to take you to somewhere different are not fictional. We were walking along the walls of the Grand Palace minding our own business when a man dressed in a smart suit walked out from one of the guards' entrances. He started speaking to us about Bangkok and just asking us general questions, where we were from, our jobs, etc. He reeled us in very well by saying his wife had the same job as me and that he would love to visit London, etc., etc. He finally got to the point by telling us that he worked in the Grand Palace and that if we were visiting we wouldn't have much luck as it was closed today. As soon as he said this we became a tad suspicious but he was brilliant at making us believe him as he'd come out of an entrance that now had guards holding huge guns around it and he knew an awful lot about the attraction so we had no reason to not believe that he worked there. He went on to say that, if we wanted, we could do a tour around the city to other popular locations and suddenly, at the exact moment he said this, a tuk tuk came hurtling up the road and stopped right next to us on the pavement. As soon as this happened we knew we were being taken for a ride and all he wanted was for us to pay for a tuk tuk ride. We managed to say no thanks and prise ourselves away from the scammer only to walk around the block to find hundreds of tourists swarming into the Grand Palace! The bloody cheek of the guy! He'd tried to fob us off from around the corner and pretended that he'd worked in there! I'm sure the guards would have swiftly carted him off if they'd realised what he was doing!

Another thing to beware of is that some tuk tuk drivers will charge you a very minimal fee (like 20p for a half hour ride) if you stop off at a shop for a certain amount of time and pretend that you're interested in purchasing something. If you're in the shop for long enough, the driver will receive free or discount petrol rates. I don't know exactly how this works because one time the shop owner realised what we were doing and chucked us out of the shop! It is quite funny having a go though - I pretended I was looking for an expensive ring once and I thought I was rather good at convincing them that my husband wanted to buy me something, especially seeing as we were in cheap travelling clothes!

Many people had told us that Bangkok wasn't a great place to visit and that we would only need 1 night there, 2 at the most. I'd agree that you only need a couple of nights there (1 isn't enough though) but not because the place isn't great, because I really thought it was, but only because there's not a load of things to do. I loved the city and found it completely unlike anywhere else I've ever visited and if I ever visit Thailand again, I'd definitely stop off in Bangkok for a night or two.

Summary: Make sure you leave at least a couple of days to visit this amazing city