Bangkok

Bangkok: Gateway to South East Asia.

Getting to Bangkok from anywhere in Thailand is reasonably painless as all airports fly directly and there are many trains and buses travelling into Thailand daily. We had a long weekend so Monday off school so we decided to have a weekend away in Bangkok for some of the girls who had never been there before. From Mae Sai we had to get a taxi for an hour to get to Chiang Rai air port. Splitting this between four of us was only 170 baht each which is a really good price. I flew nokair which was about 3,500 baht return. After a flighttime of less then an hour we descended into the big city where I met some of the girls to grab a taxi to the khao san road.

I was meeting one of my friends that I had met on my tefl course in Chiang Mai. We had opted to stay at a hostel a few roads away from the Khao San road which was one of the cheapest hostels we found (only 170 thb a night). The dorm had eight beds in it, there was no air conditioning only a few fans and it was far from luxurious. We had decided to go into a hostel so we could meet other travellers and hear their stories. We met up with another girl from the TEFL course and set off to do some sightseeing.

After talking to a few taxi drivers we learned that the main river that runs through Bangkok was just a five minute walk away. We couldn’t see it because of all the tall buildings and market stalls around us. We walked down there in the hope of getting a longtail boat down the river. A lady tried to charge us 300tbht each. Luckily our two months in Thailand meant that we recognised this was ridiculously overpriced, and soon found a boat that ran the entire length of the river for only 15thb.

My one piece of advice to people visiting Bangkok is that you don’t judge Bangkok only on the Khao San Road. So many travellers come to Bangkok and stay, shop and drink on the Khao San Road, maybe straying once or twice to the Soy Cowboy, another strip of sleazy clubs a twenty minute taxi ride away. Travellers who do this often leave with the impression of Bangkok as a dirty sleazy city with street vendors hastling you constantly in broken English.

Bangkok is so much more than this if you can take the time to explore further. We got off at the last stop on the boat at a large ferris wheel. Here was music, and upmarket restuarants and bars along the river.

After a bit of time exploring here we got the boat back down the river and watched the sun go down behind the tall buildings which was beautiful. Luckily one of the girls had counted how many stops we were away from the ferris wheel so we got off t the right place and walked back to our hostel to get ready for a night out.

The next few days are a bit of a blur as we partied, ate, shopped and caught up with more friends from the TEFL course. I was definitely devastated to leave my favourite city on Monday morning and get my flight back to Mae Sai. I mentioned to a friend that it was back to reality… adding that my reality in Northern Thailand definitely wasn’t bad either.