Paco´s Life: Madrid

Bangkok, the City

9 September 2006 9:44 AM | In Bangkok, Travel | 106 Comments

As I said Bangkok is a big experience for all the senses, plenty of different people hang arround the city. And I hardly experience it, only a couple of days and I limited myself to Khao San Road and the touristic areas. I am sure there are plenty of more typicals neibourghoods to explore but I had enough with this. In Bangkok the mean of transporation you normally use is the tuk-tuk, a sort of motorbike with room for passangers. Uncomfortable but cheap as long as you first negociate the price with the driver, the traffic is a hell, there is so much smoke because of the cars that drivers normally use masks…

And about the food… bufff, everything was delicious and very cheap. I got full eating typical thai dishes and of course I tried all the different brands of beer…

Bangkok is a very budist city, there are temples everywhere where you find people praying and offering stuff to the good, the truth is that the spread arround a very pefaceful feeling. I dont want to get into a teological discussion here but it is quite remarkable the comparation between the smiling and fat Budda and the suffering Jesus in the cross. I believe that just the symbols say a lot about how these two religions understand life. But as I said, I wont get into these issues because I can easily get entusiastic and I dont wanna offend anyone.

About monuments, the Bangkok Royal Palace is very remarkable, probably one of the wonders of the world, amazing although too full of tourist as it was expected. Anyway, a must see, by the way you can not get there with short trousers, you are forced to wear a long ones…

It is also very advisible to spend some money in a cruise arround the river. Very typical…

From the Golden Mount you can get a view of the city…

So this was all about the asian tour, the global balance is possitive although, to be completely honest, I was expecting more out of the trip. Many unlucky things and not so good planification, but I dont regret about it, it´s been such an experience to find out how people live here.

My dear Copenhagen was waitting for me when I got back

All pictures here!

Bangkok: Scotish Birthday / Cumpleaños Escocés

8 September 2006 9:39 AM | In Bangkok, Nightlife, Travel | 106 Comments

What a better way to celebrate my 26 birthday that going for an adventure in one of the most amazing cities I have ever visited. I have travelled quite a lot but never like this, totally alone, withouth knowing anyone in the place and withouth having accommodation there. I just had the address of what was supposed the street with hotels for foreign people in Bangkok. A typical backpacker place called Khao San Road. How to describe this city in a few words… amazing. It was only a couple of days but I got the impression that Bangkok is a place you either hate or fall in love with. Absolutely caotic, pollution everywhere, huge, you walk arround smelling every kind of stuff, with people trying to sell you whatever you may want. I got to Kaho San where, as I had read, there was foreign people all over and many affordable places to stay. The street itself is amazing, lights everywhere, backpackers coming and going, thai food places and every kind of shops. Definitely the place had nothing to do with the very tidy and clean Singapore, this is another world.

So I get my individual room, with AC and shower. Not luxury but fair enough..

Can you imagine how I spent the rest of the afternoon? Buying a new camera of course, first contact with the tahi culture, here you can negociate any price. Luckily, the change euro - bath (thai currency) is quite convinient so in the end you get good deals. After that, it was my birthday and I was about to celebrate it alone, besides, I was totally exhausted and sweating like hell. 10 pm, what should I do? Going to sleep? That would be sad… I decided to get down to the hotel bar and have a drink, this is also cheap here. So I sit down there, totally alone and sad and I start ordering mojitos. The good thing about these kind of places is that there are many people in the same situation, you see them hanging arround, having dinner alone or reading a book, normally after a while they leave. After I spent some time studying the situation and only when I got the inspiration that only a good rum can provide I started to expand my non-existing social circle. First I spoke with a lonely american guy, jajaja jojojojo and later on we also became friends of a group of scottish guys, finally we went out with them. So the night ended up been quite funny, much more than it was mean to be. Nothing spectacular, some temporarly friends so I dont spend my birthday alone