As usual, I started searching the internet for plane tickets. Initially, I found an acceptable (financially) option with the Russians from Aeroflot, but the layover was going to be more than eight hours, so I waited a bit longer, just in time for Qatar Airways to come up with special offers for Asia.
So here I am, with super-priced tickets at 470 dollars/person. A real bargain, right? This happened about a month before departure, so I had enough time to schedule the other things: airport-hotel transfer, accommodation, information, and research about where, what, and how.
Time passes, the day of departure arrives, and here I am boarding, ready for the longest flight so far, with Qatar Airways. I was truly impressed by the services on board, the attention with which the flight attendants treat the passengers, the drinks, the food, everything... another level of quality.
After a flight of more than four hours, I landed at the newer Hamad International Airport in Doha, a huge, luxurious, downright extravagant airport. Indeed, the Arabs don't play around when they want to impress, and they always succeed.
After about two hours of gawking at the numerous shops in the airport, at a little past midnight, I was preparing for a new boarding, this time with emotions and immense curiosity, ready to discover the largest passenger plane in the world, the Airbus A380 colossus.
It literally amazed me, first of all by its dimensions from the outside and then the luxurious interior with ultra-high-performance equipment. The flight was pleasant, surprising for me, time passed quickly, and after about another six hours, around noon, I was in Bangkok.
Right from the exit of the plane, we were given forms to obtain the visa-on-arrival, we crossed the long distance to the area where all the formalities are done, and after another two hours lost at the counters, we were finally able to make contact with the Thai atmosphere.
When I stepped outside, I was met with the humid heat that made me instantly sweat, like in a sauna, and the smell was hard to bear for my olfactory senses. I was surprised to discover that they drive on the left side, it wasn't the first time, I had already experienced this in Ireland and England, but I really wasn't expecting it.
We set off in a minivan rented from the airport and I was pleasantly surprised to discover suspended streets and highways, pedestrian bridges instead of crosswalks, in a city that I imagined in the third world, with new, luxurious cars speeding on those streets, which in our "first world", it will take centuries to build. This state of consternation didn't last long,
This state of consternation didn't last long, however, because the further we went, the more convinced I was that the driver had taken the wrong road.
We arrived at the hotel and the feeling persisted, even intensified. Swana Hotel, located near the famous Kao San Road, was a big surprise for me, a truly unpleasant one. Even though I didn't have expectations of a 5* hotel, the small, stuffy, cramped rooms and the bathroom where two people could barely fit in really displeased me.
After getting rid of the luggage, I took a hot shower (oddly enough, the cold water wouldn't come out at all) and calmed down a bit, I went out to discover the surroundings, which literally left me speechless, narrow, dirty alleys where the locals had their kitchens served as streets.
I was immediately introduced to the hustle and bustle of the metropolis streets, with noisy tuk-tuks and speeding scooter riders, the almost unbearable smells, the dirt on the streets, the puddles of stagnant water that gather from washing dishes in the street, which I inevitably had to step in.
The streets were crowded with street food vendors, with soup in bags, rice or noodles cooked next to a pile of garbage, banana pie that they prepare right there on the street, various natural juices and cocktails served directly from buckets, fried cockroaches, scorpions, ants, locusts, massage parlors at every step arranged in plain sight, tattoo parlors, and so much more.
I had the impression that a carnival was in continuous motion. Everywhere I read and all the acquaintances who have been here recommend trying street food. How??? I'm not picky when it comes to food, but here... No way!
After a long search, we stopped at a more decent-looking restaurant, not that it looked very good, but we were all really hungry and we had to eat something, somewhere, no matter what.
Because the famous Thai soup, tom yum goong, was mentioned everywhere, I really wanted to try it. I want to confess that after taking the first spoonful of this soup with shrimp, lemongrass, chili peppers, coriander leaves, ginger, and who knows what else... an explosion of tastes and senses that I didn't know existed occurred in my mouth; I tried a few more spoonfuls, I thought maybe I liked it, but no!
What is certain is that I stayed far away from it the entire vacation. After this meal, we all left almost hungry and with our wallets considerably lighter. For the rest of the days, we resorted to street food, not exactly from the street vendors, but we ate on the street literally because most restaurants have their terraces set up outside, sometimes having to move my chair to let a car pass.
Thai food, with its Chinese and Indian influences, is essentially healthy and delicious, as long as you know what to eat. The banal fried rice or noodles are everywhere, fish, seafood, chicken or pork, are also prepared everywhere, in different forms. Various salads of all kinds, spicy, sweet or bitter, or all kinds of hot soups that numb your mouth are worth trying.
I can't help but mention the famous Peking duck, which I ate for the first time at a restaurant on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, opposite Wat Arun, and which I have encountered many times on my plate, it is truly special.
And since everyone who visit Bangkok wants to see those wonderful Buddhist temples, we also visited Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha), where you can find the 46-meter-long statue of Buddha, entirely covered in gold leaf, the imposing Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) across the Chao Phraya River, and the Royal Palace (only from the outside).
Since neither I nor the other group members were too keen on visiting all the temples, we limited ourselves to these. Chao Phraya itself is a main tourist attraction, where the retro boats of Chao Phraya Express operate, crossing the metropolis from one end to the other.
The idea of taking a boat ride on the river appealed to me from the start, but I didn't use the services of the aforementioned company, instead, we took a trip on a smaller motorboat, which took us for over an hour on both the Chao Phraya and the numerous klongs (adjacent canals) that cross Bangkok, thus allowing us to observe stilt houses along the water, where the locals have their homes, as well as numerous Wats (Buddhist temples).
I can't help but mention one of the main activities specific to Bangkok, namely sex tourism. Isn't it true that when you think of Thailand, two things come to mind: massage and implicitly prostitution?
Bangkok has three red-light districts, Patpong being the most famous, the place where it all started, consisting of three parallel streets, a Mecca of paid sex. On both sides of the streets full of advertisements, there are bars in front of which girls and boys with signs in their hands invite you to the well-known "ping-pong shows".
At every step, you see groups of girls, scantily clad, usually wearing the same "uniform", each carrying a number, ready to be auctioned and rented for an hour, two, a night, or a lifetime. Because, often, many Europeans, Americans, Russians... come here to find their "soulmate". There is even a gay street.
There are traditional markets or tourist markets that are generally open at night, where with a smile and a few witty words you can get prices up to 40% lower than the initial ones.
The malls and huge multi-story stores in Bangkok are indeed an attraction for those who haven't mastered the art of negotiation, as is my case. From the legendary MBK, to the sophisticated Emporium or Siam Discovery, to the luxury stores in Siam Paragon, Bangkok has delightful offers for every taste, budget, or style.
Bangkok is crazy, a noisy, chaotic, dirty, polluted city... but it has a special charm.
It's not like any other city I've visited before, I loved and hated it at the same time. In the five days I spent here, there wasn't a single day that I didn't get annoyed with the taxi drivers who I couldn't understand at all, but who wanted to charge me three times more for a ride, or the tuk-tuk drivers who, if they picked you up from a tourist area, wouldn't budge on the price for anything in the world, it annoyed me that I could never find a decent place to eat without worrying about my stomach.
And I never really had any problems with food, even though the hygiene conditions were almost zero. But with all that, I want to come back here, to spend more time visiting the tourist attractions, to get to know the people and places more closely.
In February, I didn't have a blog where I could express my opinions and share my experiences with others, I didn't even think about creating one, that's why I don't remember all the events exactly.
Bangkok is a wonderful city, everything is colorful, crowded, lively, warm, maybe too warm sometimes, with incredibly kind and smiling people, a city where it seems like no one ever sleeps, where you never get bored, and at every step you find something unique, something to shock you.
Probably for these reasons, it is declared by some to be the most visited city in the world, closely rivaling London, Paris, or New York.