One Night in Bangkok

Alaska- yes we flew over Alaska and Russia!

It was a long plane ride. 

Thirteen hours to Hong Kong, four hours in Hong Kong and another two and a half hours to Bangkok.   We both watched three movies on the plane so our brains were slowly turning into cauliflower.  I know lots of you have done longer plane rides or bus rides or such like.   So, you win.  I did a twenty-four hour bus ride once, though, when I was young and foolish.  The key words there were “young” and “foolish”.   Now, I am old and foolish and so it is not so easy anymore.

By the time we got to Bangkok it was 1:30 am here and we had left at 6:00 am Victoria time.  By my calculations we had been up for about 24 hours by the time we arrived.   It is a good thing that the check-in at the hotel was smooth as neither of us was actually functional at that point.  The amazing thing was that the roads were busy and people were on the street.  At 1:30 am at home the roads are deserted and if you walked into a hotel the person who checked you in would have hair sticking out in all directions and they would sound like Elmer Fudd.

Bangkok has a reputation. It changes your perception of what you see.   When we arrived at the hotel there were quite a number of provocatively dressed Thai women standing around in the lobby and walking in and out of the main doors.  My first thought was that they were there to make money.  Later I learned that there is a nightclub in the hotel.  Now those girls don’t look any different from any girls one would see in downtown Victoria outside of the clubs.  I am obviously not as free of prejudice as I would like to be.

Breakfast at the hotel this morning was what they considered at “western” breakfast.  They did have fried eggs, some variety of sausage, pancakes and toast but they also had myriad stir-fried dishes, chicken congee, and a variety of local fruit.  Nothing like eggs covered with a peanut stew that tasted like baked beans!

So far, in our limited exploration, Bangkok appears shabby.  Lots of the buildings in this area appear to be crumbling and mildewed. They don’t appear well kept.   The streets are narrow and straight lines appear to be a concept not known to the construction trade here.   This gives the city a certain charm and an intriguing character.  You can be wandering down a claustrophobic winding lane and suddenly come across a beautiful Buddhist Temple alive with Monks.   There are street vendors everywhere cooking food that I have no idea what it is but smells fabulous.  Shops that seem to be simply concrete rooms with the street wall missing are everywhere selling the weirdest stuff.  One that we passed today had just toilets stacked up everywhere – all covered with dust.

Bangkok from our hotel window

The locals try to promote the city by calling it the “City of Smiles”.  They are not wrong!  The people here are very friendly and smile at you all the time.  The normal greeting is hands held together like a prayer with a slight bow and a dazzling smile. It is called Wai.  There are some complicated status thingys associated with it which only a native Wai’er would understand but it is a very warm and elegant greeting and makes you feel friendly and accepted.  I like it!

The World Meteorological Association rates Bangkok the world’s hottest city.  That is probably because they had their annual conference here and saw all those pretty Thai girls…

 We only got in last night and are still jet lagged and groggy but we are very thankful that our room is air-conditioned.   On our brief walk this morning we found it very hot and very humid.   Bangkok, reputedly, has some enormous shopping malls – all air-conditioned. No wonder Thailand has such a strong economy – everyone goes to the cool malls and spends all their money…