Fantastic food and overcrowded streets
From Hong Kong we took the airplane to Bangkok. We had a bit doubt about the airline we took, it was Sri Lankan Air. To our surprise the plane was a new Airbus A330 with a very good entertainment system and the stewardess were really friendly and nice.
When we arrived in Bangkok we took the taxi to get to our hotel from the airport and that was a funny experience. The car was a Japanese car, the exterior was pimped á la “Fast and Furious” and the interior had leather seats, diode lights, flat screens and a disco ball. It was flashing everywhere inside the cabin and the driver was a funny guy who is extremely proud of his taxi.
This time we allowed ourselves the luxury of a better hotel. It was in the area of Asoke and from there we could get to the subway and Sky-Train station easily. The hotel staff were very friendly and helpful, we were very satisfied staying there.
A must visit in Bangkok is of course the palace as well as some temples and the Chinatown during the daytime and in the evening. We were very surprised that there are a lot of Chinese Teochew people living here in Bangkok. We had fun with some older ladies from the market because we could understand what they were talking and we could also had some small talks with them, it was really amusing. We also made a short boat tour through the feeders of Bangkok river, but somehow it wasn´t that exiting…too many litter everywhere along the rivers.
We also went to some shopping malls to buy some additional stuff for our trip. Culinary we tried a lot of Thai food and on one evening we had a buffet dinner on a tower building called Baiyoke Sky. They offer plenty of Asian and Western food, the food was really nice. The restaurant is on the 80th floor and on the 83rd floor you have an observation platform where you can see the whole city.
One day we made a trip with a local bus to Mae Klong and Amphawa. In Mae Klong you can find the local market which is along a train track. Every time when a train pass by, they put everything away and after the train is gone, they continue with the selling. It was funny to see but also full of tourists. In Amphawa you can find a floating market, local people like to come here during weekend to have nice food and buying local stuff. It was also nice to see.
We enjoyed our stay in Bangkok, but you really have to plan well how to get from one place to the other as the streets are really overcrowded. The easiest way to travel within Bangkok is to take the subway or the sky train but the public transportation network is not covering the whole city. For the places in the city where you cannot get there by subway or sky train, you can use the motorbikes as fellow passenger or one of the Tuk Tuks, they are quite good in squashing into traffic gaps.
When we were in Bangkok, there was some bombing in the southern part of Thailand during the Queen’s birthday. We didn´t really realised it in the public, only from the news. We really had luck that we were not involved. Hopefully nothing bad happens during our following trip.
