First of all, arriving to Bangkok was already quite a special experience since just a few hours before we were still walking in snow. The 30+ degree heat came quite drastically. However the warm climate was definitely welcome.
What we expected: Bangkok is definitely a huge metropolis with everything that goes with that like noise, smell and questionable cleanliness. But what we experience was a whole lot more: a lot of friendly nice people, who manage to have the most beautiful smile on their face regardless of the poor conditions they live in. (we are not going to say as opposed to... so that we do not offend anyone). Bangkok has probably the two noisiest means of transportation ever invented: the longtail boat and the Tuk-Tuk. However, the city itself can change you instantly: when at home it might bother me that the guy next to me listens to his iPod to loud, in Bangkok the loudest noises, the strongest smells, the seemingly chaotic but extremely efficient means of transport, the suspiciously brown water, none of these could bother me, instead all form an avalanche of sensations which amaze you at every step. Its a wonderful city, its truly a place to enjoy.
We started exploring this great city right from its heart, that being the Chao Phraya river where everything once started.
We took an express boat down to Wat Arun, the temple of Dawn, visiting it however just before and during sunset.
It was nevertheless nice.
We than went to Chinatown, enjoying the best banana-pancake we had in SE Asia. A dinner in the famous (rather infamous) Khao San Road, the backpacker's headquarters of the universe, as LP calls it, completed the day.
The next day we started by visiting the Temple of the Reclining Buddha where we were amazed by the beauty of the Buddhist temples and by this 50m long golden Buddha statue.
Our plans of visiting the Grand Palace the same day were disrupted by the King (by merely being there) so we decided to go to Ayutthaya instead but not before taking some time to stop by the Wat Traimit housing the biggest massive Golden Buddha statue in Thailand.
*for Ayutthaya click 89km to the North.
After returning in the evening, we took a wonderful river cruise on the Chao Phraya river, enjoying the great views of Bangkok by night accompanied by the voice of Thai singers singing songs ranging from Yellow-submarine to Genghis Khan (for the sake of the Russian majority on the ship).
The third day we finally managed to visit the Royal Palace with the famous Wat Phra Kaew, the temple of Emerald Buddha. The sighs were all amazing and we enjoyed the visit a lot.
From here we took again a death defying Tuk-Tuk ride (The driver will surely go to heaven, see this joke) to Wat Szuthat and the Giant Swing. We also visited Loha Prasat and wat Ratchnatda from where we climbed up to the Golden Mount, the highest ground in Bangkok until the mid. 20th century.
After a new "bargain session" with a Tuk-Tuk driver, we headed for Siam square, which was probably the highest contrast one can experience without time-travel. From the deepest poverty that one could see when looking down one of the canals to probably the fanciest shopping mall we've seen (and we've been to King of Prussia as well). Also in Siam square we found the ultimate Bangkok sandwich: take a slice of 6-lane city road, place one slice of skytrain, on slice of elevated highway on it, top this with one more slice of skytrain tracks, take all this and squeeze it between two 10 story shopping malls, add some Christmas decorations and some fountains as dressing and there you have it.
What we expected: Bangkok is definitely a huge metropolis with everything that goes with that like noise, smell and questionable cleanliness. But what we experience was a whole lot more: a lot of friendly nice people, who manage to have the most beautiful smile on their face regardless of the poor conditions they live in. (we are not going to say as opposed to... so that we do not offend anyone). Bangkok has probably the two noisiest means of transportation ever invented: the longtail boat and the Tuk-Tuk. However, the city itself can change you instantly: when at home it might bother me that the guy next to me listens to his iPod to loud, in Bangkok the loudest noises, the strongest smells, the seemingly chaotic but extremely efficient means of transport, the suspiciously brown water, none of these could bother me, instead all form an avalanche of sensations which amaze you at every step. Its a wonderful city, its truly a place to enjoy.
We started exploring this great city right from its heart, that being the Chao Phraya river where everything once started.
 |
| From ASIA - THAILAND - Bangkok |
We took an express boat down to Wat Arun, the temple of Dawn, visiting it however just before and during sunset.
It was nevertheless nice.
We than went to Chinatown, enjoying the best banana-pancake we had in SE Asia. A dinner in the famous (rather infamous) Khao San Road, the backpacker's headquarters of the universe, as LP calls it, completed the day.
The next day we started by visiting the Temple of the Reclining Buddha where we were amazed by the beauty of the Buddhist temples and by this 50m long golden Buddha statue.
 |
| From ASIA - THAILAND - Bangkok |
Our plans of visiting the Grand Palace the same day were disrupted by the King (by merely being there) so we decided to go to Ayutthaya instead but not before taking some time to stop by the Wat Traimit housing the biggest massive Golden Buddha statue in Thailand.
*for Ayutthaya click 89km to the North.
After returning in the evening, we took a wonderful river cruise on the Chao Phraya river, enjoying the great views of Bangkok by night accompanied by the voice of Thai singers singing songs ranging from Yellow-submarine to Genghis Khan (for the sake of the Russian majority on the ship).
 |
| From ASIA - THAILAND - Bangkok |
The third day we finally managed to visit the Royal Palace with the famous Wat Phra Kaew, the temple of Emerald Buddha. The sighs were all amazing and we enjoyed the visit a lot.
 |
| From ASIA - THAILAND - Bangkok |
From here we took again a death defying Tuk-Tuk ride (The driver will surely go to heaven, see this joke) to Wat Szuthat and the Giant Swing. We also visited Loha Prasat and wat Ratchnatda from where we climbed up to the Golden Mount, the highest ground in Bangkok until the mid. 20th century.
After a new "bargain session" with a Tuk-Tuk driver, we headed for Siam square, which was probably the highest contrast one can experience without time-travel. From the deepest poverty that one could see when looking down one of the canals to probably the fanciest shopping mall we've seen (and we've been to King of Prussia as well). Also in Siam square we found the ultimate Bangkok sandwich: take a slice of 6-lane city road, place one slice of skytrain, on slice of elevated highway on it, top this with one more slice of skytrain tracks, take all this and squeeze it between two 10 story shopping malls, add some Christmas decorations and some fountains as dressing and there you have it.
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