Bangkok Sin city Asian style

Bangkok is one of my favourite and most visited cities (I’ve been 4 times now), so its worth a blog!

It wasn’t always that way for me, I didn’t like it the first time I went I have to say. This was after travelling through Singapore and Malaysia to get there so culture shock factor was minimal so it wasnt that. The reason?

Well generally because of feeling disoriented and overpowered by the pure busyness of the place, Bangkok is hectic beyond other cities such as Kuala Lumpur for example which is mellow by comparison albeit very badly organised and hard to get around on public transport.

Bangkok is a mix of all the best and worst of Asia, amazing markets, shopping and food are all here and some of the best temples you could see outside Cambodia (Wat Arun, the temple of the Dawn is my favourite.).

There is poverty and wealth in abundance, if you stay near one of the big shopping malls like Siam Paragon you’d have no idea 10% of the population live below the poverty line and its not really apparent in that central Bangkok area so much.

What I love about the city is the constant movement, the chaos of tuk 

tuks and people on mopeds. We went during Songkhran once which is the thai new year in April and is a water festival. The best memory was having a running battle mad max style with people in another tuk tuk with water pistols whilst speeding through the city.

The temples and palaces of Bangkok like the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and things like the floating markets are well known and the backpacker fun of the Khao San Road and the dubious joys of Patpong, what I like are the things not so well known.

What is good is that there are plenty of relaxing sanctuaries in the city if you look for them. One such place is Lumpini park which is a nice place to have a wander around and watch people doing tai chi and such forth.

Another is the wonderful Jim Thompson’s house which is a museum/silk shop/art gallery/lesson in interior and architectural 

design http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/ made up by silk trader, adventurer and supposedly OSS operative Jim Thompson.

The house is made in a traditional Thai design and is made up of a number of houses interconnecting showing off his art collection and architectural skill within one plot of land. There is also a silk shop onsite and information about a very interesting life lived.

Another way of getting away from the crowds and seeing a different part of the city is to take a long tail boat down the Chao Phraya river, this can take you past the grand palace with some wonderful photo opportunities.If you are in Bangkok on the weekend the giant Chatuchak market is worth a look around although I found bargaining harder and pricing here is a lot higher than the night markets at Khao San road for example for the same stuff but its a great place to go for the experience. All manner of things from food to electrical goods to pets are sold here from the tables.

An underrated thing to do is a day trip to Ayuthaya, for those who dont want to get on an extra flight or take a dubious and long road trip to Siem Reap for Angkor as you can see some of my pictures here are almost Angkor esque. There are opportunities here to do elephant rides and have a look around the grounds of one of the Thai Kings residences.

It’s really a city that never stops and be it getting out on the Khao San road at night or to one of the many nightclubs in the city or just going for a meal in a local restaurant the evening is when Bangkok is at its best so get out there and enjoy!