Sunday, May 30, 2010

Bangkok, Thailand

Today marks my first week in Bangkok and so far my experience has been phenomenal. I came here on Monday May 24th and today is Monday May 31st. So much craziness and excitement has transpired during this week; I don't even know where to start. I have been scammed by tuk tuk drivers, enjoyed ridiculously cheap street food, spent too much money, met insanely cool people from around the world, melted under the blistering hot Bangkok temperatures and the list goes on. It's been a whirlwind.



Visited central bangkok on Tuesday.



I checked out the building (central world) burnt down during the protests and it was truly devastating. What I found so remarkable is how the city had bounced back. The streets were completely clean and everyone had returned back to normal.



Visited a lot of cool places like the Bangkok art and culture centre and



ate food, too much food.



This spicy coconut soup served with fish is a WINNER. So goooood. Exploring the city has been an adventure. I made an amazing friend at my hostel. He's Korean but he spent the last 6 months in Australia. He is very good with directions and had thoroughly researched all the hot spots in Bangkok. Traveling with him is extremely easy because he pretty much has everything figured out.



We went out some night to this shady outside bar and



we got drunk on these cheap drinks which were suppose to be cocktails but tasted like vodka sprinkled with pineapple coloring. The drinks were crazy cheap though. 80 baht is 2 US dollars. We also met this amazing girl from France who explored with us. Not only was it amazing to hang out with her, I was able to practice my conversational French with her. My French has suffered gravely over the last 3 years because living in America, I don't get a chance to speak it. I also get too lazy to make an effort to improve my vocabulary. *sigh*



and...



We saw the Grand Palace, which is one of the most extraordinary places I have ever been to in my life. Simply breathtaking. We also took the boat ride around the city.



Saw some more cool sites



Too many amazing places but this post is getting too long and I am getting tired of writing it so I should stop lol But before I stop, I should mention that I went to Patpong 2 nights ago.



Patpong is like one of the skankiest nightlife spots in Bangkok. You'll find hookers, ping pong shows, strip clubs, aggressive sellers trying to sell you touristy products, loud music, and random people pursuing sex everywhere. A couple of people pursued us but that's another story for another day. It's like a scene from a movie I tell you, incredibly surreal. My friend ordered a shit load of beer at one of the outside bars and we had no choice but to finish it



good lord. I'm not a quitter so I vowed to complete the task at hand



Yeah. After a couple, we were half way there. And then, we finished it. Yes! we finished it.



Suffice to say, I paid the price the next day. My friends left Bangkok on Friday to continue their travels so the weekend has been somewhat quiet. The best part of traveling for me is not even the thrill of experiencing a new culture. It's meeting new people from different parts of the world and sharing your adventures with them. I might never see them again but I'm grateful for the travel experiences we had. Ok folks, this post has gone on for too long. I will end here. My journey in Bangkok ends in 2 days and then I'm going to the next country. I'll come back to thailand again sometime within the next month though, not just Bangkok. I hope everyone is fine and living their lives to the fullest...and oh, I started new tumblr blog again. I closed the last one ages ago because it didn't have a focus. This time I thought it will be cool to start a travel blog focusing on the places I've been, places I would like to go and travel tips. So yeah, you can check it out here if you want. It's fairly new. I'm done now.

Best regards,
...a boy from another planet

8 comments:

  1. very beautiful pics and the food..sigh....

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  2. Oh wow! I love all the pictures, but the first one I would frame.It looks so classic. You are really living! Good! The food looks so delicious, yum. Your adventures sound so exciting. Make sure you don't get a one of those ping pongs in your eye - you'll go blind.
    I am really enjoying these posts Afrika. I will check out your new tumblr now!
    Take care.

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  3. Thanks GoHard

    Thanks Style Mansion...and definitely no ping pongs in my eye lol I wasn't audacious enough to go into the ping pong clubs haha

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  4. A Ping Pong club? Is there a dirty joke there that I'm missing.

    Everything looks wonders sans that fish soup. I'll take your word for it.

    I'll check out your tumblr, I am hautelantanappy....

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  5. Hey Gigi, yes! the ping pong club refers to something quite dirty lol. It's too graphic for me to describe but if you google "ping pong show bangkok" you'll get more details lol. I wasn't brave enough to get into one of the ping pong clubs because I didn't want to be scarred for life lol.

    The fish soup wasn't that bad. It was actually spicy coconut soup served with fried fish.

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  6. Oh wow, thanks for taking me with you through Bangkok. All the sights are amazing, I showed my son the giraffe, hes in awe. The food looked great too. The Grand Palace was my favorite as well. Take care and don't drink so much, I'm a Mom what can I say.

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  7. great pictures....I almost feel like i was there.i lyk the giraf and palace too...

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  8. I know exactly what you mean about sharing amazing travel experiences with so many cool people. It's weird but you form friendships so quickly and so deeply in such a short amount of time! I spent two months in South America and hands down, backpacking has been one of THE best things I've ever done!

    The worst thing is when I got home and friends asked how my adventure was...well how do you sum up those months of unbelievable fun in just a sentence?

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