A Taste of Bangkok and Pattaya
Thailand is one of my bucket-list countries - and I can only cross it of halfway because I've only seen the northern half of it! Hopefully we'll get to Phuket and the Phi Phi islands before we leave Southeast Asia.
We did a quick switcheroo of bags at our storage until near Heathrow Airport in London, swapping out cool weather gear for warm weather gear. We were leaving the mid-sixties for high-eighties and nineties, and it didn't make sense to carry bags of sweaters around SEA. The flight to Bangkok on EVA Air was uneventful (thankfully) and whizzed by at 10 hours (I was asleep for most of it) but we did meet a lovely Taiwanese lady who was on her way home for a visit.
We landed, grabbed our luggage, jumped in a cab, and was immediately assaulted by the worst traffic we had ever seen up till then. Tons and tons and tons of cars, bikes, motos (motorbike taxis), and tuk-tuks (my new favourite mode of transportation). We finally make it to our condo building, where our host settled us into our cute little studio apartment...again, on the top floor.
Since it was still early afternoon, we wanted to remain as much on a normal sleep schedule as possible, so we skipped the traditional afternoon post-flight nap and headed out to explore the area. We were in Bangna, an urban Bangkok neighbourhood near the Udom Suk Skytrain station with very few tourists (just how I like it), limited English speakers, and a lively street food strip. Immediately we were assaulted by the sights, sounds and smells of Bangna on a Wednesday night - unlike anything I've ever experienced. I took it all in: whole cooked ducks and chickens strung up like Christmas twinkle lights, stall after stall of locals grilling unidentifiable foods (all the signs and menus were in Thai, so...yeah) and the grill smoke causing uncontrollable coughing fits and watery eyes (that was fun), dogs and cats weaving between the lines of people waiting for motos, locals hawking everything from socks and underwear to knockoff sunglasses (SEA is the land of knockoffs, afterall) and of course a 7-Eleven on literally every corner.
We tried some street meat - what we thought, and was told was chicken...I still try not to think about the possibility that it might not have been - and it wasn't bad, but we did have dinner at a busy local diner later. Our first Thai meal costed about $5 for the two of us. In a place where $1 US yields about 35 THB and food and beer are excessively inexpensive, we happily pretended all of our 1000 THB notes were USD. Ha!
The rest of our Bangkok visit of course included the markets, temples, and salsa at Zaks Wine Pub, where the crowd was half expat, and the three most advanced dancers didn't let me leave the floor once they figured out that I was "the new girl". Of course I had a blast, made some new friends (one from Berlin) and was able to throw down for the first time since the congress. Located on Soi 9, this street was a hub of expat activity with bars and nightclubs lining both sides of the street. We ended up at Marshmallow, a slick bar where we partied with the DJ for awhile before they shut down for the night.
The shopping in Bangkok is insane - there's a huge, modern mall on what seemed like every Skytrain station downtown. Similarly, there are tons of markets and we visited about five of them. While many sold the same items, the most unique one we came across was Chatuchak Market. The sheer number of people in these hot, sticky little markets was truly a sight to see.
On the spur of the moment, we decided to hop on an early morning bus to Pattaya, a touristy seaside beach town two hours to the southeast. Pattaya is a perfect blend of South Beach and Las Vegas ridiculousness: overly muscled American (European?) men with chicken legs, short shorts, and no underwear and visible VPL (Google it), hoards of men and women hawking massages on the front steps of their massage parlour, bars with $1 beers, the obligatory souveneir shop every two feet (all selling the same stuff), and of course, the beach.
The real fun began when we rented a Yamaha Nuovo 150 and decided to take to the street ourselves. The traffic was heavy, but not as bad as Bangkok. We left the main city and took the back streets to the Sanctuary of Truth, an incredible hand-carved wooden structure in Chonburi. We opted for the 50THB tour (about $1.51 USD) since we only had time to walk to the viewing area of the temple before it closed for the day. Standing at 105 metres high, every square inch of the building is covered in intricate carvings. The temple "uses art and culture as the reflection of Ancient Vision of Earth, Ancient Knowledge, and Eastern Philosophy. Within this complex, visitors will understand Ancient Life, Human Responsibility, Basic Thought, Cycle of Living, Life Relationship with the Universe and Common Goal of Life Towards Utopia." (www.sanctuaryoftruth.com)
Back to Pattaya for dinner at the Green Tree (with Thai beers of course) overlooking the beach at sunset. We returned the bike and hopped on the bus back to Bangkok. We arrived back at our apartment thoroughly exhausted and of course happy about the day's adventures!
Next: Chiang Mai & Random Stuff We Noticed About Thailand
We did a quick switcheroo of bags at our storage until near Heathrow Airport in London, swapping out cool weather gear for warm weather gear. We were leaving the mid-sixties for high-eighties and nineties, and it didn't make sense to carry bags of sweaters around SEA. The flight to Bangkok on EVA Air was uneventful (thankfully) and whizzed by at 10 hours (I was asleep for most of it) but we did meet a lovely Taiwanese lady who was on her way home for a visit.
We landed, grabbed our luggage, jumped in a cab, and was immediately assaulted by the worst traffic we had ever seen up till then. Tons and tons and tons of cars, bikes, motos (motorbike taxis), and tuk-tuks (my new favourite mode of transportation). We finally make it to our condo building, where our host settled us into our cute little studio apartment...again, on the top floor.
Since it was still early afternoon, we wanted to remain as much on a normal sleep schedule as possible, so we skipped the traditional afternoon post-flight nap and headed out to explore the area. We were in Bangna, an urban Bangkok neighbourhood near the Udom Suk Skytrain station with very few tourists (just how I like it), limited English speakers, and a lively street food strip. Immediately we were assaulted by the sights, sounds and smells of Bangna on a Wednesday night - unlike anything I've ever experienced. I took it all in: whole cooked ducks and chickens strung up like Christmas twinkle lights, stall after stall of locals grilling unidentifiable foods (all the signs and menus were in Thai, so...yeah) and the grill smoke causing uncontrollable coughing fits and watery eyes (that was fun), dogs and cats weaving between the lines of people waiting for motos, locals hawking everything from socks and underwear to knockoff sunglasses (SEA is the land of knockoffs, afterall) and of course a 7-Eleven on literally every corner.
We tried some street meat - what we thought, and was told was chicken...I still try not to think about the possibility that it might not have been - and it wasn't bad, but we did have dinner at a busy local diner later. Our first Thai meal costed about $5 for the two of us. In a place where $1 US yields about 35 THB and food and beer are excessively inexpensive, we happily pretended all of our 1000 THB notes were USD. Ha!
The rest of our Bangkok visit of course included the markets, temples, and salsa at Zaks Wine Pub, where the crowd was half expat, and the three most advanced dancers didn't let me leave the floor once they figured out that I was "the new girl". Of course I had a blast, made some new friends (one from Berlin) and was able to throw down for the first time since the congress. Located on Soi 9, this street was a hub of expat activity with bars and nightclubs lining both sides of the street. We ended up at Marshmallow, a slick bar where we partied with the DJ for awhile before they shut down for the night.
The shopping in Bangkok is insane - there's a huge, modern mall on what seemed like every Skytrain station downtown. Similarly, there are tons of markets and we visited about five of them. While many sold the same items, the most unique one we came across was Chatuchak Market. The sheer number of people in these hot, sticky little markets was truly a sight to see.
On the spur of the moment, we decided to hop on an early morning bus to Pattaya, a touristy seaside beach town two hours to the southeast. Pattaya is a perfect blend of South Beach and Las Vegas ridiculousness: overly muscled American (European?) men with chicken legs, short shorts, and no underwear and visible VPL (Google it), hoards of men and women hawking massages on the front steps of their massage parlour, bars with $1 beers, the obligatory souveneir shop every two feet (all selling the same stuff), and of course, the beach.
The real fun began when we rented a Yamaha Nuovo 150 and decided to take to the street ourselves. The traffic was heavy, but not as bad as Bangkok. We left the main city and took the back streets to the Sanctuary of Truth, an incredible hand-carved wooden structure in Chonburi. We opted for the 50THB tour (about $1.51 USD) since we only had time to walk to the viewing area of the temple before it closed for the day. Standing at 105 metres high, every square inch of the building is covered in intricate carvings. The temple "uses art and culture as the reflection of Ancient Vision of Earth, Ancient Knowledge, and Eastern Philosophy. Within this complex, visitors will understand Ancient Life, Human Responsibility, Basic Thought, Cycle of Living, Life Relationship with the Universe and Common Goal of Life Towards Utopia." (www.sanctuaryoftruth.com)
Back to Pattaya for dinner at the Green Tree (with Thai beers of course) overlooking the beach at sunset. We returned the bike and hopped on the bus back to Bangkok. We arrived back at our apartment thoroughly exhausted and of course happy about the day's adventures!
Next: Chiang Mai & Random Stuff We Noticed About Thailand
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