Thailand: Day 1 - Bangkok

Welll!  What can I say about that crazy loooonng flight with two plane transfers?  Other than you want to be in first class if you are going to be on a plane for over 20 hours!  Whaaah!  Economy class is all I could afford.    All I know is that if you can swing it?  I DEFINITELY recommend first class. Enough said.  

So.   My first day in Thailand!  A warm 78 degrees!  I appreciate that, since it was 10 degrees when I left the US.   After making my way through the super busy airport, I adventurously found my way to a taxi and had a local taxi driver take me into town.  Lovely man! He is just the type of friendly taxi driver I imagined I would encounter!  He tried his best to help me with my attempt to speak a few words of hastily-learned Thai.   

Expressway Sign - Bangkok, Thailand

It was a lost cause.  So -  I just stopped TRYING to talk Thai and I started observing. 

Signs like the one to the left are not too intimidating, though.  There is a huge advantage here for United States tourists, in that almost everything I need to know is written in English subcaps.  I don’t have to go very far to see something written in English or hear some American tune on the radio.  I even walked by an apartment today that was playing a DVD of Ms. Congeniality (the Sandra Bullock film from a few years ago.)

I took a solo walking tour this afternoon and got lost on a few back streets in downtown Bangkok. I was overwhelmed by the amount of activity in this incredibly crowded city.  (Think New York City Chinatown on steroids).   Each street is utterly jam packed and crammed to the gills with street vendors; hole-in-the-wall eateries; apartments; car repair shops; shoe shops; food trucks; mopeds; cats and dogs (feral and tame); pigeons and crows; barber shops; and all manner of bustling activity.  Thousands of vendors are all competing for a piece of the monetary pie that tourists and locals pour into the economy.  Many of the businesses in the city of Bangkok are operated out of  storefronts that can’t be much more than 10 feet wide – so there can be 20 or more storefronts on one block: 

Typical Bangkok street- Downtown Bangkok

Downtown Bangkok

Shops and businesses - Bangkok

Street taxi - downtown Bangkok

Typical street business - a woman outside a storefront, selling food

Local printing store (think Staples for your printing needs)

  

The majority of apartments I have seen thus far are what Americans would consider tenement conditions in the US: 

Bangkok apartments - downtown Bangkok

Bangkok apartments - downtown Bangkok

Yet, in the midst of the organized chaos, there are true moments of beauty in the cacophony of sounds, smells and visuals. For example, I walked through an alley that was littered with debris and poorly paved – and at the end of the alley, what do I see but beautiful splashes of color that show God’s handiwork:

Beauty in a concrete world - Bangkok

Goodbye from Bangkok!

Well, that’s it for the day! Tomorrow is a group day with group tours starting.  I am staying at a nice hotel – but it’s very “touristy” and shows only the best side of Bangkok with its amenities and guest services.   There are hostels right next door that look just like the apartment buildings I have seen.  http://www.nouvocityhotel.com.  Nice touch about the Nouvo City Hotel?  Creative towels. I am going to start folding my towels like this, too!