Bangkok for me was always that point of my travels where everything should change - meaning the transition point from the holiday touristy southern Thailand to the more authentic North or Cambodia (as until 2 days before leaving Bangkok we still were not decided which way to go). Our laziness to deal with the visa stuff at the moment decided that our next steps after Bangkok will lead to the North of Thailand and then Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia... But let's get back to Bangkok. We've spent 5 days there and I must say that I was pretty impressed by observing the life in this big chaotic city. Bangkok is a city of multiple faces and totally disorganized (which ironically makes it very interesting) - beautiful temples right next to ruined houses with sky-scrapers in the backyard is a pretty usual sight here...
Bangkok skyline from Loha Prasat - one of many buddhist temples that we visited
In the same temple few guys were shooting video of the temple using drones. This guy does have a dream-job...
Wat Po temple
Huge reclining Buddha statue in Wat Po
Picture of thai king in front of Wat Traimit temple - despite the continuous fights about government of the country, one thing stays unchanged and steady - the position of the King.. thai are obsessed with their royal family (insulting royal family can get you in jail here).
To finish the temple section - Wat Arun temple from the boat
And Wat Arun close-up. The staircase was pretty steep.
Temples are the places that get a lot of attention and care and are kept nice and tidy for the tourists... But that's not Bangkok. The real Bangkok is chaotic, dirty, full of people cockroaches and rats... On the picture is one of the streets in downtown Bangkok during the day.
Downtown Bangkok from the ferry on Chaophraya river (honestly, it is more dump than a river)
Shopping time in Chinatown - I couldn't identify 90% of the items that they were selling here
Siam square - the centre of the 21st century shopping. I loved the massive concrete construction for the sky-train railway.
Khao San Road - the biggest tourist market place where all the tuk-tuk drivers and salesmen gather to get their part of the tourists' money.. Especially the tuk-tuk drivers are literally like vultures once they see a foreigner. They can be very annoying.
To sum up my stay in Bangkok: I'm glad I've experienced it and unlike Singapore it was very interesting to see the actual life and atmosphere of the city. But after few days I'm happy that I'm going out of the city again with a very positive impression - not hating Bangkok ;)
As I wrote at the beginning of the post, our next destination after Bangkok is North of Thailand. I'm writing this short before getting off from the 15 hour bouncy ride on night-train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I'm very excited about this part of the trip. Let's see what it brings...
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