This started off as a harmless list of differences that struck us during our time in Bangkok, but has gradually turned into a minor rant about the place, so sorry about that! Bangkok can actually be a beautiful city if you find the right places to go, but if it is the first place you visit, after having never been out of Europe before, it can be a bit of a shock!
1. If you ever look down whilst walking down the road, you will see the enormous cockroaches that wander the gutters.
2. Before we came we were told that the rush hour in Bangkok was between the hours of 4 - 7pm. This is actually a gross misconception. THIS CITY NEVER SLEEPS!! Wherever you go, you can pretty much guarantee to get caught in traffic.
3. There are thousands of street vendors EVERYWHERE! Its a bit strange to start with, but is actually rather nice to walk down the road and have all sorts of different smells wafting up your nose (some better than others!).
4. I don't think we will ever get used to the bathrooms, where you can literally have a shower whilst sitting on the toilet.
5. There is never any toilet roll in any of the toilets in Bangkok. It makes you wonder what they do wipe with......
6. In many places you must take your shoes off before entering a person's house/guest house. It is a rather strange sight to see all these shoes piled up all the time outside. But you do get used to it, and it is actually quite refreshing walking barefoot on the cold wooden or tiled flooring.
7. When entering Bankok city, probably the first thing you notice is all the motorbikes and scooters. They are everywhere and they all drive like maniacs! A little unnerving when you see a family of four, straddling the same bike, sandwiching the kids between the two adults. Or a guy driving with his girlfriend riding side-saddle on the back. Oh, and none of these people are wearing helmets.
8. We have noticed about the Thais that there are no problems with obesity here. In fact they are considerably smaller than the average westerner, as I found out when I decided to try on some shorts in a shop in Siam Square. I picked up what I thought would be my size (it had a 28" sticker on the pocket) only to find that my relatively average 28" waist/size 10, in England, was actually classed as an EXTRA LARGE on the label of these shorts! A little shocked, but unperturbed, I purchased them anyway (even though they were a little snug, I wasn't about to ask for the next size up!), so if no one believes me I have the proof in my rucksack.
9. A slight shock to the system occurred when we decided to do as the Thais do, and use the metro system to get about town, only to have our bags searched on our way in by army soldiers with maHUsive machine guns casually slung over their shoulders!
10. Other forms of transport to use include the infamous Tuk-Tuks. The drivers of these strange contraptions have no fear whatsoever whilst driving down the busy streets, which always makes for an interesting ride. They also have the idea that if you make any sort of eye-contact with them, then you must want a ride somewhere, and the following one-way conversation usually occurs "You wan tuk-tuk?" "Where you going?" "I take you...50 baht".
11. If you are really lucky you can also get cornered by a whole Tuk tuk gang! This is where one person will start talking to you and just generally being friendly. Then another will come along and they will proceed to tell you that the place you are planning to visit (in our case the Grand Palace) is closed today and that you should visit some other temples in the area. This is a blatent lie. Then they will suggest you get there by tuk-tuk, only 10 Baht per person, and as if by strange coincidence one pulls up right behind you, and they try to usher you in. Once inside we are assuming they actually take you in the complete opposite direction to some empty jewellery store and generally get you to part with as much money as possible. Luckily we wised up to this just in time, and never found out!
12. Getting in a taxi is almost as much fun, when in our case we had to tell the driver where he was on the map of his own city, and proceed to direct him to our destination! You don't realise how good English taxi drivers are until you have an experience like this!
And finally, one more culture shock that was recently added upon our arrival and first night out in Hua Hin:
13. We went out with the idea to find a realtively civilised looking bar, as during the day we thought we had seen quite a few. However we did not consider the fact that after about 7pm all of these decent looking bars become filled with young Thai girls, all dressed (or un-dressed) up, looking for their future rich European husbands. I think the motto is "the older the better" or maybe "the older the richer"! Either way, not wanting to feel too queasy after our lovely seafood meal, we sheltered in (and I'm quite ashamed of this) Crawford's Irish Bar, had a few pints and watched the Chelsea vs. Nottingham Forest game. There's no place like home!
More random lists to come, when I can think of any. We are actually still having a fantastic time despite the rants! It just makes everything a bit more interesting.
Hope you are all well and having fun in the cold - sorry, had to have a quick stab!
Lots of Love
Laura x x x
(my first blog - I hope you are all proud!)
33 °C
