Bangkok - Century Park Hotel

2004/5/3 - 16:30

We’re now in Bangkok, a few thousand kilometres away from Berlin. Our flight was ok. We were lucky with the Lufthansa flight attendants. The plane was surprisingly empty and we were able to sleep fairly well for a 9 hour flight. It’s my and Maria’s first time in Asia and one of my colleagues said Thailand is a pretty good starting point for Asia explorations.

We were cordially received by a German-speaking Thai who brought us to our hotel. Once outside the airport, we were - as expected - hit by a wall of hot and humid air. Right now, it should be around 30°C, fairly cold according to the guide, due to the rain preceding our arrival.

I wasn’t aware that people drive on the left-hand side here. Should be an interesting time of road-kill-paranoid street crossing (England almost got me killed a few times).

Our hotel is huge and comfortable for only three stars and although, as a Lufthansa employee, I cannot tell you what we paid, it’s a mind-boggling deal.

We’ll be here for two nights and after that, only Buddha knows where we’ll go next.

Bangkok - The Streets

2004/5/3 - 19:22

Tonight, we went on the traditional let’s-check-out-the-vicinity tour. As expected, the one street we walked along for two hours was loud due to the heavy traffic. We walked along the sidewalk which was full of hundreds of little stores, food stands, and street vendors. Things that are essential to the atmosphere but can hardly be captured on any digital or analogue media: the humidity, the heat, and the smells. One thing which amazes me again and again during my travels is the amount of food which is sold in the streets. In Bangkok, it’s all kinds of baked, fried, or grilled snacks, or fruit. Fruit that you’ve never seen before. All this food is the source of the smells of Bangkok and I find it much less annoying than smells in some other cities in the world.

Not really part of the Thais’ every day life, like ghosts, we roamed the street and finally found some kind of food court where we sampled the original Thai cuisine. For about $1.50, we had an amazingly good meal with drinks. That was a good start. Tomorrow, we’re off to a Bangkok excursion.

Bangkok - Sightseeing

2004/5/4 - 16:04

Today, we went on our one and only pre-organized excursion. Our tour guide took us on a boat ride across Bangkok’s canals and to the King’s Palace. Having seen what we have so far, the city reminds me a little of Athens: a very beautiful (but overrun) historical site and a traffic-laden hot city - except that the Thai people are a little nicer to foreigners. We spent some time in a mall and then headed back to the hotel. We need to find out what to do tonight and where to go tomorrow.

Bangkok - Red Light District

2004/5/5 - 11:25

Unfortunately, our Lonely Planet is too old so we weren’t able to find the restaurants we were looking for last night. We ended up walking around a slightly more touristy area than the one we live in.

There had already been some weird-looking people on the airplane. The kind where you wonder what in the world were they going to Thailand for. It seems that we found their final destination in a street we accidentally hit last night. Heavy pink, red, and blue neon lighting promised a splendid time to every male travelling without a female. Thai prostitutes weren’t just waiting on the side. No. Whenever a man came walking along, they would grab him, trying to pull him into some parlour. It’s the first time I’ve seen such aggressive marketing. And although I expected it (I heard many stories), what was worse was the fact that most of these girls looked no older than 16 (I have to admit, however, that it’s hard for me to guess an Asian’s age). Worst of all: many men were successfully pursued.