Our first
impressions were not at all positive. We checked in a very clean and cozy hotel
and then we hit the streets. The most prominent thing in Bangkok is the traffic.
You see cars, motorcycles and Tuk-Tuks everywhere you look. Because of the fact
that traffic lights often don’t work and a pedestrian has fewer rights than a
driver, it is difficult to cross a road most of the time. It took us a couple
of days to work up the nerves to zigzag trough the traffic without taking too
much a risk. Even though the taxi fares are quite cheap (by day, at night the
prices skyrocket) we wanted to have the experience of riding along in a
converted scooter that can transport up to 5 people. In other words: ride a
Tuk-Tuk. There is one thing you need to know before you board one: make sure
you have a life insurance. They drive like crazy, squeeze their vehicles trough
the tiniest of openings and change lanes as often as you normally blink your eyelids.
A cheap rollercoaster ride if you will.
On our
first night we went for a walk. Because we didn’t really have a clue where we
were going, we let our instincts guide us. Turned out they failed us quite
badly. We ended up in a sort of slums under a bridge. Not really the nicest
place you want to be as a western tourist. We
didn’t encounter any particular trouble but we were glad when we spotted our
hotel in the distance.
The
following day we went on an arranged trip to ‘The Undefeatable City’ Ayutthaya.
This used to be the capital of Bangkok until it was…well, defeated. A van came
to pick us up in the wee hours of the morning only to let us wait for an entire
hour for another van. When we finally left we dozed off because it was a 2-hour
ride from Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is actually a collection of several
temples and monuments spread over an entire city. Therefore, we saw the inside
of our van more often than the inside of the temples we were visiting. But at
the end of the day, we were glad we booked this trip because of the many
beautiful structures, temples and statues we were able to see.
After a
trip to the hospital to get my stitches cleaned up, we decided to take a stroll
in the shopping district of Bangkok, Siam Square. Imagine ‘Het Waasland
Shopping Center’. Now add six floors, luxurious boutiques, an entire floor
dedicated to still a man’s hunger, a car vendor, and other outrageous things
and you have Siam Paragon. The most beautiful shopping center I have ever laid
eyes on.
When we
woke the following morning we wanted to take a cab to the National Museum of
Bangkok. But since there wasn’t a single taxi driver who wanted to take us
there (in Bangkok, the cab driver chooses his customers, not vice versa) we
took the subway to Lumphini Park. We thought we’d encounter a nice little park
but it turned out to be a huge one with streets dividing the trees and grass. After
lunch we tried once more to find a friendly cabdriver and luckily, we
succeeded. The National Museum was nowhere as impressive as say ‘The British
Museum’ or ‘The Louvre’ but it held some interesting pieces concerning Thai
history and religion.
In the
evening we put on our fancy clothes, pulled over a cab and asked him to take us
to the State Tower, the second but biggest tower in Bangkok. 64 floors of
luxurious rooms, two restaurants and Sirocco, a bar at the upper level of the
building with a view that would blow your socks off. We had a (rather
expensive) drink and enjoyed the beautiful skyline of Bangkok by night. After
this, we went for a walk in the business quarter of Bangkok, Silom Road. After
a couple of minutes we spotted something strange. It was a bar in the cellar of
an Irish pub. It was called the ‘-5°C’ bar and because we have to miss the cold
days and nights in Belgium, we decided to have drink in there. Even though we
were the only guest there, it was a cool experience to sit on a bench of made
of ice when the outside temperature almost reaches 40 degrees.
The
following morning we went on another arranged trip. This time, we went to see
the floating markets and the Erawan Waterfalls. This was a 4-hour trip so we
got back together with our former friend: the mini-van. When we arrived at the
floating market we were kind of disappointed. Instead of seeing locals trading
their wares in their long tail boats, we saw too many tourists browsing for
souvenirs from their little speedboats. After a very nice lunch, we drove to
the Erawan Waterfalls. These are situated in a National Park and consist of 7
waterfalls. Because time was not on our side, we were only able to reach the
fifth waterfall in which we had a refreshing swim. 5 hours later we were back
in our hotel rooms and slept like logs.