Bangkok, a city of contrasts:                                                          Back
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                                                                                                Visit Thailand
   I cleared Thai customs & walked out into a rainy night in Bangkok. After a fairly long cab ride I ended up in a nice hotel (The World Inn,) just off Sukhumwit Rd. in the downtown area., exhausted from a long flight from N. Y. City I went to my room and crashed.
   By morning the rain had stopped but it was already hot and all that rain was now steam, I mean, it was humid! It didn't take long, (I had just finished breakfast and was heading back to the hotel.) till a tuck tuck driver pulled up next to me. "You perhaps, need a ride." I was only two blocks from the hotel so I told him I didn't but I may be in need of one later and he could ask for me at the  World Inn . I ended up using him during my entire stay in Bangkok. If you've never been in a tuck tuck with a madman driving you've probably never been to Bangkok. At first I thought it was him but they all seem to drive the same.
 

     "You perhaps need a ride?"

 

 The view from my room in the World Inn. Note the row of shanties just above the trucks. They are actually shops that line the streets. I said Bangkok was a city of contrasts.
   As in Indonesia the Thais seem to be selling everything, the one difference being that you don't have to fight off the hawkers. They're there but they are nowhere near as persistent. 
   After checking out the local area I found John, his Americanized name, and spent the afternoon acclimating myself to his driving. It's a good thing I didn't have any heart problems at the time.
   That night I wrote to the gang at work. "Well I'm in Bangkok. It's hot, it's dirty, it's humid, it stinks & I love it.  Bangkok is also a city of fragrances: The smell of  auto emissions, a flower shop, the hawkers food, then you pass a fish market.
   Thailand is called the land of smiles and it didn't take me long to find out why. If I passed ten people that day who didn't smile & say hello, or at least nod, I passed a lot. I heard somewhere that a girl suggested they pass a law where you could be fined if you didn't smile at someone you passed. I hope she was kidding!
   So I smiled hello to people we passed, even the cab driver that cut us off and we drove to the Bangkok Doll Factory  where I talked to the owner, over tea, about prices, shipping and how she got started in the business, Afterwards it was off to buy some silk, which Thailand is famous for.
   The following morning, after making my air reservations to Bali, John took me to see some of the Buddhist shrines that are scattered everywhere in Bangkok. The one I was most impressed with was Wat Traimit which holds the Golden Buddha. The Buddha was discovered by accident some 35 years ago when a crack appeared in the stucco in which it was hidden, as it was being moved by a crane. It appears it was hidden from an invading Burmese army. It remained in it's stucco covering & was considered just another Buddha statue for two centuries. This statue is the largest solid gold statue in the world: Standing ten feet high and weighing 5 1/2 tons, it's value in gold if melted down would be an estimated fourteen million, but it wasn't it's value that impressed me, it was the fact that this gorgeous statue was cast around 1000 A.D.. Although all the Buddha statues I saw were fantastic works of art. This one compared to the works of the Egyptians or the Romans in Grandeur.  
   The monsoons started that night and by the next day it was impossible to get to the Bangkok Zoo, The Palace, or the floating market so I just hung around the World Inn till my flight the next day. Off to Bali, but I'll be back and I still want to see the beaches of Phuket to the south and Chiang Mai & the golden triangle in the north.
   Eating alone in the Bangkok International Airport, hearing only Thai. I was thrilled when I heard the voice of an Australian say "A mate, you speak English ?" I turned as he continued. "Mind if I join you, I've got an hour before I board & I don't speak Thai."
   He was dressed in a sarong, "T" Shirt and sandals. We got to talking and it seemed he had spent the past two years exploring Indonesia and was on his way to Nepal From there he planned to do the Serengeti Plains & Mt. Kilimangero after which he was going to see friends in Europe. He told me he had no idea when or where he was going to end this sojourn. We finished eating & headed for our planes. Somewhere between Bangkok and home I lost the address where he said I could contact him.
                                                See some photo's I took while in Bangkok Here