Bangkok

There are 3 types of tourists that come to Thailand.

Those that come for the sex industry, those who come for the fantastic beach resorts in the southern islands, and last, the backpackers that come to see Bangkok (and other cities like Chiang Mai) hoping to experience South East Asia culture on a budget.

Unfortunately for you, we belong to the last group so don’t expect to see pictures of beaches to die for, or Thai women performing on stage some weird pig pong balls tricks (for those interested... email me), but you can admire photos from many (too many) temples, streets and scenic rivers.

We divided our time here in three segments. The old city of Bangkok and the typical (poor) local life, then the floating markets of the neighbourhood regions outside the city, and finally the new and modern Bangkok (for the few and privileged).

The old and historical city is dirty, poor, polluted and extremely busy, but is also the religious centre with hundreds of temples and sacred places.

We stayed in a cheap hotel (here hotels can be as cheap as hostels and guest houses) in the Chinatown area and used the equally inexpensive taxis to get around the too-far-to-walk places.

Although cheap, taxis will be the first and the last thing that will rip you off in Thailand, even if you thought you got a good deal.

When you get into a taxi, you are offered a fixed price instead of a meter that is usually from 40% to 300% more than the actual price.

If you do not accept the offer and insist on a meter, then you better know the way because you are up for an unnecessary round trip of Bangkok’s busiest roads.

A full day was enough to visit all the important attractions such as the palace, the reclining Buda, most major temples, the royal mansion and many street markets.

At this point I would like to apologise for a statement on a previous message. It was pretty lame of me to assume that a little island like Bali, just because they sell fake products, they are capable of producing them as well. They are ALL made here in Thailand.

Any CD/DVD you want, any branded product, anything that is illegal back home, is sold here on the streets. And when I say everything I mean EVERYTHING !!!

The next day we visited the biggest open market in the world. Here the street market goes “pro” with thousands of alleys and millions of kiosks that sell everything from handicrafts, accessories, home decorations and of course many other things that I did not recognise or understand. The also sell pets in any shape and form (cooked, dried, stuffed or alive) for pets or otherwise...

Major courier companies have kiosks here as well ready to pick up anything tourists buy and ship them directly to their home country. No need to carry anything.

The funny thing is that similar items are sold in Habitat in London for 50 times more as “exotic” items, so the next step (and a business opportunity for those who want to come to live in Thailand) would be an online version of this street market that delivers home.

In the evening we got the bus to Taling Chan, a small town 130km southwest of Bangkok that is famous for its floating river markets.

Usually hundreds of tourists arrive in the morning every day by coach tour operators from Bangkok and the market becomes an overcrowded major tourist trap, so we travelled the day before in order to see the market very early in the morning when it is still quiet.

For the final segment we travelled back to the city and booked in a guest house in the business district (the posh part of Bangkok). Here the scene is different with huge shopping centres for the rich locals and tourists. With all the typical western brands and food chains everywhere but everything costs the average local monthly salary so it is only for the super-rich and tourists. Things here are expensive for us as well, but we should get used to this as we are moving on to Japan next.

There, we expect all the communication problems of an Asian country plus you cannot afford to make a mistake when you order food as everything is expensive and you have to eat it since you paid for it and there are no kebab shops in the next corner.