Bangkok!

The great city of Bangkok (BKK) is truly a metropolis. You can see the skyline from miles ahead, and once you enter there is roads everywhere. 2 lanes at the bottom, 3 lanes build above that, with another 2 crossing even higher. In all the small space that they have left, they decided to reach for the space available above us. So hardly any traffic with so many lanes, right? Wrong! It's unbelievable busy. It's not just a traffic jam anymore, it's beyond that. Cars, buses, taxis everywhere you can look, as far as the eye can see. Not moving to the right, not going to the left, standing still in space for an easy 5 minutes, driving 10 meters and waiting again. It can take an astonishing one full hour, to travel 1 km by public bus or taxi or private car for that matter, because nobody is going anywhere. If you need to go somewhere, you better take the skytrain or a boat, which are not affected by traffic jams.

Enter Kow San Road. A lane filled with tourists from everywhere. People sell bracelets, watches, t-shirts, cds and obviously pad Thai (noodle), freshly fried in front of you eyes and very yummy. The party scene goes on until the early hours of the day, so it's not a wise idea to sleep on this very road. I took a left turn and entered a dark alley. Cheap and just 50 m from the main street in BKK, what more do you want?

Well cleanness and politeness for example. In that first place there was neither of those, rats on the floor, no working shower head, nor toilet, it might be a bargain (100 baht = 2,50 euro) and close to the main attraction, this was maybe a but to much. I enjoyed it a bit, hey as a real backpacker you can sleep everywhere, but the hostess turned out to be very rude. A friend of mine was visiting me, walked into the dormitory and we talked for a bit. 2 minutes later the hostess ran in, screaming some very pejorative words to my friend, while hitting him with a broom. That was it! If a friend can't even visit me, and your only words are 'pay me now!', it's enough reason for me to move on. Luckily we found a place 3 blocks further for a 110 baht (2,75), clean and super quiet. And indeed very nice Thai people.

How nice are the Thai? My new theory on this matter is as follows: Very nice divided by the amount of awerness of tourists. So: A local person who has a job involving no tourists: very nice. You get a nice small talk, they are genuinely interested and give you some hints of where to go and what to see. The hostess of you hostel, the lady that sells local food for too much money to tourists on Koa San road, the tuk tuk driver that tries to bring you to a ping pong show not so nice! They can even be very rude, even with the little English they speak.

Bangkok is a great city. I ended up there for 3 weeks, getting a bit lazy, but living life cheaply. I watched 4 movies in the theater, went shopping in the mall (for a shirt...) and of course sight seeing. The great grand palace used by the old king of Thailand (not the current one), famous reclining Buddha and some more temples. It has a lot to offer, much more then you can see in the short 2 days most tourists stay, and definitely more then you can see just in Koa San road.

Well as you write down, we can say now it isn't the country of the everlasting smile anymore?? People change! The whole world changes! Logically!

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