Rush Hour In Bangkok

After 109 days of travel for us there was a reunion with Bangkok. Here we put on the path of Cambodia in the south of Thailand for a few days for an overnight stay.
Crossing the border from Cambodia to Thailand was quick and easy. From Koh Kong, we drove 10km to the border. There we got the exit stamp. Then walk it went over the border to Hat Yai in Thailand and we got our entry stamp.

To be back in Thailand was for us all at once like a different world. Thailand and Cambodia are enormously different from the development. In Thailand, we expected good roads, many cars, Supermarkets and cheap food.

The minibus we went to Trat. There we had to change and after 5 hours we finally arrived in Bangkok on. It was a bit like coming home, since we were already at the beginning of our trip for a few days. The bus driver let us out somewhere in Bangkok. Unfortunately we did not want a taxi driver to bring our accommodation. Probably was too much traffic and our goal was too far away. So we went the first time with the Skytrain, Bangkoks S-Bahn.
The “Baan Tepa Boutique Guesthouse” for the next 5 nights was our home and we were for the first few days the only guests. The house was built by Theo, the owner, designed with great attention to detail and we felt very comfortable here. A small quiet “Oasis” in der Metropole Bangkok.
In the evening we randomly ran an old friend on the way: With Greg we had in Sukkothai a bike ride through the rice fields made. How small the world is…
We went to a small food stall in the quarter Banglampoo to eat. Yet we knew from our first stay Bangkok. Then we made a short detour to Khaosan Road. There was not as much going on as late as January. Man merkt, that has started the season in Thailand.

The next few days we spent with excursions through our district Thewet and we strolled in the Siam Center shopping district by some. Bangkok is truly a shopper's paradise. The prices in the modern, huge shopping complexes are partially still higher than in Germany.
In addition, we also had to organize a few things: Send our broken camera, new suns- Buy and mosquito repellent, Hairdresser, Dentist …

In between, there was a reunion with Helen and Elena, we from the Koh Thmei Resort knew. But for them it was the next day back to Germany.

On 11. May it was back then for us to say goodbye to Bangkok. We had to get up as early as 4 clock in the morning and by 5:Be 30 clock on the ferry company travel agency near the Khao San Road. From there it went on for us on the island of Koh Tao. But our taxi driver did not know unfortunately the way to the travel agency and so we had to walk a bit of a walk through Bangkok's most famous street. On the way through the Khao San Road, came to meet us some drunken tourists, played in the bars still music and the staff sat outside and waited until probably the last guests finally go. Still left at the massage roadside stands guard at heart some, where you looked at the traces of last night, massage her tired feet. Taxi- and tuk tuk driver also offered their services again. The small stalls and shops along the street were closed, Garbage was piled up on the roadside. And in between ran sporadically monks in their saffron robes around their alms or. Collect food for the day…
In their morning alms round, the monks walk quietly through the streets and accept all, fill what the people in the alms bowls. The ritual of gathering and giving of alms is also, that the monks do not thank you for the gifts, but, conversely, the givers are grateful. You can do so a good work and thus improve their karma.

Bangkok is truly a city with many different faces and contradictions:

  • According to (because of the many traffic and the many people) but also quietly (vor allem in the Wats, where the monks live and pray)
  • wealthy (as the magnificent Royal Palace or the banks- and Silom business district) and poor (There are many beggars or people, earn very little)
  • hotly & stuffy (high temperatures, Smog) and freezing cold (because of the air conditioning everywhere)
  • beautiful (The spruced-up sights) and ugly at the same time (dilapidated houses, stinking Kanale, Garbage on the roadside)
  • modern (huge shopping center, Skytrain) and traditional (small food stalls along the streets with typical Thai dishes)

After our first visit nearly 4 months ago, we were happy, heat, to escape the smog and the many people again. Now, but after we had become accustomed to the temperatures and the lifestyle and also other pages Bangkok's endeckten, We have the city a bit fond.