Impressions of Bangkok

     One word can sum up my impression of Bangkok: prostitutes.  I need to do more research, but maybe it was just the area we stayed in, but there were prostitutes everywhere! And very open about doing their business with the creepy old white men who approached them.
     I'm kidding, of course.  There is a lot more to Bangkok than prostitutes.  Bangkok is a huge metropolis, and we didn't really get the chance to explore that much of it.  Bangkok was primarily a transit point for us as we traveled from place to place - we flew into and out of one of its airports, and we took trains and buses into and out of the city.  All of this moving around made us very appreciative of Bangkok's variety of public transportation options.  Bangkok has both a subway and a sky train, and we found both easy to use as we moved around the city.  It definitely has some work to do as far as connecting those to some major transit points - for example, those systems only go to one of the two airports in Bangkok, and its a 15 minute walk from a subway stop to the Northern bus terminal (not pleasant when you are carrying all of your belongings and a drunk Thai man lurches at you yelling farang farang).  However, Bangkok does have plans to eventually connect all of these things with public transportation, which is more than can be said for most American cities!  We were also pleasantly surprised by how cheap taxis  can be - you just have to make sure they use the meter.  We had one guy quote us 500 baht for a short drive to the airport.  Although we bargained him down to 200 baht, we later realized that if we'd had him use the meter it probably would have been even cheaper.  You live and you learn.

Amazing views from a stop for the Bangkok Sky Train

   

          Bangkok is also a very western city - it definitely felt more like America than anywhere else we have been in Thailand.  Things that we had almost forgotten existed - cheese, chicken wings, french fries, sandwiches, basically any type of fast food - were plentiful throughout Bangkok.  For the two of us, who have been living in a place where the ONLY option is Thai food, we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves when we were surrounded by all these options.  While in Bangkok, we ate Pizza Hut, Subway twice, McDonalds breakfast, and some delicious chicken wings at a sports bar owned by a friendly Australian.  We went to see the movie, Looper, and enjoyed delicious kettle corn while watching.  We also watched American football, twice!!! Including once live at the aforementioned sports bar, where the owner turned off the music, handed us the remote, and told us we were in control (it helped that it was 9 in the morning).  To people in America who are reading this, it might sound like I am exaggerating how exciting each of these things are - but to us, each of these experiences was simply glorious!
      We stayed in a part of Bangkok called Sukhumvit, which is basically one extremely long road with a lot of sois (smaller roads) off of it.  We stayed at a place called Suk 11 Hostel, and although it was clean and has a cool treehouse vibe, we probably won't stay there again, mostly because they charge for internet, which is completely ridiculous in this day and age!  At night, the part of Sukhumvit Road near where we were staying transformed into a market, with stalls selling everything that we are used to seeing in night markets here - knicknacks, knock off bags and wallets, art, and so on.  This is Bangkok, though, so of course there were also stands advertising valium and viagra, and selling explicit movies and other sexual goods.

Suk 11 Guesthouse: Awesome treehouse theme, but no free wifi = FAIL

      Bangkok is also known for its numerous extravagant malls, and we discovered one right down the street from our hostel called Terminal 21.  The definite high point of this mall was its food court - a range of delicious noodle and rice dishes, as well as a variety of soups, were all for sale, and all of it was cheap!  After paying ridiculous prices during our travels, it was nice to go back to paying Chiang Saen prices of about 30 baht a dish.  The mall had eight different floors, each with a different city as its theme - Paris, Rome, Istanbul, San Francisco, and so on.  The mall also had free wifi, so while Jon took advantage of this on his iphone, I took advantage of an opportunity to get my hair cut - finally!  In Chiang Saen, there is NO female hair stylist at all, so I knew I needed to get this done while we were on vacation.  This also worked out amazingly well, as I found a salon that provided great service, and it was very nice to be pampered. After my hair cut, Jon and I entertained ourselves wandering the mall taking goofy pictures at each of the different floors:

       Although we had a great time living it up with all of the modern conveniences in Bangkok, our time in Bangkok also made us extremely grateful for our life in Chiang Saen.  We couldn't help but laugh at our naive selves in America, planning on arriving in Bangkok and seeking out a job on foot - we are SO glad that it didn't come to that! Of course, we would have made it work and found a job, but our lives would have been much harder, and our first couple weeks in Thailand would have been way more stressful.  Plus, being in a city surrounded by foreign food and foreign people, in a place where you hear English almost more than you hear Thai -- that experience would not be nearly as authentic as the one we receive in Chiang Saen.