I’ve been spending a few days wandering the back streets and neighborhoods of Bangkok. There are lots of Buddhist temples and some monks about. They also have a Chinatown and Little India, like many southeastern Asian cities. The people are very nice and hardly anybody hassles you about anything.
One of the nicest features of this place is the fabulous food. There seem to be endless places to eat with all kinds of food from around the world, but mostly Thai (of course). I love Thai food and have been having a wonderful time sampling many of the streetside stalls. As per the advice I’ve received, I make sure the food is kept cold and then cooked up fresh in front of my eyes. They seem to know exactly what ingredients to add to make everything taste special. The streetside cooks usually don’t know too much English, so you just have to point at what you want. I usually point at just about everything and shrug my shoulders. They’ll through in all kinds of exotic spices and fresh herbs and come up with something great. Even when I ordered popcorn from a streetside vendor it was flavored with a sweet coconut milk concoction. You can often get very cheap fabulously tasting meals for around A$1 (US$0.75). And to think most Thais don’t seem to have an ounce of fat on them! I guess it just must be healthy eating.
I found a great guesthouse on a back street in a nice quiet area in the center of town, but next to some of the big shopping areas. Bangkok seems a bit more modern than I expected. Probably a mix of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, the public transportation system is a bit of a mess. They have a nice skytrain (monorail) that doesn’t seem to go enough places, a brand new subway that has just been shut down due to an accident, boats that cruise up and down the main river, and lots of heavy traffic everywhere else.
I’ve booked a trip on the overnight train to Chiang Mai tomorrow night to see some of the sights in the northern part of the country. From there I will probably slowly work my way back down to Bangkok, and possibly into southern Thailand (if the post tsunami problems improve) or east into Cambodia and/or Vietnam. I will have to see. I’ll be here for close to four weeks.
