One night in Bangkok....

09/06/13 to 12/06/13 Bangkok

….ok so technically it was two, but I am not going to let that get in the way of a good title. Our imminent departure for Bangkok was, for me (Ben) at least filled with trepidation. Firstly there was the infamous (for scams) Poipet border crossing into Thailand and secondly, well, I’d been there before….

Bangkok was the first stop on what is the archetypal gap year round the world trip for me. Originally traveling to Thailand for a climbing stop due to unfortunate circumstances I ended up doing that leg alone too.

So there I was 18 years old and even more naïve than I am now and this was my first trip outside of the UK totally on my own. Arriving into Bangkok after 16hrs sleepless hours in the air was a hot and sweaty slap in the face. If you’ve never been I am not the writer to express the noise, hustle and I do mean hustle, and bustle of Kao sanh road, the dirty, smelly leaching hive of backpackerdom in the city. But suffice to say I had culture shock.

My first night in the city I sat alone and scared in a hotel room and wondered how the fuck am I going to cope with this!? I have never felt as alone or scared since and the next morning I was on a train to beaches in the south.

It was therefore with some trepidation that i prepared for the return. After crossing the border without incident and sitting in a minivan hurdling to the city I realised I felt a sense of calm. It would be different this time. I’d seen worse in the last 5 months alone surely. Fuck it, I’d been to the Soviet heartland!

Hopping through Bangkok’s Mass transit system of skytrain and metro to our out of the way guest house it felt the same as any big city, it was nothing like I had remembered. We were helped to our guest house by a girl living near it upon exiting the metro as we clearly looked lost and we checked into a sublime little city oasis. Street food that night was the cheapest meal we have had yet and it was awesome!

Drunken noodles, massive prawns. Awesome

The next day we hopped on the local bus to Kao Sanh road as Vi was interested to see it and it would provide our best chance of finding a Laos guide in the city. Getting off the bus and strolling through the rambling backpacker dominated district which has spread like mould out of the hub of Kao sanh road I felt a sort of homecoming. There was the little café I bought my first yellow curry, that’s the same hotel, it felt familiar….. it felt…. tame.

Away from the seeder spots and Bangkok can be beautiful

It was like meeting the bully from your school days and realising you have both grown up and left that confined environment and while they peaked in school and ruled the roost, you have embraced the world.

The area of Kao sanh road IS a tourist site for any Bangkok visit and if traveling alone it’s a great place for getting roaring drunk. But it’s also expensive, tacky and as far from authentic Bangkok as you can get. The food is awful compared to elsewhere (we had the worst Pad Thai we have EVER eaten here). I had out grown it. Maybe because I have matured and traveled so much since that first visit, with visits to plenty other crazy places even prior to this trip. Maybe I have become that bold intrepid traveler! Or maybe and perhaps more likely it was just because I had Vi holding my hand….

 Did you think i forgot...

Pick of the day: Cozy Place Guesthouse, Bangkok

Style: Western throne

Atmosphere: Technicolour

Extras: So i forgot to get a shot of this loo, which considering its main highlight is the nicely mosaic'd broken multicoloured tiles covering the walls coupled with a little mood lighting makes this one of the best decorated loos of the trip yet. We will probably be back on the way south. Wait till then!