Out of all the places I plan to travel, I was most apprehensive about arriving in Bangkok. My flight arrived after dark and I had little understanding about how to navigate the city. I also made the mistake of reading articles about the place on the web that warned of scammers, pickpockets, and kidnappers galore (love the internet). However, after I found the airport link train, I began to relax. At least for a moment. Once I got off the train I was worried about getting a cab but quickly found that to be an easy process and was soon winding my way through Bangkok to my hostel. The one issue I did not anticipate was being unable to locate my hostel. The dropped me off in an alley with google maps saying I was a couple hundred feet from the place, but I saw no sign of it. At this point I was a bit concerned as I was alone, in a pretty dark and remote area with no other people around. I quickly headed off in the direction google told me to go. After getting turned around a couple times and feeling the nervous levels ratchet up a couple notches, I saw the sign for LUK Hostel and with relief walked in.
My friend Wes met me in the lobby and we decided that after I got settled in we would get some food. He led me back into the corridors I had previously been lost in and deftly found his way to a main road, and then 20 minutes later to a famous Thai restaurant. What we thought was our objective restaurant supposedly had a Michelin star and had been featured in a Netflix documentary. However, we soon found these attributes to describe two neighboring restaurants. The one from Netflix was booked until the end of February and so we didn’t go there. The Michelin one, however, offered take out and so for four bucks I got some of the worlds best Pad Thai (supposedly) which I enjoyed back at the hostel.
Something surprised me during that walk to dinner. I had no more anxiety or worry about the city at night. In fact, I felt very comfortable walking around despite my previous stress levels. I even went out alone later around midnight to get a bottle of water at a nearby 7-eleven with practically no concerns.
The morning after my arrival, Wes and I roamed the streets of Chinatown in search of good pictures and, after the heat hit, some Thai iced tea. My other friend Rachel flew in that afternoon, so we soon retired from our walk to wait for her. Once we had guided her through the alleys to LUK and she had settled in (as much as possible considering the living situation) we headed out again in search of temples. Wes’ friend from his time in Europe, Jonas, joined us as we wandered through Bangkok toward one of the more famous temples.
Now I must preface the following with the admittance that I am not a fan of cities in the slightest. Portland is big enough for me and Seattle is pushing it in my opinion. For comparative purposes, Seattle has about 750k people in 217km^2. Bangkok has 8.3 million crammed into 1,500km^2. Population densities are 7,000 and 13,700 people per square mile respectively. Bangkok also has vastly fewer trees; a personal measure of the quality of a city.
So when I say that my time in Bangkok felt pointless and dreary, you know where I am coming from. Not to say I didn’t appreciate the experience, I wouldn’t do it differently if given the option, but I just can’t quite say it was truly enjoyable. It was, in fact, quite boring. Hot, smelly, and chaotic are not really adjectives that define my dream destination, nevertheless, they truly embody the spirit of Bangkok. At least the food was pretty cheap relative to the U.S. The temples all begin to look the same after a while, and none of the impressive ones feel like sacred places of Buddhism. They actually just have the vibe of a good old tourist trap. My tip for Thailand is once you’ve seen one temple and one palace you should forego the rest for they are all too similar.
