I’ve landed in Bangkok!

So, I’m currently in Bangkok, on my way soon to the airport to leave for Phuket and my new home, Khao Lak.

I’ve had a few days here in Thailand and Bangkok and I really like the city, sure it’s big, noisy, polluted, but it still has its charm and people are so friendly, always meeting you with large smiles (sure, some are trying to sell you something overpriced, but can u blame them).

So how did I get here, I caught a Ryanair flight from Sweden (Västerås) to London Stansted Airport, transferred via bus to Heathrow (90min on a bus which had an awful smell coming from the toilets in the rear, causing me to have the fan on full, which got quite cold in the end). At Heathrow Airport, after a seven hour wait, boarded my airplane and was seated next to an Englishman moving to Bangkok. On the flight we struck up a conversation, comparing notes and sharing a bottle of Baileys that he had brought with him.

After around seven hours in the air, we landed in Abu Dhabi, in the middle of the desert and I did get the feel that I was in a movie setting of a Star Wars movie. I spent about 90 minutes at this layover and whilst it was a small airport, it was quaint and the time passed quickly. Just before boarding my next flight, my final flight to Bangkok, I was informed that there were some problems with my boarding pass and that it needed to be changed. After receiving a new one, I boarded the plane and all of a sudden I had two seats to myself, very nice!

Six hours later I landed in Bangkok, collected my bag, walked through immigration and customs with nil issues and was picked up by Mr Man, a friend of Anders who volunteered to pick me up and gave me a ride to my hotel in Sukhumvit. After checking in and dropping the bags off, Mr Man and I then went out for a few cold beers and my first meal in Thailand, which was delicious by the way.

The following day, I did some of my own sightseeing and was quickly talked into doing a tour for only 50 baht. I thought it was too good to be true, and yes it was. Basically they drive you for next to nothing, as long as you’re willing to tag along to some of the stores they want to take you to. I was first taken to a suit shop which after some looking I kindly declined and left. Next, I was shown a jewellery store where there were two security guards at the entrance, both holding machine guns. I was taken inside but was never going to buy anything so I pretended to look around for 5 or so minutes before I left again. 

After finishing my tour, I took myself off to MBK shopping centre, where I unlocked my phone and got myself a local Thai phone number through Orange. Following this, I made my way over to Khao San Road, where backpackers normally end up and yes, most people you see on the street are clearly westerners, not locals. I had some local Thai food here, including my first green curry which was quite spicy. I later also did some shopping and bought myself a large 80L+16L backpack, which had the words “North Face” imprinted on the front, however as I only spent about 1300 baht for it (which also included a t-shirt), I don’t quite believe this to be an authentic bag. Whilst there I was also talked into getting a suit, the plan was always to get one before Australia, maybe not this soon, but I got the whole kit, jacked, pants, shirt and tie all in all for 3000 baht.

The next morning, Mr Man showed up early to collect me at 6.30 and took me to a local temple where I got to experience a traditional Buddhist ceremony where I was the only foreigner. There were players and we all donated food to the monks, quite an experience.

Afterwards, one of Mr Man’s employees was assigned to take me sightseeing. And I had a great time doing this. Travelling with a local makes a big difference as you never get overcharged and they know what sites are good to visit. We first went to the Grand Palace, which is one of Bangkok’s number one attractions (and normally filled with people trying to scam tourists). I avoided all of this and the temple was beautiful to see.

Later on we made our way to Chinatown which was very busy, had small streets with vehicle and pedestrian traffic everywhere. I thought that the traffic in other parts of Bangkok was bad, however that could be described as organised chaos, this was chaos on another level..

I finished the night with Mr Man, Peter (another one of Anders’ friends) and many other employees of Mr Man. We had some beers and other drinks and then the whiskey came out and we had a long night of fun.

The next morning, feeling a slight hangover, I flagged a taxi to travel to the airport for my flight to Phuket. After negotiation, I managed to agree to a fee of 370 baht, still overpriced as with the taximeter, a ride shouldn’t cost more than 150-200 baht. I ended up sharing the taxi with a Vietnamese man who also needed to travel to the airport, which meant we shared the fee. We got chatting and it turns out he’s a doctor who just came back from France and was picking up his wife who was flying in from Ho Chi Minh City. Anyway, in the end we exchanged emails and he offered to show me around in Vietnam if I ever made my way there. I love meeting new people as you never know what’s going to come out of it. 

I really enjoyed my first visit to Bangkok and Thailand and can’t wait to see what else this country has to offer.