Woken up at 5am by the food vendors’ cries, we’re just in time to watch the sun rise over Bangkok from the train windows as we pull into the city. My first impression is the scale - it takes us forty minutes and a couple of stations to get to our stop - and we’re not even the terminus. On the way, we can see the same massive roadworks that struck us in Kuala Lumpur: elevated motorways halfway through being built, for the moment just a forest of giant concrete pillars topped with jagged metal rods. It certainly seem to be a hallmark of Asian metropolis that there is always major construction works going on all over: be it Singapore, Kuala Lumpur of Bangkok we get the sense that there is always at least a handful of skyscrapers being built in each neighbourhood and about a dozen motorways in progress across the city. There is probably good and bad in this, but it certainly must help development and projects an energy that we may have lost a bit in Europe.
Our first order of business is to head to the business district’s hospital to get the last of our rabies jab following our encounter with monkeys in Bali. This further drives home the scale of the Thai capital: despite picking the closest train station we could, we are still about an hour away on the metro, and a bit of walking after that. This bit of Bangkok looks very similar to Kuala Lumpur: shiny skyscrapers, huge malls, sky trains and massive roads everywhere. But as soon as we turn off the main road, after grabbing a comforting continental breakfast in one of the malls, we are in a different city. Small, quiet, sun-drenched streets with trees and blooms peeking over whitewashed walls from adjacent gardens - this feels very different to anywhere we’ve been so far. It makes for a nice end of our walk to the hospital, which as expected is very fancy. Luckily our insurance has sorted everything out, and we’re out after a couple of hours, all jabbed up.
Time to head over to our hotel - this proves a bit of a challenge as the main form of public transport here seems to be buses. We’re trying to avoid those as between our big bags and our lack of Thai we feel we’d be a bit of a nuisance, therefore our chosen itinerary ends up being a mix of sky train and ferry. The sky train is pleasant as usual (a much nicer alternative to the metro for us tourists!), but really what we’re excited about is the ferry! It’s only navigating along one of the city’s many canals, rather than on the Chao Praya river, but it’s still an experience. The boat pulls up to the pier at top speed, and a ninja-like mooring woman lassoes it to it and pulls it close. She holds it there for two minutes while people hop in and out without a gangway, and the boat starts off again before the last person is even on properly - better be quick! Once she’s recovered the rope and slung it over the roof, she runs cat-like along the outside of the boat, reaching in through windows to sell newcomers (including us) tickets. While it sounds chaotic, it runs like clockwork as long as no bumbling tourist messes up the flow, and I feel we held our own on this first experience.
We’re only on for a few stops before getting out - luckily, at the terminus so we have all the time we need to pick up our heavy bags and manoeuvre them out. Once there, it should be a short walk across a few other canals to our hotel - but it’s the hottest time of the day and we stop for lunch halfway to get a much-needed break. We find a little gem of a canal-side cafe serving delicious Thai food and the typical Thai milk tea (with condensed milk, mmmh) which I savour while contemplating the view. It’s another town entirely again, sleepy rows of houses and local eateries lining the canal’s green water, with picturesque red and white bridges arching over and a glimpse of the steep roof of a temple in the background. Ollie’s picked the hotel in what turns out to be a really lovely area - plenty of canals, tiny, meandering streets lined with a surprisingly balanced blend of local shops, people’s homes, and backpackers bars and hotels, and a heavy sprinkling of pretty temples. Our hotel, the funkily named and decorated 4 Monkeys, seems completely new and comes complete with rooftop bar, which will be perfect for New Year’s Eve. The room is also lovely and we happily settle down for a few days of exploring the capital.
Tonight, we start with a relaxed ferry ride down the Chao Praya, on our way to Chinatown for dinner. It’s perfect timing as we get to the pier just at sunset, getting clear views of the marbled sky across the huge expanse of water. The river is lined with monuments, starting with a very well-preserved octogonal whitewashed fort just before the pier, so it’s a good sightseeing route for our first day. After a short wait, we get on the boat (ferry seems misleading for what is just a low-slung, single-level passenger boat) through the same process as before - a bit slower as there are more tourists on this route! We even manage to get a seat and cruise past the many decorated roofs of the Grand Palace, the chedis of Wat Arun temple gloriously lit up against the darkening sky, and end with a lovely view of the Bangkok skyline including a few skyscrapers built by Bouygues - it’s always fun to check out colleagues’ work abroad.
Chinatown is a ten minutes’ walk from the river and when we get there, it’s certainly a size up compared to any we’ve seen previously. Structured around a main road lined with tall buildings sporting massive signs all in Han Chinese, it’s heaving with locals and tourists alike checking out the numerous market stalls and food carts lined along the streets. We wander around to get an idea of what’s on offer, and after a first miss with a still-raw octopus skewer which we quickly discard, we settle down in one of the few places with tables to enjoy crab-fried rice, mixed vegetables and noodles. The real stand-out is dessert: Ollie samples Michelin-starred Pa Tong Go (the local doughnut) while I try out Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame in hot ginger soup). He’s very happy with his sweet, which to be fair is much nicer than the western version; my sesame balls are lovely but the ginger soup is so strong that I can’t finish it at all - good to try though.
It’s getting late and despite our aim to have a slower day, we’ve already walked nearly fifteen kilometres, so we decide to take a tuk-tuk back (the boats don’t run at night). Our first try yields a ridiculous quote - three times the price of a taxi! - but just a few meters later we find a driver ready to take us for a reasonable price. The ride is a fun experience although I’m glad the roads are much less busy at this time: we’re right in the middle of traffic and there’s already quite enough noise, pollution and cars skimming past our elbows like that! Instead of a forty minutes’ trek it’s just five minutes to get back to our hotel and we have just enough energy to check out the view from the rooftop bar - glorious - before dropping like stones as soon as we’re in the room. Having an actual, full-size bed is really underrated.
Oh wow! Keeping me off my work reading this. We (brother and I and Dad and my mum) lived in Bangkok back in de beginning of the 70ties...how much this must have changed and still, how warm and familiar it sounds! Thanks! Enjoy!