Bangkok, Oriental City

I’ve been here for 24 hours now, so I’ve managed to get a flavor for the place.

I think I’ve developed a bit of a blase attitude about going to new places. I’ve been traveling so long that I’m no longer surprised by new things anymore. I think Bangkok might have jolted me out of that a bit.

The first thing I normally do when I arrive somewhere new takes a shower and go outside and walk around (assuming it isn’t dark). With in five minutes of walking out of the door of my room, I saw a guy with an elephant on the sidewalk. This is certainly not Kansas.

I’m in a pretty nice area on Sukhumvit Road. There are nice, high rise hotels not far from me and a high-end mall a few blocks away. Yet every single block has massage parlors (probably because it’s a tourist area) and people selling stuff on the sidewalk. Bangkok is probably the best city for street food I’ve encountered on my trip, surpassing Seoul. I had two skewers of chicken hearts and gizzards for under $0.50 from a street vendor last night.

Bangkok is significantly more developed than anything I saw in Phuket. Maybe slightly less developed than Kuala Lumpur, but not by a lot. The internet here is fast and free, and there are tons of eating options within easy walking distance. The western population here is probably the largest I’ve seen in Asia, save for perhaps Hong Kong.

I have a bunch of things I’d like to do before I leave here, including going to a Muay Thai boxing match and meeting up with some local bloggers. I’ve been getting a lot of suggestions from readers, and I am investigating all of them. Some of them, however, *ahem* I don’t think I’ll be pursuing.