Some of you may have heard the full name of
Bangkok. It is Krungthep Mahanakorn Amornrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokapop
Noparatratchatathani Burirom Udomratchanivetmahasatan Amornpiman Avatarasatit
Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit. The longest city name recorded by the Guiness Book of Records.
Thailand is described in most TV ads and posters
as the ‘Land of Smiles’. Visitors will see a sign welcoming them to the Land of Smile in the airport even
before they have walked past the immigration office. In Bangkok, you can smile at any Thai person
and it’s very very rare that you will not get a smile back.
Life in Bangkok is not much different from life in other big cities, Bangkok, with more
than 9 million people, packed together in a most polluted city in the region, where
technology is always used and sometimes abused, where everything is in rush.
Bangkok became cosmopolitan in a short time due to globalisation. Tall buildings and
skyscrapers became more important to the city because of space problems. There are
traffic jams, pollutions and crimes just like any other big cities, but Bangkok seems
to preserve the contemporary way of living through the years. You can find many sights
contrastive to your eyes, but to Bangkokians, this is our unique personality that you
can never find elsewhere on this planet.
Who are the Bangkokians? Bangkokians are composed of people from all over the world.
As a free hub of South-east Asia, Bangkok tends to offer sights of a blended society
to outsiders. The Yaowaraj or China town — the biggest commercial quarter in Old Bangkok
where reside an uncountable number of Chinese. Pahurat or Little India — home of thousands
of Parisis, Sikhs and Hindus, Sukhumwit road or Streets of Faraos — the international
quarter, as well as Khaosan road, a small alley just 15 minutes walk from the Grand Palace
is a paradise for backpacking tourists from all over the world. These are just some of our
most obvious examples.
Life in Bangkok doesn’t even need an adaptation. Because the city has all, shopping malls,
bars, clubs, temples, cathedrals, masyids, synagogues, youth centres, sport centres and
libraries. Both as the sex capital of Asia.
Newcomers assume that Thais are very friendly and happy, but this is a bit too simplification.
Anyway, almost half of the Bangkokians they meet have long working hours in hard careers and
earning less than THB 10,000 (225 Euros) a month. Why do they have to smile almost every time?
It’s a quite-hard-to-understand cultural reason, We have a lot of reason why we smile. Some
of these types of smiles could be seen as rude for westerners. If a Thai accidentally catches
his foot against you in a bar and spills some of your glass of drink you are holding, he will
smile even before saying that he is sorry. That could be a reaction that is unlikely to be
well going-along with the foreigners. But Smile in Thailand is always considered as appropriate
gesture to almost every possible situation, showing happiness, gratitude, embarrassment, fear,
tension, resignation and many more.
This lists a few about our what-to-sees in Bangkok:
Khao San Road: a short but complex alley about three blocks long not far from the River Chao
Phraya in Banglampu District. This is the backpacker neighborhood is like saying you can buy
a drink on Bourbon Street or that Ireland has beer. Within the Khao San Road area (years ago
this street was overflowed, now Khao San Area has grown a bit further south, by one or two
blocks) you can find over 250 guest-houses, restaurants, bars, tattoo parlors, Internet-cafés,
bookstores, travel-agents and massage parlors.
Downtown Bangkok is a lot more grown up, and dressed up, than the rest of Thailand. Suits
and heels replace sarongs and flip-flops, restaurants and bars are air conditioned and
expensive, movie theatres have ushers, and the shops are more likely to feature Gap or
Versace than hand woven native rugs or bamboo chopsticks.
Siam Square: Siam Square is likely to be the Times Square of Bangkok. The bar and
restaurants here cater to middle to upper class Thais, shopping-spree Asians, Europeans,
and working expatriates. If you don’t care about nice things on travel posters you have seen about
the Old Bangkok this place is still worth a visit to see the Neo-Bangkok. Dozens of cinemas
in the area a good night out. The changes of ?2.50 gets you a few hours in a plush old fashion
theatre house — completed with air-conditioning and assigned seats. Hollywood and Asian
blockbusters are featured nightly, all with the required standing ovation to the king (This
is the must).
Patpong: You might want to take many deep breaths and a few shots before heading into
the insanity of Patpong. The throngs of middle age tourists shopping for sarongs and chopsticks
just makes the sex shows going on in every open door that much more surreal. Prepare to be
harassed in a major way. Once inside you’ll end up spending a ton of money on drinks to
watch sad looking barely legal teens (or not), performing funny acts with various accessories,
etc., etc. and etc.. If you simply must take a peek, make sure you know exactly how much money
you will have to spend on entry charge, drinks minimum, tips, service charges, VATs and so on
before you get in arm’s reach of the bouncers.
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