Hmmm, where to start?
I arrived in Bangkok for the first time on 13th February 2011. I left it for the last time on 14th March, the last of three trips to the city.
When I arrived I was tired, but not overly so, and overwhelmed, very much so. We were staying in China town, which happened as a result of Chinese whispers of a nice place to stay, whose name changed from one thing to another and as a result we ended up there.
I only had one night in Bangkok that first time, and we hit Khao San Road after a quick nap and a necessary shower. It was exactly how I had imagined as a twelve year old innocent little girl reading Alex Garland’s The Beach – dirty, busy and exciting. Apart from Khao San Road, I didn’t get a feel for the city until our third visit when we actually did some sightseeing.
My second trip to the city came after the Paradise of Koh Tao and before the experience of Vietnam. We had more time this time. We went to the monstrous MBK shopping centre where I bought some Benefit that turned out to be fake. It was a fiver. I should have known. After an eventful night in the Khao San Inn, which included hearing some English boys abusing two Thai girls, and being confronted by the industry of prostitution on Khao San Road smack bang in the face, we jetted off to Hanoi early in the Morning of March 2nd.
When we arrived back to Bangkok for our third and final visit, we knew we had to do some sightseeing and actually see some of the city that wasn’t Khao San Road or China Town. So we ventured to the Grand Palace, and grand it was. We went all around until we were bored, then we got the normal transport boat up and down the river for the afternoon; something I would recommend to anyone who ever thought about paying 400Baht for a tourist boat, as we paid a total of 13Baht each. We experienced the sense of calm only present in a Bhuddist temple when we visited the Emerald Bhudda in the Grand Palace. It was the kind of peace that would make you think about all you believed in, all you didn’t believe, everything you’ve done in your life, things you will do, things you hope to do and nothing all at the same time.
On our last day of our trip, we decided to pamper ourselves. So, with a total of €25 spent each, we got facials, massages, haircuts, manicures and fish pedicures. It was the sort of day that trips to Thailand have to include. Never at home would I dream of getting a facial, manicure and Fish Pedicure in one day. The fish were hilarious. Alice was off getting a Massage and Rach had gone for a stroll around our new favourite street, Rambuttri Road, when I put my feet into the tank of nibbling skin eaters. I squealed as only a big girl would. With one foot in for the first five minutes, I realised they weren’t going to eat my feet off so I put them both in and ‘relaxed’ to the ‘gentle’ vibration of creepy crawlies eating the dead skin off my heels, and from in between my toes. The result was well worth it though. My feet were baby soft even though I only spent 20 minutes in the tank – fifteen minutes of which I was on my own and five minutes of it I was accompanied by a South African who had been travelling in Asia for six months. They gave him all their love once he arrived, but they did a great job so I can’t really fault the little fishies.
In general, Bangkok was an experience like no other. It will always be the first place in Asia on which I laid my feet. It will also be the only place, while riding in a Tuk Tuk from Khao San Road on my fist night, I turned to anyone and said, deadly seriously, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many Asians’. It’s true, but I’ve seen far more now, and the novelty has worn off. I don’t like Bangkok in the way I liked Hanoi, but at the same time, it’s a fascinating city. It has the mandatory divide between rich backpacker and poor native that is so obvious around Thailand especially; it also has a feel of being one of the first points in backpacker history. Maybe I only see it this way because of its iconic description in Garland’s The Beach, or maybe it’s because it was always somewhere that I had heard of other people visiting but never thought I would, nor did I dream how comfortably at home I would feel in this Backpacker Heaven/Hell.
