The capital city of Thailand, Bangkok, was also the first stop in my five-week Southeast Asia experience and my hub for various flight transfers and connections throughout my trip. Coming in completely blind to the area, I had set up an airport transfer through my hotel. I realize it was probably a bit more expensive that way, but after a 12-hour flight, I just didn’t want to worry about finding transportation or haggling with cabs, so I set this up and figured I would adjust as necessary once I got my bearings in the city. As soon as we were out of the airport and on the road, the first thing I noticed was the largest billboards I had ever seen, and secondly, some of the billboards were showcasing the late king in memoriam and the new king, his son. I’ll tell ya, NYC’s Times Square has nothing on the size of these billboards - they give you a smack hello!
One of the reasons I had booked my first hotel, The Old Capital Bike Inn, was the fact that they did a free city bike tour (yes, they like their bikes there). It was perfect to do on the first day as it helped give me perspective on the layout and a quickie look at the main attractions in the city even though it was at night, but we would have burst into flames if we had attempted it in the heat of the day. At one point during the ride, we snuck through the flower market, which was super tight quarters for eight bikes making their way through. You had to keep checking behind you to make sure you hadn’t lost anyone, kinda like the buddy system, and sure enough, I looked behind me and only saw one woman waving a ways back and two other women nowhere in sight. Oops, we lost two people in the midst of market chaos at the end of our single-file bike line. It’s not like department stores where you can go up to customer service and have them paged (Good evening, shoppers! Would Jane and Jill please report to the exit to rejoin your group?). Nope, the guide had to go back in and find/retrieve them from the flower market labyrinth. From then on, we moved those individuals to the front of the line for better safekeeping.
The next day, I had the hotel find me a driver for the day to take me out to the Summer Palace and Ayutthaya. I had considered taking the train out there and then walking or biking around the temples, but I’m so glad I did not. In Ayutthaya, the temples can actually be far apart, and the signage trying to find them is another challenge. With the heat of the day, it would have been miserable trying to get around from temple to temple on a bike and inefficient on foot. It was a 90-minute drive, and the driver gave me an Ayutthaya map and asked me to circle which temples I wanted to go to. Luckily, I had data available on my phone and was able to do research on the way comparing recommended temples to the map. As I was out perusing the Summer Palace, the driver then reviewed my temple wish list and created a plan of attack for the order in which we would stop at each one. I just loved his efficiency! There was no timetable, so I could peruse each one however fast or slow I wanted to go, which was great as there were a couple where I was done in 20 minutes but others where I was there for one to two hours. Toward the final temples on our list, the sun was going down and we were able to catch the light and the views of the temples in a whole different way. You saw the glows of the yellow, red and orange moving behind the giant temple structures and sensed the feeling of it getting quieter. Surprisingly, it wasn’t eerie at all but just calm. At the final temple, it had become night, and the temple was off of a river, and you could see others on the river in the distance. Can you imagine having that in your backyard?
I loved Ayutthaya, but the key was avoiding its obnoxious crowds and tourist circuits. And maybe that’s a reason why, overall, I don’t have the same love for Bangkok. Out of all the cities I journeyed to over five weeks, Bangkok was my least favorite, and I wouldn’t desire to go back. In speaking with numerous other travelers along the way, that seemed to be a pretty common opinion actually. Honestly, I can really enjoy the hustle and bustle of other big cities (e.g, Paris, London, Rome, Barcelona), but Bangkok feels suffocating and heck, with the heat, it is. Everything feels trapped in - there’s no respite. Khaosan Road is an experience perfect for spring breakers, which I try to avoid, although I must say, Susie Wong's Beers and Buns has some mouth-watering bánh mì sandwiches.
