Not so bonkers Bangkok

I was very apprehensive about visiting Bangkok as I was well aware of the city's terrible reputation. All the stories I'd heard and guide books I'd read had lead me to envisage the city as a mass of dirty, dark alleyways and manic roads, heaving with con-artists, hookers, and aggressive tuk-tuk drivers. -How very wrong I was!-

I was immediately struck by how 'normal' Bangkok is. It's just like any other big city filled with people moving around in a hurry, too busy to take advantage of me. There's lots of traffic, lots of activity, and it's really difficult to navigate, but it wasn't intimidating, nor was it dark or dirty. In fact, I quite liked it! I felt at ease.

I decided to stay in the backpackers haven of Koh San Road to take advantage of the cheap guesthouses there... and cheap they were. I stayed in a complete flophouse, that turned out to be very noisy at night, but I invested in a pair of earplugs and decided that as it was cheap, I didn't really care!

The first thing on my agenda was to replace my camera which had met it's fate in Koh Phagnan, so I headed over to the shopping mecca that is Siam Square. Having been 'stuck' in the islands for the last 7 weeks Siam Square was 'real-world' heaven, with all the facilities and amenities I could want. I spent most of the day deliberating about a camera, and perusing the various malls to stock up on essentials, before treating myself to a yummy dinner, and a movie (Sherlock Holmes 2).. and I don't think I have ever enjoyed a film quite so much; I had missed normality!

The next day, armed with my new camera I decided to tackle the city's tourist sights, starting with the Royal Palace and Wat Phra Kaew. The palace and temple are located in the beautiful 'royal district' and are an amazing visual feast of  golden stupas, glittering mosaics and colourful statues. A perfect opportunity to get snapping. In the afternoon, I headed over to MANIC Chinatown to explore the commercial-chaos, and then spent the evening people-watching in Koh San Road.

There are LOTS of wats (temples) in Bangkok, so in order to avoid wat-fatigue I decided to limit my sight-seeing to the ones that particularly interested me. Wat Pho immediately appealed as it is home to a huge reclining Buddha; I had read the stats (at 46m long and 15m high, it's the country's largest) but it wasn't until I actually saw the statue that I could appreciate how large that actually is. Wat Pho also holds the record for housing the country's largest collection of Buddha images, which again is an easy statement to dismiss, until you see how many images that amounts to. The last temple I visited was Wat Traimit, which shelters a 3m-tall, 5.5- tonne solid gold Buddha image, which definitely managed to impress me even after the millions (it felt like millions) of Buddha statues I had already seen!!



Reclining Buddha; far too big to photograph in it's entirety

As I was in Bangkok over a weekend, I was fortunate to catch the awesome Chatuchack weekend market. There are lots of markets in Bangkok, but Chatuchack is 'the big one'!! It covers more that 35 acres, and sells absolutely everything from puppies to second-hand trainers. No matter what you are looking for, you are guaranteed to find it in Chatuchack! I spent a few hours wandering around the market, checking out the array of goods and sampling food as I went until sunset when the stalls started to pack up.



Everyone is peddling something..!

After 4 days in Bangkok I had seen all that I wanted to, and I was feeling re-charged and ready to get back on the road. So I bid the not-so-scary, not-so-bonkers capital farewell, and headed into Thailand's countryside.