Two unusual sides of the Thai capital

A city that lives at night and rest for the rest of the day. This is my first association when someone mentions Bangkok. I already visited Bangkok last summer as part of my vacation in Thailand. In fact, you can find anything you want in the city. Good food, sights, cheap shopping, parks to rest, boat ride down the river and also different cooking classes. So there is no wonder that Thailand is still one of the most popular Asia’s touristic destination.

Morning departure. Early getting up. Fast breakfast. Slow thinking. My routine before every flight. After one month of flying I found out most of Emirates flights are night ones. There is no alternative but to adjust your sleep to the best you can. I slept about six hours before flying to Bangkok, which is quite enough for me. I was excited to go back and relive the memories and all the experiences there.

Before our departure I experienced the first surprise. When we were boarding passengers, I was visibly surprised. I could count on one hand how many people actually looked like Asians (or Thai residents). Quite generally, the best time to visit this country is between November and February, as there is no monsoon rain and humidity is relatively low. Most of the passengers – Europeans. What does that mean? Relaxed vacationers who are just waiting to arrive at their destination and soak their feet in the blue/turquoise sea. After six hours of flight we arrived in the land of freedom, which in fact means “Thailand”.

Bus ride from the International Airport to the Holiday Inn Hotel passed “quickly”. We were lucky about crowds and traffic jams. In the case of rush hour, it takes at least one and a half hour to get to the hotel. That’s life in big city (eight million people). We agreed with girls to meet in the lobby in half an hour and have dinner in the surrounding area. Silom is Bangkok’s answer to Wall Street, with high-rise office blocks. The glittering skyscrapers boast the names of financial institutions and many luxury hotels. Make no mistake – the area is very small. Most Bangkok is still in need of infrastructure and social problems, due to the rapid growth of economic market.

We went to the second most famous street in town, Patpong. It is one of the most famous red-light districts in the world and this is where Thailand’s go-go bar culture began. The area is located between Silom and Surawongse roads. Neon signs above the bar door offering naughty performances and dancing entertainment. We just strolled across the area and headed forward to Patpong Night Market. We had our delicious dinner at one of the nearby restaurants (if you can actually call it restaurant 😊). Name? I have no idea. Food in Thailand is good almost everywhere. I could say you have to be really unlucky if you get a bad meal. Just try anything, don’t be afraid. We ordered traditional Thai beer, Singha. Although Chang and Leo are also popular in Thailand, Singha has a royal license on his label. Because of this Singha beer is also slightly more expensive. And the food?

1. The best food for me is fried rice with vegetables and chicken/shrimps. Also baked rice with vegetables and chicken/shrimps. Usually you get a really big portion of rice. For the decorative part they like to use pickles, tomatoes and salad.

2. The most traditional plate is Pad Thai. Meal with vegetables and meat as main ingredients. Here we replaced rice with noodles. And cherry on top – peanuts. People love Pad Thai. The prices range between 40-100 baths (1-3 euros), depending on where you eat. Very cheap for European tourists.

3. Also worth mentioning is hot soup, Tom Yum. The main ingredient – crabs. They also add different vegetables into soup (tomatoes, as well as zucchini, kohlrabi, leeks, carrots). If you are not a fan of spicy food, is better to experiment with other flavours.

4. Last, but not least – famous Thai dessert. Mango sticky rice, mango sticky rice. Main ingredients: mango and rice. To make this dessert tasty and especially sweet, they add coconut milk. Worth the sin.

I had amazing breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Yeah, I really cannot eat rice or noodles for breakfast. For me, this is lunch or dinner meal. After a hearty meal, I headed out to explore the city. Well, I wouldn’t call it exploration. It’s more a stroll around the modern part of Bangkok.

Siam is undoubtedly the center of shopping in Bangkok, home to some of the most popular and important shopping malls such as MBK Center, Siam Discovery Center, Siam Center and Siam Paragon. Within Siam square itself, there is a wide variety of shops and services, including restaurants, cafes, designer clothing boutiques, cinemas, bookstores, hotels and banks. Buyers vary from adolescents and students to office workers, city dwellers and, of course, tourists.

I first walked to Hello Kitty Café. Yeah, the whole cafe is in pink and they play the same song all day long – Hello Hello I’m Kitty. And what’s so special about it? Most importantly, you can enjoy a variety of Hello Kitty desserts. All of these are served in familiar pink packaging with pictures of this cat. My purpose wasn’t food at all. All I really wanted was a picture in this pink country. Picture with Hello Kitty car, picture on pink seats, picture with Hello Kitty. No no, I’m kidding. 😊 It was interesting to see this cat café, but once is totally enough. Until then – enjoy spending your time here. I continued to the Hard Rock Café. It’s a restaurant chain that covers its walls with rock and roll memorabilia. It is designed to attract visitors who can relate to music and design. I quickly slipped inside and bought a souvenir. Some collect magnets or postcards or pictures, and I buy hurricane glasses in every town where Hard Rock is located. A teenage caprice that persists to this day.

I couldn’t get out of my skin, so I walked through all shopping malls for the second time in my life. Through the lowest floors of all. In particular, Siam Paragon offers top international brands, CentralWorld offers everything – from clothing boutiques to entertainment, technology gadgets, bookstores. The MBK Center is known as the affordable things center, while the Siam Center is considered one of the trendiest hubs in Bangkok, attracting mostly young and fashion buyers. There are more and more shopping malls, and they are certainly comparable to European standards. As I walked between them, I came across with “sculptures of plastic” piglets. Why they were there? Chinese people and Chinese minorities in Thailand celebrate their New Year’s Eve every February. By Chinese tradition, pig reigns in 2019. Generally, a piglet symbolizes fertility and the seed from which a new life springs; bringing change and hope for better days. The biggest change for me – moving to Dubai.

The last thing I did before leaving – fresh vegetables and fruits. So, with full bags of minerals and vitamins I came to the hotel (no smelly durian) and quickly packed up my mess. I got myself the last street food on this 24hour layover. Of course, fired rice with vegetables and chicken. Before a good night’s sleep, I looked out again and said goodbye to Bangkok until next time. Believe it or not – it came faster than I expected. More on Bangkok in my travels through Thailand – soon.