Tali Goes Travelling

I was pretty sure I’d like Thailand before I’d even arrived, and walking through the streets of Bangkok to my hostel I knew I did. It’s a colourful and vibrant, dirty and dusty city. It’s a contrast of old and new, eastern and western. The food is amazingly fresh and diverse, and the streetfood is delicious and ridiculously cheap. There are fresh fruits and juices everywhere. It’s crazy and a little chaotic and the streets always seem to be gridlocked.

There is so much to see and do in Bangkok but we decided not to do most of it. You could spend all your money and all your days visiting all the sights, temples, palaces, malls, museums etc., but it would be exhausting. Instead we spent our days wandering the streets, taking riverboats, spending time people watching, eating Thai curry and just hanging out in parks.

That’s not to say we didn’t see any of the sights, but most of them we just passed by on the outside.

One of my highlights of Bangkok was walking through Chinatown as the streetfood carts were getting set up for the evening. Seeing the vendors unloading and preparing their stalls, then seeing the streets swelling with people as the sun set and dinner time arrived.

Bangkok is a great city to visit, but as time wore on I got a bit exhausted by it all. It was so hot and I ended up being drawn to the wonderful air-conditioning provided by malls and expensive restaurants. After four hot days there, I was ready to leave and see the rest of Thailand.