Thailand Chapter 1 - BANGKOK

Leuuude - you know... I did it again. ✈

And you know what that means:
(drumroll)
I'M TAKING YOU ALONG AGAIN!! (yeaaah)

Making you jealous with pictures and sharing some anecdotes with you is basically my favorite pastime on vacation. ;))

It's been 2 years since my last trip to Asia.
In my timeline, it's like half a lifetime ago...
So it's even more beautiful to think that out of our 5 weeks here, only 5 nights have passed.
We have already escaped the city and sailed from smoggy Bangkok to an island.
And here I am in the middle of December, wearing a bathing suit at a palm-fringed pool area, chilling in a hammock, knowing that it has snowed in Germany. (which makes it even more beautiful for me ;)
The beach starts 3 meters behind me, and if the music from my headphones wasn't so loud, all I would hear is the sound of the waves, it's so peaceful here.
But anyway... more about that in the next blog entry.... We want to stick to the order after all. (by the way, my attractive travel companion is a big fan of 'rules' *winkwink)

So...
December 9th was the day.
Flights were booked ages ago, and we finally took off from Tegel Airport around half past 11.
The first flight went by like a breeze. (höhö)
Then we had a 2-hour layover in Istanbul.
Phew.
Been there.
Istanbul, I mean.
But back then I ended up on the Asian side.
And oh boy... What a contrast...
This airport felt bigger than the whole of Berlin.
(No, I am not prone to exaggeration)
We walked so much to get to our new gate that our step counter app decided to take a vacation for the next few days.
It took forever, really.
Since July smokes, we had to check if and where it was possible.
Done and done.
There was a smoking terrace. Basically, it was a completely fenced-in fine-mesh cage.
And after 2 cigarettes, 1 cola, and 1 standing toilet experience, it was almost time to board the next flight that took us non-stop to Bangkok in just under 9 hours.

Just thinking about it.
No. Just no.
Those long flights are not for me.
(I would be surprised if anyone claimed otherwise)
Fortunately, food and drinks were served so often on the 2 flights that the travel time felt a bit shorter.
July was so surprised by this that she nonchalantly commented on the service:
'What? Food again? It's like being at grandma's'
(If only it tasted as good on the plane...)

We finally arrived.
Happy to leave the plane.
Completely different climate.
The sun was shining.
Completely exhausted.

But we knew that we couldn't check-in at the hotel until 2 PM, and until then we had about 6 hours to kill.
So we dropped off our backpacks and went to the shake stand. (whoopwhoop)
The loyal readers among you know that in Thailand, it's like my staple food. :))
Then we just strolled around a bit, let Thais 'talk our ears off' (well, mainly ME), inspected our mega cool hotel pool and the accompanying view over the city rooftops, and eventually it was check-in time.

And as one would expect, we immediately jumped into the hustle and bustle.
Well, at least mentally.
I jumped into bed.
July went to the pool.
After about 2 hours, we got up so as not to completely 'waste' the day and treated ourselves to the first massage of the vacation.
It was even the first massage of Juli's life.

What can one say about Bangkok that I haven't already said a hundred times!?... Hmm
.. It's crazy... It's noisy... It's huge... It's dirty... It's damn hectic... and still one of the coolest places I've ever been!
Especially Khao San Road, the most famous street in Bangkok (I would almost say in ALL OF THAILAND) is overflowing with life.
People of all ages are brushing past each other.
The music gets 1000 decibels louder every hour.
A completely different genre every few steps.
The Thais offer their goods (crocodile, spiders, scorpions, all kinds of insects) and the promo people of the bars and clubs are outside loudly luring you with their offers (beer, buckets, laughing gas) into their locations.
The latter is of course very interesting, but being good and decent as I am, I haven't tried it yet...... So far ;)

At some point, we just sat down on the street and tried to figure out what was different about her.
She was smaller than the others.
She was plumper.
She was older.
She had about shoe size 57, looked weird, and just behaved strangely.
And unlike her 'colleagues', no one talked to her about the other ladies (some with pee-pee, as is appropriate in Thailand).

Our version is something like this:
She is "handicapped by birth" and just wishes to belong, so she is there every evening, hoping to be discovered and hired someday.

(... And they lived happily ever after....)

And speaking of almost dying...
It was almost the case.
I always forget at first that they drive on the left here.
So it's NOT:

Look left, right, left, but first look right. 

And since I usually don't look at all, I just went over.... (oh man)
It was only thanks to July's insanely fast reflexes that I didn't get run over by a pink taxi that day.
Aiaiai
That was really close.
And another smooth transition.
TAXI.
The day before yesterday, we went to a shopping center to buy some shirts since I didn't bring enough.
So we looked for a taxi.
Well actually, the drivers were looking.
You could hear 'Taxi' from every corner... 'Tuk Tuk'... 'Where you go'... They sometimes run after you for 100 meters just to get you into their car.
Basically, you can remember:
The louder people shout here, the more you will pay in the end.
It took a few minutes to find a driver who agreed to use the taxi meter.
For just under 80 Baht, about 2.50 Euros, he took us to the shopping center.
On the side, he was clipping his nails at every red light (and there were many).

The shopping center was not as spectacular as others here in BKK and much more expensive than in Germany, so no more words about it, but we had to go back to the hotel.
There were countless tuk-tuks and cabs in front of the building, but none of them agreed to use the taxi meter.
In fact, one taxi driver was even panicking when we requested it and almost hysterically closed his car door out of fear that we might get in.

Eventually, we found one who took us back for twice the price of the previous trip.
It was still much less than what the others wanted. So it was okay for us.

We came, we saw... and we were really not in the mood anymore.

The circle closes here, and so does this blog entry.

If you tune in next time, it's your own fault ;p

Over & out.