Bangkok, culture shock, rip-off

Hello together,

We are currently sitting in the 'My Darling Bar' in Bangkok and enjoying our first 'Chang Lager Beer'.

After a relaxed train ride, in which we were warmly bid farewell by Sebi, Pongi, and almost Cedric (<3), we were able to experience a comprehensive, private city tour (Thank you Manu, for knowledge and coffee!!!). This was followed by the 11-hour flight, Mara slept wonderfully, while Konrad and David passed the night with Batman and the drinks menu.

Culture shock 1: As soon as we left the airport building, we realized how hot Bangkok really is.

Culture shock 2: Taxi ride: You simply have to trust the taxi driver when he spontaneously opens a 5th lane next to 4 existing lanes, or lets go of the steering wheel for what feels like five minutes. During this taxi ride, we were ripped off for the first time, and paid 900 Baht directly instead of the usual prices (for German standards: 22€ for 1.5 hours taxi ride)

Culture shock 3: Hostel: After the long flight, we wanted to find our hostel as quickly as possible, but when Mara showed it to us, we wished we had a few more streets to walk. Inside, our worst fears were confirmed. Very small, not too clean rooms, with mattresses as hard as stone. Fortunately, the room temperature decreased from 32 to 29 degrees Celsius (at night) due to the room fan, which is why David was able to fall asleep easily after 3 hours. Thank goodness the room has a large window, so you can visually and audibly follow Bangkok's party scene through the night, on the other hand, other hostel residents could enter the room more easily than expected, as the room is directly adjacent to the public balcony.

Postscript by David: 'In order to spare our grandparents sleepless nights, we would like to refrain from further details.'

We spent our evening in the backpacker street 'Khao San Road' (Mara's father: 'It looks just like it did back then!'), where you can find everything. From cheap Thai food to elephant trousers, to dubious shops (David considered fulfilling his dream of getting a driver's license within 5 minutes and a few Baht here)

In general, the prices are extremely cheap. A full meal in a restaurant costs about 4€. Since Swabian stinginess quickly prevailed, we quickly realized that a complete dinner can be found on the street for only 1.20€, which led to the point that we were no longer willing to pay 2.50€ for a complete, balanced breakfast in the restaurant today (Konrad: 'Are we Crœsus or what?!?')

Today we explored the streets of Bangkok on foot, and quickly found ourselves in a very large grieving, black-dressed crowd (The extremely popular and celebrated king passed away on 13.10.16), where we stood out a bit due to our colorful clothes, but were treated kindly: several Thais wanted to take photos with us. Afterwards, we were allowed to discover the 'real' Thailand as David led us along the slums of Bangkok. After an unexpected heavy rain, we were able to enjoy a delicious dinner after a long search in a traditional Thai street restaurant.

Despite our initial shocks, we have become accustomed to the culture and to the country with all its friendly inhabitants, and we are looking forward to our upcoming experiences with a positive attitude.

Best regards from Bangkok,

Mara, David and Konrad