Asia’s number 1 backpacking destination, heat like you’ve never experienced it before, food that youll either love or hate as a European, and a large collection of animals that you haven’t seen before; Thailand peeks interest for those that want to explore Asia in a safe way, without diving too deep into the risky unknown. Being known as a safe country that is kind to single backpackers, it was a destination that had been on my mind for a while. I have always felt very happy to stay in Europe and honestly, if you’d tell me I couldn’t leave Europe and has to stick to travelling here, I would be perfectly happy. But why stick just there if there is so much more out there? Probably the biggest step to take for me was the step into the plane for 8 hours, to step back onto another plane for another 8 hours. Time is very surreal once you get on a long plane journey like that. Suddenly it doesn’t matter anymore that there is an entire planet far below you where a billion lives are being lived. You are sitting mid air and just staring at the day turning into night, or in my case, the day being endless, as I skipped a night. It’s a very odd experience, but it did help me step over my slight fear of flying (which only gets activated during turbulence and take-off even though I tell my brain they are a part of the process). Finally after a surreal amount of time full of movies, naps, leg-stretch walks and small snacks, I’d arrived at Bangkok airport. And the funny thing was that I still didn’t feel like I was on my own planet, because life was simply different here.
I am not just talking about people looking different and the fact that I had to be in a long strict line to get my passport checked. I’m talking about a few things. The first one being, the climate. It was early October and thus rain season had officially been announced, creating an extra intense humidity. The second I left the lovingly air-conditioned airport, I got an absolute smack in the face from the outside world. You know the kind of humidity that hangs around you, not in the middle of a rainstorm, which is refreshing, but just after? When the humidity leaves the earth and sticks around like a thick fog, except this time its 40 degrees. It presses down on you and makes you sweat instantly, whereas normally I hardly produce a drop of sweat even during intense exercise – I sweated after seconds, my hair started curling and my mascara started spotting around my eyes. That was step 1, just wait for my entrance into Bangkok, the start of the Thailand trip that one just cannot skip out on. It was finally comfortably dark when I got on the bus as we started driving, and the AC made the sweat cool down on my body and now I had to fear to become ill, but I was too distracted by being fascinated. Massive skyscrapers turned up against a not so dark sky, as it was illuminated in various colours. A massive picture of the king of Thailand was distributed on most of those skyscrapers, giving Bangkok a determined stare. The closer we got to the center, the more light surrounded us, and I was happy to see a lot of jungle-alike green around the roads, and surprised when the bus dropped us of in a not so noisy neighbourhood.
So apparently, Bangkok was much bigger than I had ever imagined. It consists of 50 districts, and therefore it is much more than narrow streets full of noisy scooters & tuktuks, market stands, extremely small but well-vanned shops full of souvenirs and colourful fruits, and all kinds of smells and sounds all wrapped in an intense blanket of humid heat. Of course online I had gotten a glimpse of the fancy skyscraper district with its rooftops, but we clearly weren’t close to those. My first guess was better, except that now at night it was surprisingly quiet, whereas I thought Bangkok didn’t sleep at night; this neighbourhood did. I had a bit of trouble spotting a group of street dogs going trough the trash with wagging tails, but I knew I had to accept I wasn’t in the world as I knew it now, and unless I was here to build a save haven for them, I had to man up. The same happened the second I saw a sweet old lady, smaller than myself, selling fresh fruits at this late time, staring at the empty street. But I knew, this was normal life here, it wasn’t sad, it was just not the world I was use too, dogs as spoiled pets and people going home on decent times. I had to accept that the way I was used to wasn’t the only way and possibly not even the best, and once I made that switch I knew I would enjoy the biggest culture shock I ever had. The hotel was such a welcoming cool environment, and I must say that it is true that Thailand has amazing prices, we paid about 30 euros per night for a luxury, central located hotel with great AC and a very comfortable bed. After a very welcome shower it was time to sleep of the jetlag so I thought, but I can tell you my mind wasn’t ready to let go of the travelling and all its accompanying impressions just yet, I didn’t fall asleep until 4 in the morning.
I woke up extremely tired and dehydrated which still didn’t win from my desire to explore. I should probably mention that I was with my boyfriend and I was glad for that because I now realize I am not the person that wants to go THAT far out of her comfort zone to leave to the other side of the world on her own – which was a good lesson to learn. I could see the heat before it caught me leaving het AC-hotel, but it still hit me so hard that after a minute we decided we had to have breakfast somewhere, even just to hydrate ourselves. The street was indeed what I expected it to be during night time too. Cats, dogs, hiding in the shade. The market stands were filled and the small shops had opened their doors, they really were the size of a small bedroom sometimes. But the Thai people were working hard, as if the heat didn’t bother them, which I found admiring. I know we get used to our climates, but when I was working in Lapland in -40 sometimes i also never really got used to it, it still took a toll on me. My first new-animal-encounter was when we passed a not too clean canal full of small boats, and a surprising amount of beautiful carp fish letting their little mouths pop trough the surface to catch the insects floating around. I noticed the houses here very, very small. I felt a humble need to never complain again about a small bedroom as I did as a teenager. Of course I am just speaking for the part I saw in this neighbourhood, that some people really had to call ‘that small bedroom’ home, facing the street with their beds or combining their little workshop with that home. Yet people didn’t seem unhappy. Actually, we noticed as we ordered our breakfast (for hydration purposes I simply went for fresh fruit and orange juice, I couldn’t even think of coffee now) that the Thai people were one of the loveliest we had ever encountered. Smiling at all times, a sweet genuine look on their face in stead of a work – stressed stare forcing you to hurry your order. And although I felt it was unnecessary, I also had to get used to their extreme friendliness including a polite bow after taking and delivering our breakfast.
These people really were appreciative of the little things I believed. The ladies bringing us our breakfast weren’t stressed, even though they were working fast to clean and clear tables. They looked relaxed, there was a certain lack of intense pressure that the western world suffered from, that constant strive to thrive. I didn’t feel that here, and I noticed how I didn’t check my phone either whilst enjoying the best fruits of my life. I had no idea mango tasted like that, I honestly had to get used to how extremely flavourful fruits were if you actually were so lucky to have them fresh. I wasn’t a big fan of the Pad Thai my boyfriend had (I am sorry, I know that surprises a lot of people) but I already had not expected to be a big fan of the food here. In that sense I am really a Westerner enjoying the food I know, but I do love trying new foods nevertheless and quickly found out my far favourite here were the extremely tasty glass noodles. It was amazing how they managed to make the seasoning so flavourful, I could imagine why some people picked Thai food above Western food, which could sometimes be quite blend (which was fine for me). But the fruits blew my mind. Getting water and sugar back into my body, I felt I was ready to beat the heat and weaponed with several bottles of purchased water (p.s don’t drink tap water here), we were ready to discover the gigantic metropolis of Bangkok.
-It's an amazing life
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