Bangkok - The first day

Our tuk-tuk driver...

The first thing we noticed in Bangkok when we got out from the train is easy to remember: the humidity and heat. I remember Inna asking after a short walk if it's going to be like that all the time, and I think it was. I had reserved a room for us in a guest house already in Ukraine so our first priority was finding it. We used the River View Guesthouse and they wrote on their webpage that they are notorious for their location, because it's so difficult to find. We had a good map of Bangkok but we still couldn't pinpoint the exact location so we decided to try a tuk-tuk for the first time in our lives.

...and one scared passenger

Tuk-tuks are a dominant form of public transportation in Bangkok and I think one could describe them as oversized motorcycles with three wheels. We had no idea what the price range could or should be and we didn't know how to stop a one, so we just waved our hands and it worked. I immediately asked if the driver knew where our guest house is and he didn't. After that I showed him a paper with instructions in Thai. Even with that paper it took a while for him to be sure that he'd find the place. I had also read that you should always agree on the price before the ride and so we did. The driver asked for 150 Bahts (back then one euro was about fourty Bahts) and we thought that it was a reasonable price, so off we went. We were a bit worried if our backpacks would fit in, but the driver attached them outside the vehicle, behind us. Very handy.

A huge trash bin

The ride itself was quite exciting, as the tuk-tuk makes quite a loud noise and the speed feels high too, although I think it's nothing compared to cars. On the way to the guest house we saw some local monks in their orange outfits and shaved heads. We also saw the railway station and parts of the China Town. The traffic was jamming a bit on the way, but it didn't feel as dangerous as in Morocco. After making a circle or two the driver finally found our guest house and drove almost all the way to the front door along the narrow alleys. Very nice of him.

Orange monks

We took our backpacks, paid the driver and entered the guest house. The guest house was actually a big hotel-looking apartment building, and I was surprised by it as I knew that the prices were really low anyway. The receptionist told us that the room we wanted wasn't free yet and that we would have to wait till noon before getting the key. It was about 7 am then and we were dead tired. At least they let us leave our backpacks to the reception when we went for a walk.

The first buddhist temple we saw

We didn't know really where to go so we just walked along the first bigger street we found. It appeared that we were in China Town with a lot of small boutiques and some temples. The only western-looking shops were the seven elevens. We learned later that seven elevens could be found all over Thailand and Malaysia. We bought some lemonades from one and continued walking. Walking in Bangkok is really annoying because the routes for pedestrians are really narrow and very often blocked by something or full of people selling food or trinkets of some sort.

View across the big river in Bangkok

After walking for a while we wanted to eat in an air-conditioned restaurant, but as we didn't see one we settled on a street café. We decided to try catfish and minced meat with rice. It really didn't matter what was on the plate because it was insanely spicy. I've never had such a spicy meal before and we both struggled with it. Inna gave up after a while but I was able to eat it all, only because we didn't take much. We learned our lesson and almost every time after this we remembered to ask if the food is spicy or not :).

It was only about ten o'clock when we finished with our breakfast and we already wanted to sleep after the long flight. One more tiring hour of walking and we went back to the guest house, asking if we could get the room already. The receptionist told us that it's still occupied and we decided to wait in the lobby. At noon the room still wasn't free so we got a better room for the same price (250 B). We were a bit paranoid about the tap water in Thailand and of course about the mosquitoes, so we made sure we spat everything out after brushing teeth and we didn't want to leave the window open to avoid as many mosquitoes as possible. After a quick shower we had a long and good rest.