One Giant Step…Is All It Takes

And the world is your oyster…

Actually, in total, we have spent 8 nights in Bangkok and loved every minute.

Our first time here, more than a month ago now, we landed from India shell-shocked, bewildered, and numb. Although reportedly overcrowded, polluted, and noisy we found Bangkok to be clean, orderly and, above all else, a ton of fun!

We spent our first day getting our bearings and discovered the famous Koh San Road…the magnetic travelers street of the city where food stalls, clothing stands and streetside bars all compete for attention. As frenetic as it can be we lapped it up and ate and drank to our hearts content. In fact, Koh San has turned out to be our favorite place in the city. We like how everything is accessible…no wondering where that elusive bar or club is or where the best food might be…it’s all out in the open and choosing super easy. We prefer to eat our meals from the vendor carts (pad thai is my absolute favorite!) and have our evening drinks at one of the ‘insto-bars’ that set up out of nowhere every evening on the sidewalks. We pass the time by watching people (and there are plenty to watch) and striking up conversations with our fellow sidewalk drinkers.

We spent one morning visiting the floating market outside the city. It turned out to be super-touristy but gave a glimpse into what life on the canals must be like for more rural Thai people. It was fun to be in a long-tail boat, buying fruit and snacks from floating vendors and seeing the mayhem that too many boats on one small canal can cause.

Our first visit to Bangkok also gave us an opportunity to join up with some great friends from home. Lisa, Dwayne, Nicole and Luc (www.ProjectRunaway.com) are on their own world journey and our paths crossed again in this corner of the world. We spent a great couple of evenings together catching up, laughing and having a great time. We left them the following morning (with a great hangover, I might add!) to head south for some well deserved beach time.

We were excited to return to Bangkok a few days ago. We were transitioning from the south to the north of Thailand and decided to stop for a couple of days to get our Vietnam visa and see a few of the sights we hadn’t seen on our last stop.

We, again, managed to get out of the city a bit to explore signing up for an all day bicycle tour of the countryside. We cycled through the narrow alleyways and sidestreets of the old city, crossed the railways tracks and headed into the banana  plantations and villages of the countryside. We pedaled along the canal walkways, stopping at temples and monuments along the way and having lunch at a local hotspot that produced killer Tom Yam soup. We returned to the city after 6 hours of riding…my bum is still sore today!!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Bangkok…but tonight we’ll visit our favorite pad thai vendor and stop by the ‘insto-bar’ for one last cocktail. For anyone planning to come to Thailand let me tell you that One Night In Bangkok is not enough!!