BANGKOK is the capital and largest city of
Thailand. It is considered as one of the worlds 22 megacities. Today it has one of the fastest rates of construction of high rise buildings. Currently it is the most densely populated in Southeast Asia. Moreover, it is one of the world's most popular tourist destinations and the vibrant cities with dazzling temples, exotic food, noisy markets, teak palaces, bars, etc...
It is said that there's really no bad time to visit Thailand's capital, rain and extreme heat are less frequent between November and February. April is only recommended to those with portable air conditioners, while October brings the heaviest rains - these are probably the best times to be out of Thailand. The tourists flock to Bangkok in December and August, while the least crowded months tend to be May, June and September.
GETTING THERE:This was my first time to travel "out of the country". My hubby and I took the Philippine Airline package and it was pretty neat. Package inclusions a free daily buffet breakfast, private transfers to and from the airport and a half-day city tour. We stayed there for 4 days / 3 nights. We went there on September of 2002. Bangkok was stiflingly hot!
A funny thing happened at the airport, we were mistaken for Singaporeans by a Filipino couple. We just laughed and told them that we're also Filipinos.
We picked some of the latest edition of the maps that we saw at the airport. We had exchanged our US dollars at their Foreign Currency Exchange facility.
HOTEL:We stayed at
First House Hotel. This is just a three star hotel but it offers good value standard accommodation.
The hotel is well-situated in
Pratunam area.
A place well-known for its street markets, bazaar and local vendors. It is also near the World Trade Center, now renamed Central World Plaza. The largest shopping mall and office complex in Bangkok.
One thing, I don't like the place, it's noisy and crowded. But other than that, the place is fine. The buffet breakfast was also good.
GETTING AROUND:Bangkok has an extensive
bus service with routes serving every part of the city.
There are both air-conditioned blue buses and non air-conditioned red and green vehicles, which provide an extreme cheap way of getting around town.
One of the advanced type of urban railway is the Bangkok Transit System (BTS), an elevated heavy rail system.
Bangkok
metered Taxis are available.
Make sure the driver turns on the meter, especially if you're starting from the airport. Always have an exact amount, as taxi drivers don't often give change. Some drivers often charge tourists way over the odds for a journey that would cost only a few baht. Passengers must pay tolls in the case of using an expressway. Please take note that most of the drivers don't speak / understand English.
They also have
Motorcycle taxi. This is only for the adventurous one but extremely popular among Bangkokians because of the traffic congestion. Fares must be bargained in advance.
They have
river taxis but these are just cross-river ferries.
And the most popular is
Tuk-Tuk.
It's a three wheeled open- air vehicles taking two passengers (three or four at a squeeze). Best for shorter trips. Settle the fare before proceeding. And
beware, most of these motorcycles are tourist traps especially along the temples and other tourist areas. Including the people offering an unsolicited advice and help. Though they may give legitimate locations and places, these people actually want to lead you to a jewelry shop or any other shops for you to buy stuffs, which in turn give them commissions from those shops.
Our Tuk-tuk tourist trap experience...First ride, the driver brought us first to a jewelry shop before proceeding to our own destination. We ended up buying two big sterling silver rings, which cost us P3,500. The rings are ok, though.
Second ride, the driver brought us to an Indian shop without informing or asking us. The confusing part was... we thought that was the place we wanted to go. Darn! Anyway, the shop was selling garments like silk and other stuff from India. The clothes are expensive. I think it was triple than the original price. And guess what... the driver was a little bit irritated when we told him we didn't buy anything...
hahaha...
Third ride, We told the driver where we wanted to go and he nodded. As we were traveling along the street... the driver told us that he'll drop us first to a shop. I was thinking,
"Oh no, here we go again! tsk! tsk! Patience... patience..." We told him in a nice way with smiling faces,
"Sorry but not now. We are not interested and we are in a hurry." But the driver insisted many times and so we just kept on repeating what we said. And suddenly he continued ignoring us until we really got pissed off
. What we did was... we shouted at him at the top of our lungs,
"STOP! STOOOOOOP!!!" (I think our small eyes had popped out
).
When he stopped, we left immediately and we looked for another tuk-tuk. I think we did a little hullabaloo there. Some of these drivers are so annoying!!!
