Stuck in Bangkok, Thailand

So my ma was worried about this city. She thought I'd get wrapped up the 'hedonism' of Bangkok and, I guess, Thailand in general. She underestimates me (sorry mum, but you do), nothing about the nightlife in this place compels me to stay longer!

Khaosan Road is the street for the 'backpacker type', it is a potent mix of trashy bars and market stalls selling souvenir T-shirts with 'I <3 Bangkok' during the day and then at night the market stalls are replaced by just hundreds of people in a giant street party, mainly 'us Westerners' getting drunk. Music blasts from bars opposite each other competing to be the loudest.

The food stalls down this road are set up for the tourists too, selling shock-factor items like what I can only assume are fried scorpions on sticks, fried coackroaches, centipedes, essentially any kind of creature that could possibly be found under your bed in Thailand. The sign above this reads '10 Baht (20p) for Photo'. Ha, no thanks, but I did sneakily take one for you guys...

As you walk down this strip you'll have men holding small cards that offer a 'menu' of shows including the infamous Ping-Pong Show (I am absolutely not giving any more detail of this on here, if you've not heard of this 'talent' then ask around before googling, you will not be able to unsee images you find!) other men might shove giant signs selling laughing gas in your face (this actually happened to me) that was being sold for 100 Baht (2 quid) in the form of a balloon that you inhale in and out for a while. The people we saw doing this would just stand there with a giant unnatural grin on their faces before they mellowed after about 20 seconds. Each to their own...

We saw a kid breakdancing with a crowd around him and a few feet down there was also a shop that had a dozen or so massage beds lined up on the street, which were pretty much full up the whole for night until the early hours. It didn't make a lot of sense to me but the partying on Khaosan Road is a tiring business it would seem!

In all honestly, the experience of the street was a novelty and a lot of fun with the other backpackers I went with. We tried our luck with the one place we could dance inside, aptly named 'The Club'. We left about 40 minutes later. We were dancing like the most squished sardines in a tin you could ever imagine, the music was trance/dance/rave stuff that was appropriate for those on more than just alcohol... not our kind of scene in the end! It was fun night though, with good company.

Khaosan Road is, unfortunately, not a patch on what is witnessed on the street known as 'Soi Cowboy', not far from the hostel I'm at. This is where you find the ladyboys and girls to take home and some more of those shows. I've never been anywhere that is so unashamedly seedy in my life.

The street is narrow and fairly short and the lights are so neon, bright, each more garish than the last. To me, it has the appearance of a pop-up fair ground. It looks as though the bars could all be folded up on to the back of a lorry, very two dimensional.

The music blasts and the girls and ladyboys (often looking even more feminine than the girls, scarily) would stand in crowds of 5 or more outside the clubs with the with nothing more than a bra and pants. They would stand with their hips popped until a man walks by when they would literally accost him/them until they follow in to the bar. To be fair, the men sign up for it when they walk down this road! In my view, the absolute, seediest part of Soi Cowboy is that the club girls would all where a badge with an individual number on it. Efficient business?

Of course, Bangkok has much more to offer than the above. I'm picking out what will stick out in my head. The Grand Palace is truly beautiful, if expensive (10 quid), and you need to go early morning and on a weekday to ensure access to all areas (I did not do either..).

In North Bangkok there's the option of going to the biggest market you'll ever go to in your life, will something crazy like 8,000 stalls, just go in knowing you'll lose your party and don't bother trying to find them because you won't! The market is incredible with so much to get for such a reasonable price and that's even before the haggling! I came out with more things than I can fit in my backpack.

Yesterday, a group of us took the train to a UNESCO World Heritage site of Ayutthaya, an ancient city dating back to the 1300s which was beautiful. We hired bikes for the day and rode around finding Wats (Buddhist temples) around every corner. The town was pretty itself and it was good to go exploring and get lost in the side roads.

So I've ended up in Bangkok longer than I intended, I've had to wait until my visa for Vietnam is ready (I pick it up tomorrow, fingers crossed). After this I'll rush to board my over night sleeper train to Chiang Mai, another backpacker paradise in the north of Thailand, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the country, I've heard it's beautiful!

#bangkok #thailand #ayutthaya #khaosanroad #soicowboy