Motorcycle diaries - Bangkok

Now, I am again on the move - this time on a new Honda Phantom fire edition motorbike, together with hubby Ilkka. This over-a-month-journey through South East Asia, that started here in Thailand, will bring us through Cambodia, Vietnam and Southern China to Hong Kong.

I arrived to Bangkok December 9th from Singapore - both excited about the upcoming adventure and sad after all those farewells we have to say to people who become close to us... Anyways, next days I decided to be a real brave tourist and explore Bangkok with a map in one hand and camera in the other.

What is Bangkok? It is definitely a total mess. In a positive sense of the word. All those tuk-tuks, taxi-meters, smily locals in pink shirts because of their King's birthday celebrated for over a week, food stalls and mobile kitchens, tourists in their "want-to-be-a-hippie" cloth from the next street bazaar and incredible amount of golden temples, buddhas and images of the King and royal family -  all this is Bangkok. It's very energizing and tiring at the same time. A great place to get pumped up with energy, especially during those winter days (was just thinking of Helsinki and it's minus 20C)!

But this is not all... Bangkok has many faces - its also young, fashionable and very friendly local people, lots of business travellers and expats, tailors, furniture and design shops, bars and restaurants, ultra-modern office buildings and residential estates, wide and bright roads, parks and green sites... Amazing city...

During those few days we stayed in two areas: Banglumpu (Chanasongkram) and Sukhumvit. The first one is filled with young tourists and vibrant with energy: street food stalls, bars, locals trying to sell anything you might not need, guest houses and nice tiny hotels... I think it's a very authentic old kind of Bangkok. Impressive Grand Palace and Wat Poh are located very near to this area. Sukhumvit is more of a trendy modern Bangkok, it's close to the other fashionable business area - Silom, with glass-and steel skyscrapers and fancy shops and restaurants...

We also drove throught crazy Bangkok traffic on our chopper and took a river boat, to watch modern hotel buildings neighboring slums... I wonder how this city will look like in some years, cause it seems to be very actively reorganizing and reshaping itself nowadays.

Ilkka is helping to park the boat :)

Oh yes, and we went to chill in Pattaya for couple of days. It reminded me very much on Phuket and somewhat on Kuta in Bali. Anyways, we managed to find a nice corner - Pattaya Jomtien Beach - where we spent couple of nights in very cozy bungalows.

Now, having spent in Bangkok a little less than a week, I can't claim to have understood its nature, or its culture. But I am sure I had enough time to catch some of its spirit...

Update: Tomorrow we're off to Cambodia and mystical and majestic Angkor Wat!