First impressions of Bangkok, Thailand after ten months in India
Bangkok, Thailand
First impressions of Bangkok, Thailand after ten months in India
6.00am
I land at the new Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok on an overnight flight from Chennai, India. The new airport is huge and modern, with four-stories and seven concourses. When I step outside it's cool but hazy; I can see the air.
6.52am
I take the express bus for 150 Baht to Khao San Road. The expressway from the airport is wide and spotless. But there are still laborers riding in pickup beds and shacks by construction sites; I always hear about Thailand being touristy so I wasn't sure if I would see this. There are billboards with young cool guys and cars -- Thailand is going through the same consumer changes as India. The squatters' houses are built on stilts next to the expressway. They look pretty solid.
They are building a new highway.
The Thais seem to have a more difficult time understanding English than typical Indian auto-rickshaw driver on the street. They have a different way of inflection with their English; if I inflect my words differently, they understand me.
So far, there is not the amount of trash on the ground as in India; the roads are in better shape, but I've only seen the brand new expressway to an airport. The expressway is elevated all the way to the city, which is expensive. There are eight lanes plus the elevated highway, more capacity than I saw in India. In India a major highway would almost always be a two-lane road with a wide shoulder; in the major cities are short flyovers over intersections. I rode on a wide expressway to the new part of Bandra in Mumbai.
Coming in from the outside Thailand looks like a modern city. There are some highrises and skyscrapers. I was surprised how few skyscrapers were in the big cities in India.
On the new expressway, drivers stay in lanes, use turn signals, and observe the speed limit.
This early the shops are closed; the fronts are shut with the same garage doors as in India. Approaching Khao San Road I see a 7-Eleven and a Subway sandwiches.
8.30 am
In the Sawasdee Khaosan Inn I find a clean room and a soft, soft bed. On televion there are hardly any stations, unlike in India. There is no bucket in the bathroom; even the nicest hotels in India has a bucket in the bathroom.
The bus drops me off right next to a breakfast buffet; I'm famished so I eat. I notice that the restaurant is a hotel; it's what I I'm looking for. It is a little expensive at 700 Baht, but it has nice amenities. AC, TV. Clean. So I abandon the plan of looking for a hotel in the guidebook. I can check out them out later if I want. The room is very, very clean. The TV is a flat screen, with a good quality picture, but hardly any channels. Snacks are stocked for sale on the table in the room; I never saw that in India -- it's all room service of Indian meals there.
I was going to go to Siam Square to look for a hotel. The only reason I went to Khao San is because they had people on the bus at the airport to go. They wouldn't go to Siam Square unless they had four passengers. So far, in early morning with shops closed, Khao San Road does not look as chaotic and run down as I thought it would be. Maybe I'm used to the look of Indian streets like Triplicane High Road in Chennai where I stopped last night. Maybe the place is going upscale, especially the surrounding streets, and Khao San Road is not the seedy place it was twenty, ten, or even five years ago. Maybe Khao San has gone global, like everywhere else, where everyone with a certain amount of money is an upscale-budget traveler, and every place is a tourist destination.
First impressions of Bangkok, Thailand after ten months in India
