An end to Bangkok

We took a walk around Siam Paragon and Centralworld shopping mall, the 7th largest mall in the world. It’s fair to say the mall was absolutely massive despite only managing to get around the first two floors of eight in all. The food court was not dissimilar to a small town centre. After the shopping mall we made our way to Chinatown, also one of the worlds largest and the most prominent for street food. Sure enough we ate there after watching a TV commercial being filmed down a back street of Chinatown.

The following day and in desperate need of some relaxation we booked an infinity pool overlooking Bangkok for the day. Really nice to lay out under a bit of sun 25 floors up subtly hearing the sound of the busy streets below. With street food on our mind… again… we drove to Jodd Fairs street market and enjoyed a variety of dishes although I wasn’t able to face the fried insects just yet, maybe another time. This is my favourite street market so far!

Our last day took us to Wat Arun, an amazing temple complex. On the way in we saw a giant monitor lizard resting in a stream. These are commonly found in Bangkok’s Lumpini park although when briefly walking through the park days before we didn’t see any. Reading about this a bit more, these lizards are apparently out of control in the park and regularly need removing by local authorities. The lizard we saw was a good 3m long.

We’ve both been keen to have a go a Muay Thai so we booked onto a 1.5 hour intro session at a highly rated gym which actually turned out to be one to one. Despite sweating litres it was a great experience and very different to martial arts I’ve done in the past. On the way there we walked though what looked like a very deprived area along a canal. Houses were build from corrugated sheet metal, bamboo and tarp with front doors not more than a garden gate. Mattresses lay on the concrete floor inside a living room, kitchen and bedroom all in one without lighting in some cases. Chairs were always the small children’s coloured plastic kind and they were for those not sitting on the floor often listening to the radio. If such buildings were seen in the UK today there is no way we would expect them to be occupied. Children were sitting around piles of rubbish most likely ridden with insects being by the canal yet despite all this, both children and adults would watch us walk past, smile and say hello to which we’d greet back in Thai. This was a real eye opener especially as not far away is one of the worlds largest shopping malls with an entire floor dedicated to luxury designer jewellery, watches and handbags. Hours before this walk we saw a crowd of individuals sprinting towards a car that had just pulled up right in front of us on our walk back to the hotel. Not knowing what was going on we watched as a couple got out, set up a table and began to hand out free pre-packed meals. Realising what was happening, along the same road we saw possibly hundreds of what could only be assumed homeless individuals and families. Seeing this really puts into perspective what we often consider to be problems.

As mentioned before Bangkok is a city of such diversity yet the people always have a smile. It’s been a packed five days and an experience I won’t forget. This concludes our time in Thailand and it’s off to Laos in the morning.Read more