Ah Bangkok. We are slowly getting the hang of this place. I’ve been more jetlagged than Joe. We are twelve hours ahead so it is nice to be able to easily know what time it is in PA, however it’s difficult to adjust to being awake during the night. The sunshine is certainly helping though!
Our first day here. we took a ridiculous long taxi ride to the Myanmar embassy to apply for visas. The traffic in this city is insane, considering its size. So riding in a car is totally nonsensical. I read yesterday that there are about 6 million more cars registered in Bangkok than the road infrastructure allows for. This fact makes the motor bike king of the road here in Bangkok.
They weave through traffic seamlessly and always make their way to the front of the row of cars sitting in gridlock. Watching a major intersection, with motorbikes lined up and then effortlessly pushing forward in every direction just before the light turns green is amazing. It appears to be choreographed. Everyone respects each other and respects that we’re all trying to get somewhere. They all work together.
Fast forward to Friday morning. Joe assembled our bikes Thursday night while I took a 5 hour nap (Did I mention I’m feeling the jetlag?) Our Airbnb host recommended not biking in Bangkok. Also we have not seen many bikes on the roads. The sidewalks are total shit here and it’s really scary to even cross the street - there are no pedestrian walk signals, you are truly on your own when getting around town on foot. You really just wait at a crosswalk, waiting for a break in traffic and just as you are stepping onto the street you see a motorbike or car come out nowhere and then you just have to fucking run. Given all this, you can see why we were a bit nervous about getting on our bikes in this city. On foot, the traffic can really appear to be chaotic and quite the death trap.
This video I found on YouTube is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQgqOJdOkDY
We set off at 0830 this morning, Brilliant right? We decide to throw ourselves into Bangkok traffic at rush hour! It didn’t take long before we were floating through the cars in gridlock right along with the motorbikes. It was very scary at first, however, it didn’t take long to realize that it actually felt safer to bike on these streets than compared to Philly. The cars/motorbikes actually give you space. They don’t bully you. They don’t try to share the lane with you when passing. They don’t treat you like a nuisance like in the US. The hardest part was trying to cross 4 lanes of traffic when making a right turn - it was pretty much impossible at some points and we just went straight instead. It took us 45 minutes to bike 5 miles to our destination - not bad considering we weren’t too certain of the directions and took a lot of wrong turns. We arrived to an all vegetarian food stall I read about near Ari BTS station. The food was fabulous and we were pleased to have conquered our fear. Biking in Bangkok is not exactly enjoyable, nor would I recommend it for someone who’s never ridden in cities before. I am glad to report that things were not as they seemed. Sometimes you just have to get out there and figure it out. The good news is that is will only get better from here. Bangkok is known for being crowded/ noisy/ polluted (and boy is it!). Wherever we go from here will surely be less crowded and more enjoyable to bike. Plan is to leave Monday, by train enroute to Thailand’s former capital, Ayatthaya. The train will take about an hour to get there. We’ll spend one night there. And the next day, set out for Chiang Mai - about 400 miles north. We will likely do it in about 10 days or so. We want to go slow and see lots of sights along the way. Our plan is to stay in guest houses - we’ve been informed they are about $10 to $15 night, so our frugal budget will remain intact.
We’re moving from our luxurious Airbnb to a hostel in Oldtown today so we can explore Khao San Road and the temples. We’ve heard this part of town is more tourist friendly which is a good and bad thing.
In the meantime, we’re eating, exploring open air markets, people watching, enjoying the hubub of this crazy noisy city. Ill be ready for more peaceful surroundings once we get out of here.
Technical problems! Will post more pictures later......
