Between its incredibly efficient sky train and subway systems and its huge glitzy shopping malls you might guess you were in Tokyo, Singapore, or Hong Kong if you were just plopped down in the middle of it all. It's a city in transition however and many parts of the old Bangkok remain. Most of the modern Bangkok is in the eastern part of the city away from the Chao Phraya river. In fact the sky train and subway terminate well east of the river and the old city leaving the tuk tuk drivers to ply their exhaust-belching trade relatively unperturbed for the time being.
I flew into Bangkok rather late, landing about 11:30 PM. I had called ahead to a guest house listed in the Lonely Planet guide and spoken to a nice woman to let them know I'd be arriving late but would like to reserve a room. As most of the smaller guest houses and hotels still don't use credit cards my reservation was purely on a faith and honor basis. I didn't get to the guest house until almost 1 AM and it was all dark and closed up but a gentleman, the night watchman, perked up and sprang to his feet to open the door for me as I approached. Sure enough, on the table by the door was the form for my reservation under the name Mr. Christo that I had given her along with my room key. In that moment I developed an instant emotional connection with the guest house and its staff as from my perspective they were like reliable and dependable old friends who stood by me in my time of uncertainty. Truth is it probably made no difference to them if I showed or not, but I'm not going to allow that to dampen my warm fuzzy feeling of international comradeship! Perhaps I should have learned their names.
The next morning at breakfast (it's included!) I met an Englishman who appeared to be in his 50's with a mountain bike. I asked him where he had rented it as it was a Gary Fisher, not the type you'd normally see in Asia. Well he didn't rent it he rode it from England! With a few necessary nods to more modern forms of conveyance such as the ferry across the Channel of course. And he's going to continue riding as much as possible until he gets back to England, again with a little helping hand here and there where necessary as we all know the earth is 80% or so water. He's been out for over 200 days and figures he may have about that more to go. All I could offer as a response to all that was that I had actually met the man whose name was so conspicuously splashed across his bicycle's frame because he lives in Marin county where I've spent a great deal of time. He seemed as impressed by that as someone who's bicycling around the world could possibly be.
A glimpse of Bangkok now. This is next to Siam Center viewed from the Sky Walk, a raised sidewalk through the heart of the Siam district. What a fantastic idea! Every night there was a live performance on the stage below with large video screens for easier viewing. The energy was thumping loud and proud like the heartbeat of this dynamic city.
Dusit Palace near the older part of Bangkok. I didn't go in but it looks pretty nice from the outside.
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