Bangkok, the city that never sleeps. Naive was I when I thought that NYC is the city that never sleep. There are always things happening on street for everybody: food, dvds, booze, sex shows you name it. Before I got off the plane, my idea of Bangkok is a 3rd world city very much like Hanoi. To my big surprise, Bangkok is as busting and modern as Hong Kong! The main tourist area is located in the Old city, which is in a "moat" far away from any public transportation (minus the bus), which brings me to the main annoyance of Bangkok: taxi and tuk tuk drivers.
Bangkok has a population of 18 millions, about half of it are the rich foreigners from over seas taking advantage of the very low cost of living. The Thais are no idiots, when they see an opportunity to make money, they jump on it. Taxi and tuk tuk drivers are no different. They are not afraid to screw you over by tripling the regular rate to go to a certain destination. Before I came to Thailand, I read that one should always get a taxi and insist for the meter. However, that concept is completely flawed as 1 OUT 3 taxi drivers will refuse to use the meter with the regular excuse of : "too much traffic". Tuk Tuk drivers are even worst as they will automatically over charge you. Being a westerner myself, I never learned the art of negotiation and with the addition of the language barrier, getting a fair price is close to impossible! Everyday was a constant fight between me and the taxi. Instead of taking 10 minutes to get a taxi, it took me over an hour to grab a taxi driver to get to Khao San, and I gave up and gave the driver 160 baht which is double the actual price. It went to the point that I didn't want to go out anymore because getting a taxi is such a huge hassle!
Aside from that, Bangkok is a shopping haven filled with a myriad of either night markets or very luxurious malls catered to everybody's taste. There are a few temples worth visiting and the grand palace. Aside from that, there isn't much to do in Bangkok except for eating, shopping and partying. Stay a few days here and move on to the next destination.
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