3 nights in Bangkok

After a short night on the plane, where I was lucky enough to have 3 seats for myself, I arrived in Bangkok early morning. High season is about to start in Thailand so there was a huge queue at the passport control despite the ungodly hour. But I was not in a hurry knowing that I can't check into my hotel anyway. I even treated myself to a long-missed Chai Latte & muffin of my favourite coffeehouse chain ;-) While sitting there watching the hustle & bustle of the airport a sudden feeling of happiness overcame me. I was happy to have arrived in a country where everybody is smiling at you, where friendliness is key and nobody tries to scam you. I realized that suddenly women are allowed to dress nicely be it with super short skirts, short tops, or just with the latest fashion. I instantly felt soooo comfortable and welcome in this country. It's not that I hadn't enjoyed India, but this constant concern about what to wear in order not to offend or to attract anybody can become quite annoying over time. 

And now Thailand touched me right at my soft spot and I fell for it... it started at the airport and it increased over the course of the upcoming 3 weeks.

When I jumped out of the taxi in front of the 5star-hotel that my friend Eva booked for us I couldn't believe this luxury with water running down the walls, nicely groomed ponds and statues everywhere. 

And when I finally checked in into our riverview-suite on the 17th floor I wanted to dance and scream! 

What have I done the last 5 months if THIS is so beautiful???

After a shower I treated myself to a 90minutes facial treatment, had some lunch, a granny nap and then it was about time to pick-up Eva from the airport. 

The hotel has it's own boat shuttle to the next skytrain station and even though I had to change trains 2 times I was surprised and excited how easy it is to get around. How friendly everybody is, how helpful... and how modern!

Unfortunately I missed Eva at the airport, waited 2,5 hours and finally went back to the hotel just to find her stuff in the room already. After another half an hour we finally met and started our 3weeks-vacation together with a glass of white wine...

The next morning we enjoyed the huge breakfast buffet and went off along the river Chao Praya to visit the most famous sights like Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), the Grand Palace and the Temple with the lying Buddha.

Even though it was hot and exhausting to walk around all day and as usual we forgot to take regular rests or just to eat something, we somehow still found the energy to go out to famous Khao San Road at night, where we enjoyed drinks, food, massages, watching tourists chasing souvenirs, and live music.

The next day we headed to the weekend market Chatuchak with an abundance of souvenir stalls, which is impossible to screen within one day (maybe that's why it's called weekend market ;-)
Luckily the shops not offering the usual cheap tourist t-shirts and souvenirs were fewer, and we got us some nice memories for ourselves.
Over a coconut for lunch we decided to go to the other end of the shopping scale next, which is the enormous Siam Paragon Shopping Mall.

The best thing of this mall is the food court and the aquarium, as we still can't afford Gucci handbags and Jimmy Choo shoes.

The exhausting element of these Bangkok days is pretty much the constant swaps between oven-hot and freezing cold whenever you enter or leave the mall, the skytrain, the hotel etc. So always bring a cardigan or you will get sick soon.
So another day finished and we enjoyed sunset from the river, admiring our hotel (the rightest tower) and the views from our balcony.

On our last half day we boarded a longtail boat to roam the canals, passing more temples, the cute shrines in front of every house, witnessing daily life along the water and visiting the orchid farm.
It's amazing that even though the water is brackish-brown and lots of rubbish is floating along, it somehow still is full of life. We saw a monitor lizard, tons of fish and birds. And we saw people including "their" canals into every aspect of daily life, be it washing dishes, washing cloths, washing themselves, cooking, tooth brushing or simply as a kids' playground... and these are just the things we have seen...

I can't point at a certain fact why I love Bangkok. I guess I'm just so emotional about it because the contrast to Africa and India is so big. Whatever it is, this is the most livable city I've seen in a long time. You can find everything in here: bargains and luxury, Padthai for 20Baht and Kobe Steak for 1000Baht, you can dress well for less and you can find all the international designers, you find stray dogs in the rubbish bins of the street kitchens and super clean train stations, the Thais know how to entertain tourists, they are helpful and friendly and they always, always smile... Is there any reason why not to love that city???