On the other hand, Khao San, is the place you really want to visit in Bangkok. It is the liveliest street with countless restaurants, cafes, bars, massage and tattoo salons, stalls selling fake clothes, fresh juices and roasted insect. I definitely recommend grasshoppers, they taste like crisps. I would avoid scorpions, because they sell it with the stinger. I almost ate one like that, but just in time one man ran to me and stopped me. I could have suffocated myself. Spiders and worms are neutral.
The most intense experience from Bangkok, is actually really provincial. We sat in the street cafe in Khao San, enjoying Chang (Thai most popular beer, really rich and flavour and very refreshing, not too bitter), at the opposite table, there sat a young man, English, in hipsterish travelling attire and cigarette in mouth talking Thai to a local friend. Seeing this man changed my overview on life, western culture and priorities. These moments make you want to forget your life, go to Asia and be that gorgeous English-man.
Just hour from Bangkok, there is totally different world, packed streets change into peaceful countryside, alas equally dirty. Thai floating market is a bonanza for everyone who wishes to try exotic fruit, traditional cuisine and buy trinkets of all kinds. I took a boat ride through the channels, passing traditional houses made of grass, light wood. People sat on their porches, smoking cheap Thai cigarettes. They seemed happy, calm and balanced. Mangostan, rambutan, lychee, durian, dragon fruit, tamarind, some of the fruit I have tried. Fresh, juicy and delicious (except durian, which is the smelliest and least tasty food I have ever tried, it smells of crap, onions and sweat, it is even forbidden to eat durians on some places such as hotels and airports due to awful smell). Definitely, fresh coconut water directly from a shell is a must, delicious flavour and hydration at the same time is a saviour in 45 degrees sun.
In different direction from Bangkok, ancient capital Ayutthaya is stretching in all its beauty. Stupas (bell like constructions contaning relics) and golden statues of Buddha are omnipresent. It is said that pieces of gold that represent prosperity and health, can be stuck to any part of Buddha´s body you wish to heal. There is an elephant orphanage in Ayutthaya, we took a visit. I fed the animals, patted them... They represent might and serenity. They make you a better person, at least for a while.
Just hour from Bangkok, there is totally different world, packed streets change into peaceful countryside, alas equally dirty. Thai floating market is a bonanza for everyone who wishes to try exotic fruit, traditional cuisine and buy trinkets of all kinds. I took a boat ride through the channels, passing traditional houses made of grass, light wood. People sat on their porches, smoking cheap Thai cigarettes. They seemed happy, calm and balanced. Mangostan, rambutan, lychee, durian, dragon fruit, tamarind, some of the fruit I have tried. Fresh, juicy and delicious (except durian, which is the smelliest and least tasty food I have ever tried, it smells of crap, onions and sweat, it is even forbidden to eat durians on some places such as hotels and airports due to awful smell). Definitely, fresh coconut water directly from a shell is a must, delicious flavour and hydration at the same time is a saviour in 45 degrees sun.
In different direction from Bangkok, ancient capital Ayutthaya is stretching in all its beauty. Stupas (bell like constructions contaning relics) and golden statues of Buddha are omnipresent. It is said that pieces of gold that represent prosperity and health, can be stuck to any part of Buddha´s body you wish to heal. There is an elephant orphanage in Ayutthaya, we took a visit. I fed the animals, patted them... They represent might and serenity. They make you a better person, at least for a while.
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