Thailand Part 1: Arriving in crazy Bangkok: Khao San Road, Thai boxing and Chatuchak market

in #travelfeed5 years ago (edited)

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So as you know the past month after Steemfest I have been in Munich, Germany to safe some money for my next travels, spend Christmas with my family and join some of the meet ups.

But as it happens in Germany in December it got colder and colder and I just felt that I had to leave and get some sun soon. Some of the steemians were already joking about doing a meet up on New Years in Thailand, so I figured why not?! - And I booked a ticket.

Now I heard a lot about Thailand before, because it's one of the most popular destinations for Backpackers, especially young ones, doing their first Backpacker life steps. I mean Thailand's most important source of income is tourism. In 2015, 19 million tourists visited the country. Its capital, Bangkok, was the most visited city in the world in 2016.

It is really touristy here and there for not really what I am usually looking for. But still I also heard that it is easy to get around, pretty chilled, because people here are in fact pretty used to having tourism in their country and they have wonderful beaches... so how could I skip it?? - Sounded like something that I could need right now.

The officially Kingdom of Thailand borders Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Andaman Sea (part of the Indian Ocean) and the Gulf of Thailand.

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The capital of Thailand and by far the largest city in the country is Bangkok. The country is de jure a constitutional monarchy. King Bhumibol Adulyadej was head of state from 1946 until his death in 2016. Since December 1, 2016 his son Maha Vajiralongkorn is Thai king. You can see his picture all over the country and people here love him.

Since the coup of 22 May 2014, the military has been governing with dictatorial powers. Buddhism is the dominant religion of the country, almost 94 percent of the Thai people are committed to it, it is particularly promoted by the state, but is not an official state religion; 5.1% are Muslims.

So just after Christmas I took the plane in Munich heading to Abu Dhabi, where I would stay for 3 hours before taking the next plane to Bangkok. I was feeling pretty sick because of a bad cold, lot of work and stress at home. So the air conditioning in the plane and later in Abu Dhabi was killing me. I tried to stay as warm as possible covering myself up.

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@Martibis and my friend Fie (you know her from previous posts in Copenhagen and Island) where already in Bangkok waiting for me and @martibis even went to the airport to pick me up and get me to the airport, as he knew I was sick.

Unfortunately we couldn't land right away, because it had been raining a lot and the city was kind of flooded for a while. - So we landed in Pattaya instead and headed to Bangkok 1 hour late...

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So when I finally got there I looked like shit, feeling super sick hahaa.

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@martibis got me in a taxi and we went straight to Khaosan Road, where our hotel was located. The moment I got out of that taxi I could feel how my mood changed instantly. This was exactly what I needed, back to crazy!!

Khao San translated means "road of polished rice". This street is about 400 meters long and was built by the king. In the past, rice was mainly sold here. It has become known since the mid-1980s by its popularity by backpackers. The street is lined with several hotels, pubs, restaurants, antique shops, tailors, street vendors, tattoo shops and travel agencies.

During the day it seems rather inconspicuous, but at night the street is closed for cars and you can find the pure chaos! You have the feeling that there is nothing that does not exist. From massage, scorpions, pad thai, beer, buckets, clothes, jewelery over ping pong shows, hair extensions, manicures, tattoo or henna up to laugh gas, electric shocks and dance floors everything is covered. - I love it!!

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We just met up with my friend Fie and got some awesome Pad Thai with egg and chicken and a cold beer, as I was starving and super tired. It was already 2am! - Just after 2 hours in Thailand I felt already like new born and super happy!

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The next morning my friend Fie and me decided to chill a bit at our awesome rooftop pool at the hotel in the morning and enjoy the sun and the view for a bit with great breakfast.

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In the afternoon @martibis came by to pick us up.

From there we took a tuk tuk to explore the city a bit. For me it was still so weird, that everybody here drives at the left side of the street haha. But the ride was a lot of fun! We put music on and tried not to fall off the tuk tuk.

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Our first stop was the Thai boxing fight at Channel 7 stadium.

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You can go there for free every Sunday from 14:30pm on and see how the Thai boxers fight each other while the locals shout at them and bet on them. It is super crowded and hard to get through at first, but after a while you find a good place to stand and watch.

Money just goes from one side to the other .. the locals are betting on punshes, kicks etc.. I tried hard following their hand signs and the money exchange to understand the system, but I couldn't find any logic in it. Pretty impressive to see it though. After the first few rounds it also got really tough for the fighters and they even were bleeding a bit..

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Once the fight was over we had seen enough and went out to get to our next stop. The winner was standing outside giving an interview and we used the chance to get a pic with him. He was actually pretty nice and felt happy with 2 girls in his arms ;)

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From there it was pretty close to the big chatuchak market.

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It is considered a paradise for shoppers who like to haggle and is considered the largest market in Thailand.

The Chatuchak market covers an area of ​​1.13 square kilometers, which is used by more than 10,000 stalls and small shops. Also a park, the Chatuchak Park, is nearby and invites you to take a break. Between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors are coming by daily, with most stands and shops open on Saturdays and Sundays only.

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The offer ranges from clothing, food, household items and furniture, antiques and antique books and magazines, Thai handcrafts to devotional and live animals.

so after that we just went back to the city center, got some food, went back to the hostel and picked up our stuff to get ready for our flight to Phuket, where we would meet @daveonarrival and spend New Years with him. But more about that soon so stay tuned.

As always I hope you enjoyed reading my post and I am grateful for every Upvote, Resteem and Comment, as you are supporting my travels with it!!

Click the map to discover my other adventures!

Cheers,
Liz

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Looks like really fun times... apart from the plane ride 😐

I guess I'm pretty conventional 😂 as my first ever backpacking trip was to Thailand. Did similar to you, straight off the plane, in a cab with a friendly Danish couple who wanted to share the fare, and to Koh San Road. I spent 2 months in Thailand that trip and went from one end of the country to the other finishing with learning scuba diving in Koh phi phi. It was an awesome experience. Best wishes for the rest of your trip in the land of smiles Liz 😁

Hey yes we headed down to phuket after and got stuck in kho phi phi because of the storm. I did some diving in kho lanta but the visibility was still a bit bad cause of the storm. from there we went to krabi railay beach and now we are in bangkok heading to the north for the next two weeks or so. Hard to find the time to post about it but its coming soon ;) Many people hate koh san road cause its pretty touristy but I love the chaos! was just great to be back on the road after germany i guess. Thanks for stopping by. Cheers, Liz

Railay was my fav beach in the whole of Thailand. That overhanging cliff on the far side of the peninsula is so amazing. I also made it to Koh lanta but didn't do any diving there as I was pretty deep in lurve in a holiday romance lol.

Best diving in the south to do, if you have time, is to go on a liveaboard to the similian islands. I wrote 3 blogs on steem about that trip scuba diving... It was what made me fall in love with scuba.

🐟🐬🐠

North is so cool too. Chiang Mai is an awesome city... Especially if you like temples 😂

P.s. I'm one of those who wasn't a massive fan of Koh San road. I didn't dislike it, but only stayed for 4 days. Just a bit too hectic for me. I was 31 then on my first ever backpacking trip. Ha ha, a late comer to the joys of traveling.

right i understand that. It seemed pretty busy now after coming back from the islands haha railay beach was also my favorite!! so beautiful and not too touristy! I got my scuba in belize.. I have to admit that the coral there is just awesome!! i got pretty spoiled diving there i guess.. we saw so much there. but well.. it was still good here.. we saw caves and different fish. We did a lot at kho lanta! was nice too.. I hope i find time to post about it soon. Take care mate, liz

Looks like you had lots of fun there! :) Take care - I heard about your scooter accident. Hope you are Ok now?

hey, sorry just saw your comment haha. yes im doing much better.. but it was a long and painful way. still got lucky though. could have been way worse.

Your adventures sound so cool! We are also currently traveling around Thailand so it's nice to read about others experiences too.

New years eve was so crazy in Bangkok (you should have seen the fire works!) and the city obviously was even crazier in my opinion. Few days there was enough. We also went to Chatuchak market, so we might have been there at the same time! Haha.

By the way, if you need to relax after Chiang mai and are planning to head back south, I recommend the quiet and small Koh Jum near Lanta. It's so small that there's not much you can do there, but it's a perfect place to calm down.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your trip!

Unfortunately I am not coming back south again. We are in Chiang Mai now and head to Pai after. In 10 days I fly back to Europe from Bangkok. Where are you guys now?

O this is so good. I've been to Thailand recently and it is truly a culture shock we'd like to say. Did you like the music during the boxing match? 😉

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Some things are really a culture shock yes, but I love that about traveling, that everything is so different ;) Yes the music was fun.

awesome... this is a really cool picture... hope to see more about that... which Cam did you use? greetings from asia

Hey Jason, where about in Thailand do you live? I used several

unfortunately Jason never replies to anyone and also uses the same variation of a comment towards hundreds of users weekly. https://steemit.com/@jasonjourney/comments :(

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Thank you so much I appreciate that.

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This happened on khaosan road a few months ago... Hello from KL Malaysia enjoy the Thai life

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Haha really?? I hope it was planned though. looks well done actually.

Loosely planned like my entire life lol.. I simply knew I wanted the original piece covered up and that was the time to do it. The rest was a combination of past experiences, intuition, and fate. Thanks though I'm quite pleased with it, the artist was super committed once he saw I wasn't looking for the typical one night in Bangkok thing..

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reading your post it was like being there with you what an amazing experience,

Thanks @tattoodjav. Hope you are doing fine :) Glad to see you are still around.

Most welcome and yes I am doing good and still here

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