Bangkok impressions

Bangkok: the city of a million smells. I've never experienced somehing like this before. At each step you take you encounter another smell: from grilled meet, fried food, spices, massage oils to expensive parfumes...you can smell everything.

Bangkok: the city that never sleeps. No matter at what time we went for a walk on the streets of Bangkok, it was always full and crowded. The tuk-tuk, taxi drivers seem to never sleep: they are on the streets 24/7, offering a ride to wherever you want to go. If you get hungry at middnight, no problem. you will always find a small snack on the street.

Bangkok: the city of traffic. Skytrains with 2 levels, below that another 1 or 2 layers of roads with up to 6 lanes or even water with boats, underground you have the metro, and again everywere people of all nations.

Bangkok: the city where your are the alien. As a Westen-looking-person you will definately belong to a minority in thailand and pop out. White (Foreign) people are called "farang" by the thai. It´s very hard for the thai to put a fereng in the right draw, that´s why thai´s tend to throw every fereng in the draw for rich people. This is good and bad at the same time, you will allways be treated with alot of atention, but you are at the same time considerd as a source of money.

Bangkok: the city where everything is negotiatable. From a taxi drive to a piece of cloth you can bargain anything you want. I am not good at negotiating so I leave everything to my sweetheart. He's the one carring the money anyway. So whenever i see something I would like to buy I look at him and tell him in german that i want to have it and the price the seller asked for. This is the moment when my sweety jumps in. He asks the seller again: "so how much is it?". The seller tells the price. My man: "ohhh...we have a problem!!! what can we do abot it? you say 300, i say 150" and so does the negotiation go on. I just loved this "we have a problem"...i'm still laughing about it.

Bangkok: the city where the people are toooo friendly sometimes.
They constantly throw a smile at you and it´s hard to tell if it´s a real one because their eyes allways seam to play along. If you enter a hotel they will jump at you to help you with your bags, if you walk along they will ask you if you need a taxi or a tuk tuk, and where you are going. When you just want to wander around they will tell not to got this or that way because there will be gangsers and you should instead do this or that. Most of the time it´s better to ignore them and just keep on doing your thing.

Bangkok: the city that allways chews. The city lives after the motto: "eat all you can" and not "all you can eat" no matter where you are or what time it is you see people eating. at each corner of the street you can buy either meat on spit or a noodle soup or fresh fruits. you can always find some plastic chairs so there is a possibility for you to sit down and enjoy your meal...if you can...in the middle of the street with crowds walking by. But I have to admit one thing: thai food is delicious.
Diversity is the theme of bangkok when it comes down to food. In gernerall asian food doesen´t make you feel stuffed for a long time, just a couple of minutes after your last meal (and after experiencing some more smells) your appetite is back, and therefore you allways chew...

Bangkok: sex and the city. Everywhere you go, you see young thai girls holding the hands of old european men. I mean, everybody knows that Thailand is the land of prostitution but when you see it with your own eyes it's just sad. You walk on a street with night clubs and you see at least 3 to  10 girls outside waiting for somebody to "invite" them to his bedroom. On the streets you can buy viagra and other arousing "medicine". Prostitution is prohibited but actually it's more than tolerated.