Bangkok, city of temptations and dodgyness

Bangkok is BIG and the transition with Laos is not easy.

It is the city of temptations for a couple of things: food, shopping and obviously the lady boys.

First the food. I have not spoken about it but I intend to eat local food only and therefore Asian food until I come to Australia. It is a bit stupid I admit but this is one of the small games I decided to play on the road. On the first morning walking in Bangkok I felt Bangkok was teasing me: Mc Donalds opened 24/24 (the first ones I have seen since I left Amsterdam), pizzas en veux-tu en voila and menus full of Westener food. That was really hard to resist ( I was pretty hungry that morning and I did not feel like having a fried rice (again!!). Finally I went for some fruits and later on I spoiled myself with some French fries (from Mc Donald, my favourite with the ones of my mamie), the only Westerner food I had since I left (5 times max over 3 months, that is not too bad).
The second act took place in Koh Tao. Those who know me for years remember how I used to have Nutella almost as my main ingredient. Just thinking at these baguettes cut in twos full of Nutella makes me feel pretty hungry. Well, I decided that I will not eat Nutella until I come back to Europe. That is really challenging and so far I have coped with it. But last week some people probably aware of the challenge played a very sneaky trick to me. I ordered a chocolate pancake and the pancake came not with chocolate but with Nutella. Well, believe me or not but I refused it and asked for some sugar instead (Erika my diving buddy can confirm).
The last act took place two days ago, at 5 am after being dropped in Bangkok by the bus back from Koh Tao. I was waiting for 7 am, did not have diner and there it was, opened among the closed places, the Burger King and yes I went there, had some chicken stuff with french fries. Well, with Flo and Greg arriving I knew it would be difficult to resist but that is still a minor breach of the rule.

The second temptation in Bangkok is shopping. Shopping addicts, never end a trip in Bangkok just before coming back to Europe, this will certainly create a hole in your wallet. Bangkok is just many shopping malls next to markets. I went to the famous week end market (Chatuchak est son petit nom) and with itsover 10,000 stands I stayed more than 5 hours there (my record ever) and bought, well, quite some clothes but I have an excuse because the ones I had are quite tired after almost 3 months of South-East Asia

The last temptation, well, that's the kind you find in the red light district. You see many old guys with younger Thai girls but I have to admit the number of girls behaving as ladies (or the contrary I have no idea in real) is quite scary and you really to have an adventurer to go for a local. When I got dropped in the backpackers street at 3.30 am I could see that yeah, Bangkok is really dodgy. Drunk tourists, holding (or being held) by Thais with other locals (taxis, etc...) ready to "take advantage" of the situation.

Overall I do not like Thailand and I would leave to Japan if my friends would not come to visit me. The country has many plagues of the mass tourism: it is rather expensive compared to its neighbours, the people are not friendly (they have seen too many tourists before, they do not smile anymore), you hardly can bargain (because of the holiday goers thinking this is so cheap compared to Europe/USA), everything is made to make you pay (bus dropping you at 3.30 am in Bangkok so that you have to take a room for the few remaining hours of the night ) and you have more white people on Koh Tao than locals. After Laos this is a real shock and a disappointment when you imagine that could happen there as well (let's protect Laos).

Anyway, I already start working on my trip to Japan (3 weeks and I am there) and I found out that you have to prepare things in advance there, you cannot really turn up on the day and hope to find something affordable. But at the time this looks so amazing that I cannot wait to be there.