August 9, 2014
Bangkok is one of the most congested cities I have ever seen. I was struck by that when I first travel to Bangkok almost 15 years ago. Since then, they have added a skytrain which has done little to ease the congested traffic that runs all hours of the day and night.
I chose my hotel, Hyatt Erawan in the business district of Bangkok because of the proximity to the Skytrain. It would make getting in and out a whole lot easier.
As with most cities, touristy areas often look nice than the business or local areas. Overall, Bangkok is not the most attractive city but it is interesting. Shopkeepers make full use of the sidewalks in front of them, to keep traffic moving there are pedestrian bridges of the streets. There seems to be bridges over bridges.
While walking around I was also struck by how everything is manual. It was street cleaning morning and a water tank rode down the street spraying water. Behind it were woman with brooms sweeping away. A scaffold in front of a building was going up at a nearby building. There was no elevator, men climbed up it and then passed materials up the scaffold by hand. Imagine that job in 100 very humid degrees.
Next to the hotel was a McDonald’s. Of course I had to pop my head in. Ronald out front was shown giving a traditional Thai greeting. I noticed that the Skytrain stops all have a McDonald’s stand. I loved the French Fry hats they wear.
I accomplished what I needed to and headed out to Hua Hin! Unfortunately, we took the local mini-van to Hua Hin instead of a private car or taxi. I was cramped into this back seat which was up higher than the rest of the seats which meant, I could see nothing on the three hour ride to Hua Hin. Lesson learned!
The Skytrain looks clean.
It is very clean, I didn’t see any graffiti.