StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I really liked Dubai. There was a buzz about the place - different buzzes, depending on where you stood, not to mention the air-conditioned bus stops. Its easy to condemn places we don't like, and criticise them, but it might be more appropriate to avoid being judgemental, and understand what the place was like, swapping objective or complimentary terms for prejorative terms like "concrete jungle". You might call it 'developed', or 'modern', or 'modernist', or 'Corbussien'; 'metropolitan' or 'cosmopolitan'. 'Bustling'. Whatever. I'd far rather live in Bangkok than in the boondocks with the inbreds. SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samran Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? I've only smelt it from a distance.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwinclapham Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Have a safe flight back Blether! and enjoy NSW. I would very much enjoy one of your topics on Oz through the Blethering Eyes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kananga Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I would say I am a city person, I love Singapore, Shanghai and London among many others. I do agree that Dubai is souless but I'm trying to get a handle on BKK and I can't do it. I think my happiest day here was walking around Lumpini Park feeding the fish, and being surprised to see turtles in the pond. Loved that. That was just after I had been touted to deatn at the Royal Palace and had the usual run-in with the broken metre BKK taxi driver. Where is the soul in this city? where is the joy? I would love to find it. Singapore is soulless. In fact its more than soulless. It actually sucks the soul right out of you. And it's prohibitively expensive these days. Shanghai is far more polluted than Bangkok and the people more agressive. Driving standards even worse. Personally I couldnt think to two opposite ends of the worse than Bangkok spectrum to use. Spend a few hours exploring the backstreets of Chinatown between Yarowat road and the river, take some of the river boats over to Thonburi or up to Koh Kret, spend some time walking around Ari. Go to Khao san and laugh at some hilariously dressed psudo-hippy budget tourists, take a bicycle tour over to Bangkachao. Bangkok has pretty much everything most people could ask for, you just need to work a bit at finding it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerryk Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? I've only smelt it from a distance.... I hope you don't mind me soapboxing your absolutely ignorant reply. I mean after all. The Bleather starts a perfectly good Bangkok bashing thread, you know they call it the big smoke because the air can kill you, not as bad as Chiang Mai of course but still killer air in Bangkok. Back to the Bangkok bashing. And you instead of going along with stories of starving children, rancid garbage eating snakes or dead rats trying to find Chinese hi so burial places suggests that Pattaya smells. Pattaya doesn't smell. It is on the Gulf of Thailand; air blows all over Pattaya daily and may I add not only air blows or sucks as the case may be but lots of things in Pattaya do the same. Bangkok smells. Chiang Mai smells but not Pattaya. That's how you can tell the difference if you wake up after a night of overindulgence. Take a deep breath and if you cough you are in Bangkok or Chiang Mai not Pattaya. The only thing that is notable about Pattaya as opposed to Bangkok is the hookers charge twice as much in Bangkok for half the work. If that trips your trigger Bangkok is certainly the place for overpriced rat faced aggressive trannies and hookers who think the sun rises and sets on their assets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kananga Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 (edited) Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? I've only smelt it from a distance.... Haha, was that the stench of the actual place or of the dirty old foreigners that fly into psychopathic rages when you mention its little more than a cesspool of Russian wanna be gangsters; daft, randy old farts with hypertension and pug nosed, bandy legged Issan whores? Edited April 23, 2012 by Kananga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samran Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I hope you don't mind me soapboxing your absolutely ignorant reply. I mean after all. The Bleather starts a perfectly good Bangkok bashing thread, you know they call it the big smoke because the air can kill you, not as bad as Chiang Mai of course but still killer air in Bangkok. Back to the Bangkok bashing. And you instead of going along with stories of starving children, rancid garbage eating snakes or dead rats trying to find Chinese hi so burial places suggests that Pattaya smells. Pattaya doesn't smell. It is on the Gulf of Thailand; air blows all over Pattaya daily and may I add not only air blows or sucks as the case may be but lots of things in Pattaya do the same. Bangkok smells. Chiang Mai smells but not Pattaya. That's how you can tell the difference if you wake up after a night of overindulgence. Take a deep breath and if you cough you are in Bangkok or Chiang Mai not Pattaya. The only thing that is notable about Pattaya as opposed to Bangkok is the hookers charge twice as much in Bangkok for half the work. If that trips your trigger Bangkok is certainly the place for overpriced rat faced aggressive trannies and hookers who think the sun rises and sets on their assets. bet you are glad to have go THAT of your chest... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samran Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? I've only smelt it from a distance.... Haha, was that the stench of the actual place or of the dirty old foreigners Hard to tell. Very hard to tell..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brit1984 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 (edited) The only thing that is notable about Pattaya as opposed to Bangkok is the hookers charge twice as much in Bangkok for half the work. I assume you are not a professional travel writer. Edited April 23, 2012 by brit1984 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerryk Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 The only thing that is notable about Pattaya as opposed to Bangkok is the hookers charge twice as much in Bangkok for half the work. I assume you are not a professional travel writer. Anyone would assume that because you cut the part about, starving children, rancid garbage eating snakes and dead rats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gers1873 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 The farther removed you become from the tourist spots the more interesting BKK becomes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I would say I am a city person, I love Singapore, Shanghai and London among many others. I do agree that Dubai is souless but I'm trying to get a handle on BKK and I can't do it. I think my happiest day here was walking around Lumpini Park feeding the fish, and being surprised to see turtles in the pond. Loved that. That was just after I had been touted to deatn at the Royal Palace and had the usual run-in with the broken metre BKK taxi driver. Where is the soul in this city? where is the joy? I would love to find it. Singapore is soulless. In fact its more than soulless. It actually sucks the soul right out of you. And it's prohibitively expensive these days. Shanghai is far more polluted than Bangkok and the people more agressive. Driving standards even worse. Personally I couldnt think to two opposite ends of the worse than Bangkok spectrum to use. Spend a few hours exploring the backstreets of Chinatown between Yarowat road and the river, take some of the river boats over to Thonburi or up to Koh Kret, spend some time walking around Ari. Go to Khao san and laugh at some hilariously dressed psudo-hippy budget tourists, take a bicycle tour over to Bangkachao. Bangkok has pretty much everything most people could ask for, you just need to work a bit at finding it. I've never lived in Shanghai, so I can't really comment on it. I did really enjoy my time in Singapore, and never really wanted for anything, though in any case I don't chew gum or use hard drugs. However, unlike Shanghai, Singapore and Dubai, my recent experience and easily available reference sources indicate that Bangkok is in Thailand. Maybe not the "Real Thailand" that seems to exist in the imaginations of so many of our fellow posters (and also in the Singha ads) but certainly in the Thailand whose borders are protected by the Royal Thai Immigration Department. SC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geriatrickid Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 The farther removed you become from the tourist spots the more interesting BKK becomes. Indeed. I always let go a sigh of relief as soon as the plane gets off the tarmac and I start getting as far away as possible. Bangkok is not a city I want to be in when something goes wrong, Whether it is flooding, rampaging mobs, speeding brats in Mercedes, or epidemics, Bangkok in panic is a scarey place. I'll take a small city or town any day over a polluted, congested mega city. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farang000999 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 It is always strange to me how people seem to be so angry that they can't litter and stick their chewed gum on a bench in Singapore. And, oh my god, they give you the death penalty for drug smuggling as opposed to 25 years in prison. Big difference. More than likely though, the more "Westernized" a city is, the less some of our members will appreciate it. "Westernized" of course being a key word to mean "Population is bathed, educated and does not consider me wealthy or a novelty". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 It is always strange to me how people seem to be so angry that they can't litter and stick their chewed gum on a bench in Singapore. And, oh my god, they give you the death penalty for drug smuggling as opposed to 25 years in prison. Big difference. More than likely though, the more "Westernized" a city is, the less some of our members will appreciate it. "Westernized" of course being a key word to mean "Population is bathed, educated and does not consider me wealthy or a novelty". Who doesn't like Singapore? There was one post earlier, relating ot the lack of Motown there, but apart from musical shortcomings - and the fact that drink is expensive - no-one really seems to be complaining. Talking of soul, I went to the Reggae Bar with my Iranian neighbours, and the drink was expensive there, as well; not particularly so, but its got to the stage now where if I'm unhappy about the price, or the music, or the colour of my fellow drinkers or their humour, I just move on. That's just reminded me of the Brickfields Cafe, which was dingier than Hitler's Bunker, but also not relevant. I quite like the buzzes in SIngapore, but if you're planning a low-budget drinking and whoring trip, you might want to stay away from alcohol in Singapore. SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kananga Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 It is always strange to me how people seem to be so angry that they can't litter and stick their chewed gum on a bench in Singapore. And, oh my god, they give you the death penalty for drug smuggling as opposed to 25 years in prison. Big difference. More than likely though, the more "Westernized" a city is, the less some of our members will appreciate it. "Westernized" of course being a key word to mean "Population is bathed, educated and does not consider me wealthy or a novelty". You mean like Tokyo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nocturn Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Saphan Kwai is a 'Thai' part of town. There aren't all that many westerners up there. I always stay there when I go to Bangkok. Saphan Kwai may not have alot of westerners, but it certainly has its fair share of something else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Saphan Kwai is a 'Thai' part of town. There aren't all that many westerners up there. I always stay there when I go to Bangkok. Saphan Kwai may not have alot of westerners, but it certainly has its fair share of something else... MRT stations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razzler1973 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Of course BKK is as much Thailand as any big city is part of that country. In the same way you get out BKK to see 'the real Thailand' why not get out of places such as Soi Cowboy and see other parts of BKK. I am a city person (amongst other things) and I appreciate a bustling city and BKK is great, I spent a long time in Hong Kong which was also great. I do enjoy various parts of Thailand but I still do genuinely like BKK and I don't really hang around girlie bars. Not that I am doing anything cultural, I do like drinking and eating too much but I'd perhaps stroll down Soi Cowboy in a afternoon if that at most Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wana Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 @arthurwait I think it's the concrete jungle aspect of the place that depresses me, I suppose the rush to modernity has crushed the soul of the place. Maybe it will find it again. @edwininclapham very valid points about having to integrate into the city. My visits have been superficial tourist type trips and I haven't had the time or ability to create a circle of friends in BKK. The guy I was visiting last night moved to BKK from CM 3 months ago and hated it too, he is relocating to CM tomorrow. @phuturica I agree re Soi Cowboy, I couldn't believe the first impression someone wanted to give me of the city was that [place. I did stay at a 5 star hotel next to the river last year, I've forgotten the name. I enjoyed using the river taxi though I didn't go on a cruise. I think I will need to put some effort into Bangkok, I'm on my way back to Scotland right now however I will book a city trip to BKK in July, that will be a good break as I am heading to see pals at the Hunter Valley in Australia. It must be more than just one vast concrete jungle occupied by Thais. its a city of diversity ,from ultra poor to uber wealthy All classes of people are represented in bangkok You can eat a bowl of rice soup (a meal ) for 25 thb in a side street or you can go into a expensive restaurant and a glass of orange juice is 500 thb and you dont even want to look t the prices the main courses cost Theres hi-so young people shopping in designer stores liike gucci and prada and right outside theres a beggar with no legs collecting coins or a homeless woman and a baby sitting in the dirt it really is what you make of it ,having money helps of course but you can live reasonably well as most thais do on a very modest sum every month there is not many international cities where you can rent an apartment in the centre for just a few thousand thb per month or even a house for that price if you go a bit further away from the centre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rimmer Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Off topic post discussing specifics of prostitution removed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I'm guessing that theBlether has been paid by troublemakers to raise this thread, and shortly the discussion will drift to border temples, or the far South,.. Is Berwick an English town? SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarryP Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Saphan Kwai is a 'Thai' part of town. There aren't all that many westerners up there. I always stay there when I go to Bangkok. Saphan Kwai may not have alot of westerners, but it certainly has its fair share of something else... MRT stations? Yes, I am afraid that that went right over my head too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAJIC Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? I've only smelt it from a distance.... Haha, was that the stench of the actual place or of the dirty old foreigners that fly into psychopathic rages when you mention its little more than a cesspool of Russian wanna be gangsters; daft, randy old farts with hypertension and pug nosed, bandy legged Issan whores? And jealous broke,young bucks,desperately trying to make ends meet,in order to stay in Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 ... ... Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? ... ... And jealous broke,young bucks,desperately trying to make ends meet,in order to stay in Thailand. I've only ever been there on family holidays. Is Pattaya in Thailand? What about the Golden Mile complex? Joe Bananas'? SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kananga Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 ... ... Just be glad you're not in Pattaya !!!!! Bangkok fantastic city !!!!!! 5555555 Regards Why bash Pattaya? Have you lived there? ... ... And jealous broke,young bucks,desperately trying to make ends meet,in order to stay in Thailand. I've only ever been there on family holidays. Is Pattaya in Thailand? What about the Golden Mile complex? Joe Bananas'? SC Golden Mile is horrible. Dirty and smells worse than Pattaya. Quality of restaurant food has also gone downhill in the last year or so. Sundays is construction workers day off so you have to try and dodge them stumbling around drunk pissing against the walls in the car park from about 11am onwards. Joe Bananas is in Hong Kong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draftvader Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 theblether I have a lot of time for your musings and you and I have, inadvertently, supported each other on a small, but increasing, number of threads on here. You might well be a Scot and me a English/Welshman, but we do seem to agree. On this one, however, I can't let you have it. I have traveled far and wide in the world (another HUGE story) and seen a lot of what Thailand has to offer (there is just one small stretch of railway line I have not traveled yet). There is so much to see and love about Bangkok. There are days when it just does nothing for me, but so many times I turn a corner, slow my pace, and the world explodes into life around me. The joy in getting into the tightest lanes in Chinatown, or finding a quiet little district where life is more like a village, or heading down a soi like the one I live in where there is no motorised transport allowed and life still happens in a 3' wide path with numerous little back-soi where the children run screaming or fish for snails. In my soi I say "Good morning" (in 2 languages) to around 20 people each day on my way up to the market or Tesco. In my district people know the name of my daughter (both parents English) by name and I don't know them at all. My local market has numerous people coming and going, but if any refer to me as "The Farang" there is a chorus of "not this one". My local monastery has a lovely Thai-Aussie monk (heading back to Sydney for a while due to ill health in the family) who would always stop for a chat (about hacking from time to time!) and out the back of there is the foot-ferry to the other side where there is an amazing street for all sorts of food. Bangkok has a pace, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, get it wrong and you miss it all. You NEED to be in tune. Don't believe me? Come down and stay in my soi for a few days...seriously. I can agree that it is tough to live here sometimes and I CAN think of better places to live, but if you have a reason to be here then you can make a good life out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kananga Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 theblether I have a lot of time for your musings and you and I have, inadvertently, supported each other on a small, but increasing, number of threads on here. You might well be a Scot and me a English/Welshman, but we do seem to agree. On this one, however, I can't let you have it. I have traveled far and wide in the world (another HUGE story) and seen a lot of what Thailand has to offer (there is just one small stretch of railway line I have not traveled yet). There is so much to see and love about Bangkok. There are days when it just does nothing for me, but so many times I turn a corner, slow my pace, and the world explodes into life around me. The joy in getting into the tightest lanes in Chinatown, or finding a quiet little district where life is more like a village, or heading down a soi like the one I live in where there is no motorised transport allowed and life still happens in a 3' wide path with numerous little back-soi where the children run screaming or fish for snails. In my soi I say "Good morning" (in 2 languages) to around 20 people each day on my way up to the market or Tesco. In my district people know the name of my daughter (both parents English) by name and I don't know them at all. My local market has numerous people coming and going, but if any refer to me as "The Farang" there is a chorus of "not this one". My local monastery has a lovely Thai-Aussie monk (heading back to Sydney for a while due to ill health in the family) who would always stop for a chat (about hacking from time to time!) and out the back of there is the foot-ferry to the other side where there is an amazing street for all sorts of food. Bangkok has a pace, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, get it wrong and you miss it all. You NEED to be in tune. Don't believe me? Come down and stay in my soi for a few days...seriously. I can agree that it is tough to live here sometimes and I CAN think of better places to live, but if you have a reason to be here then you can make a good life out of it. Where exactly do you live? On Nut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StreetCowboy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 theblether I have a lot of time for your musings and you and I have, inadvertently, supported each other on a small, but increasing, number of threads on here. You might well be a Scot and me a English/Welshman, but we do seem to agree. On this one, however, I can't let you have it. I have traveled far and wide in the world (another HUGE story) and seen a lot of what Thailand has to offer (there is just one small stretch of railway line I have not traveled yet). There is so much to see and love about Bangkok. There are days when it just does nothing for me, but so many times I turn a corner, slow my pace, and the world explodes into life around me. The joy in getting into the tightest lanes in Chinatown, or finding a quiet little district where life is more like a village, or heading down a soi like the one I live in where there is no motorised transport allowed and life still happens in a 3' wide path with numerous little back-soi where the children run screaming or fish for snails. In my soi I say "Good morning" (in 2 languages) to around 20 people each day on my way up to the market or Tesco. In my district people know the name of my daughter (both parents English) by name and I don't know them at all. My local market has numerous people coming and going, but if any refer to me as "The Farang" there is a chorus of "not this one". My local monastery has a lovely Thai-Aussie monk (heading back to Sydney for a while due to ill health in the family) who would always stop for a chat (about hacking from time to time!) and out the back of there is the foot-ferry to the other side where there is an amazing street for all sorts of food. Bangkok has a pace, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, get it wrong and you miss it all. You NEED to be in tune. Don't believe me? Come down and stay in my soi for a few days...seriously. I can agree that it is tough to live here sometimes and I CAN think of better places to live, but if you have a reason to be here then you can make a good life out of it. Where exactly do you live? On Nut? Its all aliens out there, mate! SC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kananga Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 theblether I have a lot of time for your musings and you and I have, inadvertently, supported each other on a small, but increasing, number of threads on here. You might well be a Scot and me a English/Welshman, but we do seem to agree. On this one, however, I can't let you have it. I have traveled far and wide in the world (another HUGE story) and seen a lot of what Thailand has to offer (there is just one small stretch of railway line I have not traveled yet). There is so much to see and love about Bangkok. There are days when it just does nothing for me, but so many times I turn a corner, slow my pace, and the world explodes into life around me. The joy in getting into the tightest lanes in Chinatown, or finding a quiet little district where life is more like a village, or heading down a soi like the one I live in where there is no motorised transport allowed and life still happens in a 3' wide path with numerous little back-soi where the children run screaming or fish for snails. In my soi I say "Good morning" (in 2 languages) to around 20 people each day on my way up to the market or Tesco. In my district people know the name of my daughter (both parents English) by name and I don't know them at all. My local market has numerous people coming and going, but if any refer to me as "The Farang" there is a chorus of "not this one". My local monastery has a lovely Thai-Aussie monk (heading back to Sydney for a while due to ill health in the family) who would always stop for a chat (about hacking from time to time!) and out the back of there is the foot-ferry to the other side where there is an amazing street for all sorts of food. Bangkok has a pace, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, get it wrong and you miss it all. You NEED to be in tune. Don't believe me? Come down and stay in my soi for a few days...seriously. I can agree that it is tough to live here sometimes and I CAN think of better places to live, but if you have a reason to be here then you can make a good life out of it. Where exactly do you live? On Nut? Its all aliens out there, mate! SC Try not to venture south of the klong if I have to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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