Bangkok it was the year 2009, I remembered this trip so well since it was kind of bittersweet. Bangkok, Thailand is one of our dream destinations back then when we were younger (imagine teen years), we weren’t really amazed with what Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia would offer for our first international travel together.
Bangkok as we knew it offers really cheap food, attractions, lodging and thrills. We booked our flights set on December to enjoy the cooler yet sunny months of the Thai capital city. We were joined with our favorite buddies and decided to stay with one of our good Cebuano friends on her apartment. Everything was all set, flights checked, place to sleep in checked up until the nightmare came.
Traveling before wasn’t really easy breezy for Filipinos, international flights were only in Manila. This was the first time we went to an international destination and had manila as our place to depart up until we got a close call of off loading.
You read that right. Offloading. I firmly still remember the feeling of getting questioned by Immigration Officers where they judged us based on our looks and HAIR!. It was pathetic to think that these officials told us that we are going to our backpacking destination as workers where we had full time jobs back at home. These Immigration officers also asked a lot of papers wherein we only got an hour left till our flights depart. In the end, we didn’t give any money since we provided our company ID’s on the last minute. We were really got frustrated because of the time running out.
We were able to pass immigration 30 minutes left for our flight to depart. It was quite frustrating yet a thrilling experience. I vowed on that day never to pass any Manila airport AGAIN. This was also the time when my wife really got sick with fever so I was bit afraid we couldn’t get in due to the recent “avian flu” or “sars” scare on those time.
Stars aligned and all is set for Bangkok, after the nightmare dreams became true. We were seated at a huge Philippine Airline flight for Bangkok. To ease our mind and nervous tensions, we had complimentary wine served!
On our first day in Bangkok, we fell in love with the place. The warm people, the smiles, food, shopping, the hustle and bustle of the city. It was indeed what I thought it would be.
We spent nights drinking and exploring the local markets, food, cafes, taking quick walks, shopping for grocery at the nearest tesco lotus. It was really simple yet enjoyable up until my wife got really sick that we decided to take her to the emergency room of an international hospital. We took her to seek medical assistance DRUNK! Everyone was loud, enjoying the cold chang beer, leo beer and hongtongs until we were in the hospital.
The international hospital became a mess, my wife got a couple of drinks but still calm and composed whereas my friends got totally drunk and decided to sleep on the hospital lounge, puking all over the place. It seems like they were the one needing medical assistance! Ha!
My wife got better after rehydrating herself and taking medications. We were able to continue touring Bangkok by visiting Khaosan Road a street where all people meet from around the world!
Khaosan Road is a street that transforms at nighttime into a huge drinking area. We met new friends from all over the world, shared travel stories, lecture them about not getting ripped off, talked about how great our country the Philippines is all in good fun and conversations. Up until now, we still like to go to Khaosan for people watching, meet new friends and eat.
We also get the chance to enjoy the famous temples in Bangkok such as the Wat Pho, Wat Arun, Grand Palace but we fell into the Tuktuk trap that took us to see jewelery, small temples and some annoying tailors. Overall it was okay but it took out most of our precious time off. This was part of a Bangkok experience.
It was also a good experience to shop around Bangkok for cheap finds like platinum mall, chatuchak market and my wife and friends were able to visit Thailand’s modern art museum which they found really cool being creative and artistic individuals.
We spent a week long vacation in Bangkok, Thailand. All week we get to visit some interesting sites, taste food, know culture, meet new friends, getting wasted and other things this is why Thailand is one of my favorite travel destination.
