Thailand. The first day. Arrival. Bangkok is a city of contrasts.
I don’t even know where to start....It seems to me that I dreamed of the mysterious Siam from birth, and after I figured out from some “smart” book that in a past life I was a Buddhist monk in Thailand, I realized that I and this country are made for each other. Joyfully telling her future husband this news, she expected to hear anything, but she heard that “this is a great option for a honeymoon. ” Not without problems and “presents” known in our country, I first issued a passport for a new surname, and then a foreign one (with bigger “presents”, but less problems). Our journey began with a trip to a well-known travel agency that cooperates with TEZ-tour, where we were offered an excellent travel option for 2 days in Bangkok plus 10 days in Pattaya. Prekrasnenko, on the street the month of February, and I'm looking for a swimsuit in the far corner of the closet, cheers, cheers, URRRRRAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
The honeymoon began with an 11-hour flight Kyiv-Bangkok, for experienced "flyers" it would seem boring, but for the first time I got on board the plane, everything was new, I, like the heroines of my favorite films, perched at the window, joyfully watching how the whole country divided into squares, a little nervous when my husband joked “but right now there will be a terrible zone of turbulence” (it’s good for him, he flew 20 times) and for the first time I tried plasticine food on the plane, which I also, surprisingly, liked. Then there was the airport - people with signs and seating on buses, and uuupppsss - my husband and I in jeans and T-shirts, leaving the airport doors, were instantly covered with a layer of sweat and dirt. Full oops!
Next time we will take into account - a T-shirt and shorts - this is the maximum !!!
We were lucky with the guide at the very beginning, a beautiful girl, obviously of Thai appearance, and with a cheerful smile got into the minibus with us (only then I realized that for Thailand a smile is not just a sign of greeting or good mood, but a lifestyle, and by the end travel even began to constantly smile herself, it's so cool) called her unpronounceable name, explained that today she advises everyone to relax and take a walk around the city, but tomorrow we will have an excursion to the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and a visit to the Center for the sale and manufacture of gold, which was of little interest to me as a researcher, but was included in the list of excursions for free.
In Bangkok, we were accommodated in a three-star hotel, which, after the flight and moving, seemed to us at least 5 *, especially considering its cleanliness, individual air conditioning and hot water around the clock - I hope it will be assigned at least 4 * soon. We left our things at the reception, and went out ourselves to buy something to eat, and just at that moment I began to consider Bangkok a city of contrasts - at first we tried for about 20 minutes to somehow cross the ultra-modern three-level road that was under our feet, above our head and generally everywhere in the visibility zone, pedestrian crossings, probably, had not yet been invented there, but all kinds of vehicles moved in a continuous continuous stream, when we finally mastered it, we were horrified by what our “clear eyes” presented ”- a small market, where fruits were lying on the floor, it smelled terribly of rotten fish, unsanitary conditions flourished, I could not force myself to buy food there. What a combination! Having a snack in the hotel lobby for a non-catastrophic amount, we finally went upstairs and both fell asleep as babies. Waking up at three o'clock local time, we decided to take a walk and explore the surroundings. To begin with, we walked around the hotel from the other side - from that moment I turned on the video camera and did not turn it off until the end of the trip.......
Next to the hotel there was a “spirit house”, similar to a mini-temple, next to it were plates of food. Every day, caring Thais put food for the spirits so that they do not offend the inhabitants of the house. A narrow street with small shops, massage parlors and endless tables with food led us to the shopping area - the Pratunam market. The market is huge, the quality is not very good, the prices are practically free. Pratunam is the place where my loved one learned to bargain, and I laughed heartily. At first they saw successful T-shirts, the price seemed low, they didn’t bargain, and after a couple of meters they realized that they were stupid. You need to constantly bargain, knocking down the initial price to 90 percent, and then laugh, watching how the Thai types up his price option on the calculator and pretends that it’s less, no, no, but if you’re not going to buy, then it’s better not to start this verbal battle. In general, at the market I bought knitted T-shirts for all my girlfriends, a bunch of funny handbags for my sister, fluffy pink slippers for my mother-in-law and daddy's SpongeBob panties, all this plus two large coconuts, freshly fried mussels with spices, two pancakes with jam, and a bag of peeled watermelon with the obligatory Thai set - salt, sugar, pepper - cost us exactly fifty dollars. At the exit from the market (oh, miracle! ) - a huge counter with the inscription LEVI'S - of course, I could not resist and tried on half of the assortment, after which I proudly pointed to a long skirt sewn from pieces of other people's pants and proudly paraded further, and only in another near the city, I realized that in addition to the money for the skirt, I also left my camera to the seller. WOOPPPSSS!!!!
Then we decided to travel by tuk-tuk, the original, I would say original Thai transport, which can even be of several types, a two-seat one, where the driver sits in front and pedals a bicycle (we sat on this one), and a multi-seat one, in front is the cab of a truck, and in an open trunk, people sit on two benches and breathe in “fresh air” (such tuk-tuks in Pattaya). I pointed at the first shopping center I came across with my finger on the map and a little, but with great pleasure, haggling with the driver, we continued to explore one of the most interesting capitals in the world. Huge, with ultra-modern skyscrapers, shopping and business centers, clean and well-maintained (about $ 20 fine for garbage on the streets) - on the one hand, and with dirty, dump-like Chinese and poor Thai quarters - on the other. Contrasts, damn it!
We reached the shopping center and then I noticed the loss of the camera, Pratunam was already closed by that time and there was nowhere to return, my husband offered to eat ice cream, - HIGH!!! ! A huge glass with three scoops of multi-colored ice cream, lots of fruits, all kinds of nuts, poured over with chocolate (probably worth twenty hryvnias in total) saved me from depression, filled my stomach to the ears, and left behind such a pleasant memory that even now I am writing - and mouth watering.
We walked around the city a little more and realized that the legs can only be removed and put on a shelf, and then - oh, a moment, you are wonderful !! ! - we came across a massage parlor, exactly what we need. Foot massage - one of the three main types of massage offered (there is also Thai massage - the whole body, but there are no naked women, and oil massage, when you are also rubbed with fragrant oil during this divine pleasure), after a whole day of walking he gives wings no worse than Red Bulla. Here's something else I wanted to say, next to us a transvestite was doing a massage to a man, as we later found out - there are a lot of them in Thailand, they can be recognized by their tall stature (small taikas), long well-groomed hair, disproportionately long arms, an angular face and an abundance on it cosmetics, and so the guide said that it is sometimes so difficult to distinguish them from ordinary women that they are not allowed to go abroad, since there is a male name in the passport. Cool! I asked the guides about massage, they said they do it well everywhere, sanitary standards are observed even in the simplest salons, in shopping and spa centers it costs much more, so why pay more? All three types of massage, tasted by both of us, cost in total............ attention 30 dollars!! ! For that kind of money, one could live in a massage parlor.
After the massage, we went to the hotel, satisfied and peaceful, to eat up watermelon and enjoy the delights of an individual air conditioner and directly "honeymoon"!!! !
