Bangkok
Bangkok and Chiang Mai are as different as New York City and Burlington Vermont. Both are defined as cities, in the same country, one is further North and less populated.
We spent the bulk of our visit to Thailand in Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas of Northern Thailand. Our visit to Bangkok was brief and only gave me a small flavor of what Bangkok is really like, so I'm going off of my first brief impression. And because our time in Bangkok was so limited we tried to pack in as much as possible in less than 30 hours.
It was hot in Thailand, really hot and really humid. It took several days to adjust to the heat, to the sweat dripping down my spine while sitting still. Air conditioning in Chiang Mai was a rarity, and ceiling fans (at least where we stayed) didn't exist. A cold drink was to be cherished and was cold only from being in a cooler, drinks were not accompanied by ice. When we walked out of the Bangkok airport with our luggage the wave of heat hit us and felt familiar. There are two taxi lines outside of the airport, small car or big car. Since there were 4 of us, we were classified as a big car. A big car in Bangkok would be the equivalent to a standard size car in the USA. We loaded up and off we went to Bangkok.
The first thing we saw and all commented on were the bill boards, they were enormous, seriously the size of 4 US billboards put together length wise. One of them had the same information we saw in Chiangmai about respecting the buddha. The drive to our hotel was about an hour, along the way we saw the outskirts of Bangkok which merged directly into the city. The scope of scale of buildings was incredible, and the population density became almost immediately apparent, 9.5 million people, the ninth largest population in Asia. It's vibrant and lively and I knew immediately we would barely have time to see and get a sense of this city. The streets were bustling with people, activity, and vendors. The roads were 5 cars wide with no rhyme or reason to the traffic flow.
We arrived at our hotel and our minds were blown. My sister had booked this night for us as a treat, she knew following our time in Chiangmai working with elephants that we'd be ready for some pampering. This was the most beautiful hotel I've seen and stayed in, what a treat it was! We stayed at Lebua, known as the best 5 star hotel in Bangkok. (Lebua is also notorious for being the hotel where the movie Hangover 2 was filmed.) Our room was more than 50 floors high in the sky, and was the most enormous suite you could imagine with 3 separate huge balconies overlooking all of Bangkok. Our suite had two huge bedrooms, luxurious bathrooms, a full kitchen, office and dining room. It was so spacious and elegant with refreshing air conditioning, I wasn't sure we'd leave the suite for our entire stay in Bangkok!
After exploring the city, taking the boat taxi, walking the infamous markets, soaking in the people, the smells, the street food and the overall vibe of Bangkok. We returned to Lebua for the dinner of a lifetime! We ate at their award winning restaurant with a balcony table overlooking the striking and colorful evening lights of the city. The service was impeccable, the food delicious and the drinks...well they were amazing too. It was an elegant and fun evening to wrap up our sister trip, capped off with a drink at their distil bar. We made the most of our time in Bangkok, however one night in Bangkok is not enough! On my FaceBook page I posted several images while I was there. In this post are random images I shot of Bangkok, to give you a general feeling of the overall vibe.
