The streets are busy with tuk-tuks, motorcycles and pedestrians. The alleys are filled with amazing smells from the local flavour of street food. The rivers run through the city, complementing its cultural beauty amongst the expanding urbanization. The people offer smiles and a helping hand for the lost tourists, blank-faced holding a map and trying to pronounce the street names. The city is Bangkok, and it may very well be my most favourite place of all.
Aubrey and I approached Bangkok as a central port between the places we really wanted to go, thinking we would see the things that you “need” to see but spend a great deal of time out of the city. We did not anticipate falling in love with Asia’s urban center. Bangkok is huge, home to nearly 10 million people, yet it is homey. The little markets spread intermittently throughout the city provide a means for small-scale, local shopping. The street vendors sell the most amazing food for next-to-nothing prices. You can get your hands on just about all of the comforts from home we have grown accustomed to. But most importantly, the people of Thailand are beautiful.
The concepts core to Buddhism, peace and selflessness, are evident within those we meet. Unlike other major cities that we have traveled to abroad, people here have helped us just for the sake of helping us. From previous experience, when someone offers to help you carry your bag from the taxi or tells you they’ll show you the way to your destination, you assume it’s for a tip (I can still remember the yells for “baksheesh” in Cairo). Here, people just do those things, bid you a safe journey, and turn around before you would even have a chance to reach for your wallet.
The other thing that has made our travels so enjoyable is that people here haven’t really tried to rip us off because we are tourists. We are quoted the same prices as the locals for the street food, merchandise and tuk-tuk rides – something that was a constant battle in Tanzania and became exhausting towards the end. There is still room for bartering at the markets (which I love), but most of the time the starting price is the same for us as the locals.
The bartering system has led to me buying more things than I would have normally. Aubrey says it is because I am really competitive so I treat it like a game, and I can win if I feel like I get a good price. Sometimes I just want to see how low they will go, and then I just end up buying it because I invested the time, Haha. She also gets frustrated because I would gladly spend five minutes in a stare-down with a vendor to save 30 cents. What she can't seem to grasp is that we not only save the 30 cents, we also won! ☺
I have never found a city outside of Ontario that I wanted to live in rather than just visit. But, we could live here. And someday, we just might…
No comments:
Post a Comment