Bangkok

I’ve just spent a total of five nights in Bangkok, and my verdict is this - I overstayed by three nights. I wrote a disparaging post on Threads about the city, which got me a lot of hate from the Bangkok Massive. But I stand by it. The city is much like Jakarta (or many other overpopulated Asian mega cities) but with temples and a mountain of litter. It’s worth little more than 24 hours of your time. First night, go see China Town. Next day, see Wat Arun, cross the river and tour the Grand Palace and finish off with an evening in Khaosan Road. Take in an overpriced Mauy Thai fight or a Ladyboy cabaret if you must. Flee Bangkok the next morning. The floating market and train street tours are shit. There are other fabulous temples, and the temples are all fabulous, but temple fatigue is real and it sets in quickly. Once you’ve seen one…you know how this goes. And if you’ve taken my advice and seen Wat Arun and the Golden Palace, then you’ve seen the best and it’s all downhill from there. 

Bangkok is mostly a vast, endless loathsome urban soup of concrete, pollution and sweaty people. Your time is much better spent elsewhere in the country. Or in another country altogether. But most likely, even if you happen to be reading this, planning on a trip to Thailand and open to good advice, you’ll spend five nights in Bangkok anyway to find all this out the hard way. That’s just human nature. But don’t say you weren’t warned.