My first visit to Thailand

[Tek]

It was 15 months ago that a girlfriend first mentioned Thailand. One of her colleagues had been to Thailand and came back home with a very big smile on her face. It was because of her trip-report that we began talking about a trip to Thailand.
After some online research we decided to make a travel plan that we could discuss with some other friends. Not long after that we had dinner at a local Thai restaurant with a group of six. Everyone was positive about the plans and that night we decided to go to Thailand in september 2010. At that point we were very motivated to go, and i myself expected this to be a nice trip, nothing out of the ordinary. Off course at that moment i did not realize what impact Thailand would have on the way i look at the world.

This is my story about a visit to one of the most inspiring countries i have ever seen.

I'll be updating this thread bit by bit. Feel free to check back once in a while or just simply subscribe to this thread to automatically receive a notification when i update the thread.


at the airport in Dusseldorf, Germany.

[Tek]

An update with some pictures of that first dinner we had in the local Thai restaurant, some pics of the trip to the airport and a movie we made for our friends and family at home.


Discussing Thailand


Discussing Thailand


After dinner, the crazy bunch


After dinner, going home backpacks in the house


En route to Dusseldorf


Starbucks before lift-off

Here's a quick video we recorded from departure in Rotterdam all the way to a bus in Bangkok, Thailand. We speak our native language but you may get a sense of the crazy people that make up our group. Love these guys!

[Mozzbie47]

l enjoyed that, how about an update

[Tek]

I'll be posting an update this weekend. Busy schedule.

[Tek]

After this hiatus i will be updating this thread this week. Been very busy lately. At the moment i'm on vacation and that gives me the opportunity to compile an update conveniently from my beach chair, enjoying the sea breeze on an island in the Caribbean sea and reminiscing about Thailand and my next visit.

Standby

[thailandtravelworld]

Nice one and excellent photography. I am sure that you will enjoy your holiday in Thailand

[minnee]

^^

[Tek]

It has been wayyyy too long now. Time to kick this back to life. Need to organize some pictures and continue where i left off. I'm just selecting one picture for now. We haven't reached Bangkok here. Still in Dusseldorf, Germany, two of our friends decided to have a dance in the middle of MC Donalds. Not yet Thailand but that comes up next:

[Tek]

Boarding the plane in Dusseldorf Germany marked the start of our adventure. After safely stowing away my camera-bag i reclined my seat, put on some relaxing music and closed my eyes for a minute. Later more people started boarding the plane i started to see more and more Thai people. I overheard some speaking a language that sounded to me as Thai …. first time i ever heard someone speak Thai in real life. I recognized the sound of the language because i could match it with the language spoken in some Thai movies i've seen, think Ong Bak.

The flight went smooth and after 8 hours we touched down in Bangkok. To me a mysterious place with millions of people, only seen images of Bangkok on the internet. I did not have high expectations, my idea of Bangkok: filthy city, danger lurking around every corner, criminals all around …. not a place where we should hang around too long.
As we all got our luggage we walked towards the exit of Suvarnabhumi Airport. Asian people all around us, excellent! We were greeted by a short and friendly looking guy waving around an orange vuvuzela calling out the name of our tour operator. Orange is Holland's national color. He checked off all the people on his list and asked us to follow him. As we got outside this incredible heat hit me. I was approached by a girl dressed in what seemed to be a traditional Thai dress. (remember i was a complete newbie at that moment). She gave me a necklace made of flowers and there was another girl who took my picture standing next to the traditional dressed girl. -snap- this was the first trap, remember this, more about that later.

We left the airport in a large bus, driving towards Tongtara Riverview hotel in Bangkok. We took one of those roads that tower high above all the traffic jams. Meanwhile our guide (Jack) gave us an intro about Thailand, and Bangkok in particular. Jack is Thai, he lived in Belgium for a while and speaks Dutch fluently, but with that Belgium accent


checking of our names with one of our guides


the traditionally dress girl with the camera girl waiting to take our picture, i snapped one before they even started


the main guide, aka Jack

continue to read in the next post .....

[Tek]

Off course the bus was air conditioned and all was good, looking outside i had a good view of the city, thousands of small houses, conditions weren't very good down there. So far everything i saw matched my expectations of the place, not a good thing. Arriving at the hotel and getting of the bus, the first thing that hit me was the heat again, then came this smell, sheez. Bangkok has a certain smell that i can not describe, but it's not positive. We unpacked our luggage, checked out our hotel-room, put on DEET for protections against the mosquitos and decided to hit the streets immediately.

As we took our first steps outside the heat was scorching, the smell was all around, and never have i seen heavy traffic like this. Full of confidence we decided to check out the streets and the many small (food)stalls and small stores. I noticed beggars with cups sitting on the ground in the scorching heat, students in uniforms eating at the stalls, people walking with umbrellas fending off the sun, dogs walking around looking hungry and traffic lights that seemed to count down. Then i noticed some ladies packed in thick clothing wearing a hat sweeping the pavements keeping the streets clean. I then took the time to look at the street and i noticed that it was actually a clean street, just with a lot of small stalls. As i walked passed one of the ladies who was sweeping the pavements i smiled at her and greeted her with a wai. She smiled back and knotted her head. First contact. I will not forget that first greeting, it may sound strange to others, but to me i had made contact with a local Thai, that's major

So far Thailand was everything i expected it to be: filthy/smelly, hot, very very busy traffic, dangerous, not my kind of place. No positive sides ….. except for that friendly local who i greeted earlier with a wai. She greeted me with a smile and a nod that spelled approval "thank you for trying". That small encounter set the stage and would lead to a change in the way i looked at Bangkok and later at Thailand as a whole. It still stands as the number one reason why i love Thailand: the people.

Stay with me as i tell you more about my endeavors and observations in Bangkok and other great cities in Thailand, as we traveled from Bangkok to the north, and all the way down south to Rawai ….. by bus, car, taxi, tuktuk and scooter and by foot.



typical scenery in the streets, this was during our very first steps outside the hotel


one of the workers keeping the streets clean


a senior citizen taking a stroll, carrying a multipurpose umbrella