Bangkok Baby!

Traffic in Bangkok
Bangkok has a reputation for suffering from traffic congestion due to the immense amount of cars clogging the roads every hour of the day. Within a few minutes of being in the city it was plainly obvious to see that the reputation is thoroughly deserved. Cars criss-cross the roads at all angles, accelerating and then breaking at break neck pace. Taking a taxi, especially a rick-shaw is an interesting and frankly scrary experience. The driver often shouts at the traffic in mumbled Thai, whilst also smilling at you as if to say 'everything will be ok'! Unfortunately the taxi drivers rarely speak English, or at least a word or two, so you have to sit in the back and hope for the best!

Perhaps the only thing worse than taking a taxi is trying to cross the roads on foot. Basically there is a lack of any traffic lights or noticeable way of telling when it is safe or not to cross. So invitabely i find myself running across the roads whenever I see a break in the traffic hoping that I won't be run-over by a bus or something like that!!!

Pedal Bike Ambulance
Whislt walking along the street I heard a siren sound familiar around the world as that of an ambulance coming from behind me. Turning round I half expeced to find a battered but moving ambulance. Instead I could see this tired and weiry man peddling on this bike with the siren behind him. Iching my eyes to make sure I wasn't imaging things I realised that yes this was an ambulance 'Bangkok style'! Now I had to admit I am puzzled as to how effective the man is partly as he has to peddle the bike in blazing sunlight and secondly as he appeared to be peddling the bike down the wrong side of the road with incoming traffic heading straight for him!

Tasaya
One of the reasons I decided to visit Thailand, aside from the superb scenaria and culture, was to see an old friend of mine called Tasaya who I met at the ICM In Romania. After a little difficulty in getting to meet her we eventually organised to meet at the main central station. Tasaya is one of the nicest and sweetest people I have ever met. She's very friendly, laid back and immensely sincere.

Siam
Tasaya knew that I wanted to do some shopping so she kindly volunteered to take me to Siam which is the main central shopping hub in Bangkok. Siam Square is the more laid back and less plush area with heaps of small shops rather than the huge shopping malls which sprawl around others areas of Sianm.

Underground
To get to Siam we used the new underground system which runs to Chulalonghorn University where Tasaya studies law. The underground system is ultra-new and was built as a way to try to deal with the problems of congestion in the city. In many ways it is an impressive system, extremely clean and very reliable. As a model for future transport in the city hopefully it will provide a way for the system to overcome undoubtably its biggest problem.

Chulalonghorn University & Student Dress!
Tasaya's university is a sprawling campus in the centre of the city. Regarded as a very traditional university it is the only Thai university ranked in the top 200 world universities. One of the interesting things about university students in Thailand is that all students have to go to university in formal dress. For the girls this means that they all wear identical white shirts and black skirts. Every university has slightly different patterns on their shirt designs which is how you can seperate the universities from one another. As I havn't worn formal dress to education since I left school I found walking around the university in my shorts and T-Shirt a rather odd experience!!!!

The Deputy Prime Minister
As we walked down the law campus corridors a smartly dressed man in matching gray shirt and trousers walked past us. Tasaya informed me that he was one of her tutors and he also happened to be the Deputy Prime Minister in the current government. At first I rubbed my ears to make sure I had her correctly and asked her if she had just said what I thought she said. Her response was 'yes of course he is, his a very nice man'! Needless to say this kind of thing would not happen in the UK. Besides anyway I don't think there is much that The Right Honourable Mr Prescott could teach me anyway, aside from maybe how to throw a punch!!!!

Overground Trains
Running through the centre of Siam is the overground train system which runs on huge cement towers above the bustling roads. These are a much earlier attempt by the Government to handle the problems of traffic congestion in the city. Unfortunately they are not as clean as the underground system and suffer from the heat and humidity as they are above ground.

Thai shopping arcades

China Town
After leaving Tasaya I headed for China Town. As many of you may already know visiting the China Town of the city I am in is an important ritual which I undertake whenever I arrive. China Town in Bangkok is without a doubt the most unusual one I have ever visited. It is a sprawling labarinth of roads and alleys. Every alleyway is lined with stalls selling everything from machinery through to Japanese dolls, textiles and all manner of things.

Every alleyway is packed with people shopping and bartering with the sellers. Moving down the alleyways is a difficult and time consuming experience. As I walked down behind people I began to feel like I was back on one of the Tubes in London Underground. Everyone is so tightly packed together that you wonder whether you are going to get to the end of the alleywey. It also doesn't help that one of the alleyways is called Theives Alley and you rather feel like someone is trying to pick-pocket you as you 'flow' down the alley!

Walking down China Town I couldn't help but wonder whether their was anyone back in their homes as half the population of the city seemed to be jam packed into the little dense streets. I have never seen so many people crammed into one place and wondered just how many people are employed in such a relatively small area. What also struck me was the sheer variety of goods on sale. Compared to other China Towns in other cities you could buy whatever you wanted here.