There isn't a sight in this world more striking than when you approach the cityscape & catch your first glimpse of the skyrisers.
You step out the taxi near to the $20 hotel you splashed out on & your senses are completely overwhelmed with the yell of vendors selling everything you don't need, questionable smells of exotic food or a baking sewer. Adrenaline quickly overcomes the jetlag as you leap to avoid an incoming motorcycle or tuk tuk, looking down to make sure you don't fall in an open drain. Looking up to see unrecognisable symbols & shapes on the road signs & shopfronts, concerned with the fact that you’ve just lost the ability to communicate because of a language that has no relation to your own.
You juggle your bags as you fumble with the currency to grab a Coca-Cola in the nearest 7/11 to quench your thirst with a home comfort from a fridge of a thousand unfamiliar drinks. Wondering if it's normal for the air to be so hot & thick or if you just arrived on a "hot day". Not questioning the 20 Baht price of the soda until you later realise, that was bloody cheap!
Thinking you're all alone in the city & the only brave one to come this Far East... but relieved as you turn round to see hundreds of "farangs" with their Osprey backpacks & elephant pants.
Often the first gateway for many anxious explorers into South-East Asia, if you survive the culture shock & chaos of Bangkok, you can handle anything!
by yogiwhale
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