Bangkok - Improved? Underrated?

We left Bangkok today and I have to say, I was impressed. After all various things I have heard about Bangkok over the years from people and from stories in books and the press I was expecting very little from Bangkok. Perhaps I misunderstood people, but I was expecting a real developing nation dump of a city with beggars, touts, shanty towns and disgusting amounts of hookers.

In fact Bangkok is a lot closer to a low rent Japan then it is to Delhi. We were only in town for a couple of days and only saw Siam Square and Banglamphu but here are a few opinions:

- Pretty civilized roads and traffic by developing country standards. There a lots of elevated interstate type roads and the rest of the roads in the city are well maintained. Regular cars follow western standards of driving, the exception is that the tuk-tuks (Thai Autorickshaws) and motorbikes have a lot more leeway, weaving in and out of traffic when it is slow.

- All streets have wide sidewalks. This may not seem like that big a deal, but once you have been in India, it is.

- If you have been away from civilization for a while, or are in need of counterfeit anything, the very clean Siam Square area is excellent. We went to a very polished new shopping mall and another called MBK that was basically a 6 floor mall of little stores selling counterfeit goods. This was obviously very crowded with Europeans and Thai teens.

- Banglamphu is the backpacker/budget tourist zone of Bangkok. It is most definitely a tourist trap, but at least it is a good tourist trap. There are 500 baht (15 dollar) unglamorous AC rooms galor, and more Internet cafes and cheap food then you can possibly use. Also, pretty much every business is a place that has tables and sells beer, meaning that the main drags turn into a big, cheesy, other side of the world Bourbon street on most nights. There are also some classier drinking establishments in the area, including a blues bar we spent a long time at last night. I can see that if someone is trying to escape from the beaten path this area is probably very disappointing, but if you take it for what it is, it can be pretty fun.

- Touts, hawkers and beggars are very tame. When you are in Banglamphu you will occasionally get asked if you want a tuk-tuk, or to buy some trinkets. However, if you just say no, they go away without any trouble at all. These guys would get laughed at in India, where practically assaulting people with giant balloons is considered fair game. There is also the occasional beggar, but no more then in Boston, and they just sit on the curb with a cup. Not exactly the same as a crowd of unwashed kids who follow you for 20 minutes.

- At least in the section we were in it did seem that there was some prostitution going on, but at least it was pretty low-key. Only once did we actually see a bunch of obvious hookers standing on a street corner. It was more that you would see an inordinate number of white guy (usually British) and Thai woman couples walking the streets and in the bars. Maybe some of these were legit couples, but it was far too many for that to be true of all. Also, maybe these girls harass single guys more, but generally Nisha and I walk around together, so it is kind of obvious we are not interested.

- Metered Taxis in Bangkok are one of the best transportation deals in the world. For a 10km ride it is around 100 baht (3 dollars). This is usually in a relatively new Toyota with nice seats and AC. They are cheaper then an autorickshaw in India, but yet better then the rattle trap old police cars we have in Boston.

- The city is quite clean. Its not Tokyo or anything, but similar to your average US city.

- The traffic at rush hour is the worst I have ever seen. We took 90 minutes to go 4km at rush hour and still ended up walking the rest. If you must travel at rush hour it is better to take a tuk-tuk.

So, perhaps things have improved since some of the things I heard were true, or perhaps Bangkok got a bad rap from westerners who had no street smarts and got taken for a ride by a dishonest tuk-tuk driver. Either way, if you have a little experience traveling in a developing country, or honestly even in a big American city, I would not think you would have any problems in Bangkok. When you have survived some tourist traps in India like Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, Bangkok is like skiing on a green circle after a black diamond, very easy stuff.