If you are traveling to Thailand, you will likely land in Bangkok. If you are wondering how long you should stay in the city or if it’s worth spending time there, this article is for you. Here I will speak my truth and my personal opinion about my experience in Bangkok.
My truth about Bangkok: I think Bangkok is highly overrated and does not offer anything that you can’t find, in a better way, somewhere else.
Websites talking about Bangkok are always only showing the good side to it. Not everything about this city is bad! But if, like me, your passion for traveling comes from the thirst for adventure, of learning about different cultures or just a simple appreciation of life, then Bangkok does not offer a lot of that.
Here are the 3 main aspects that formed my opinion:
- Wealth in the city – Enjoyment accessible by spending money
- Nightlife – Closing time, Khao San Road and a fancy environment
- Pollution – Air conditioning and the floating markets
Wealth in the city
Bangkok is a place where the super-rich people live minutes apart from the very poor. What can we say, that’s sadly how it is in most big cities. For us travellers, a huge part of the enjoyment in this city is only accessible by spending money (not budget-friendly amounts). I had the chance to meet with a friend of family from home in Canada, who is now retired and has lived in Bangkok all year around. He told me a precise list of what we could do visiting the city:
- Having dinner on a rooftop: Restaurants at such a high height are always impressive. You will most likely have a really nice view from up there at sunset. These restaurants are not cheap, so be aware of it. If you are ready to pay for a nice meal up there, you should definitely do it, but doing it once is enough.
- Shopping in impressive malls: Just stepping into these huge buildings is an experience, especially if you’re coming from a smaller place where your city mall can probably fit 10 to 20 times in these Bangkok malls. However, I personally don’t value shopping in stores I have access to at home or on the Internet while traveling. If it’s an activity I can do at home, why spend my precious traveling time doing it? Visit the shopping center for the experience, but don’t waste your time shopping.
- Nightlife: It deserves a whole section to itself…
Nightlife
Being a huge party lover myself, I was really disappointed in the Bangkok nightlife. It is not terrible, just not what I was expecting after everything I had heard.
- Closing time: In Canada, most bars and clubs close at 3 a.m. Additionally, all the places I had traveled to, before visiting Bangkok, always did the same. Otherwise, they would close even later than 3 a.m. Maybe it was my mistake to just assume it would be the same because it was certainly not. The first night we went out was a Saturday, we pre drank for a while and got to the bar a little past midnight, and it was closed… We asked people who were leaving the place if they were going to another bar or club, wondering if other places would still be open. We were told to go to Khao San Road, where some places close at 2 a.m. By the time we got there, it was 1 a.m. and the places were already emptying. At least, the second night we were more aware of the situation, so we went earlier and directly to Khao San Road.
- Khao San Road: It is definitely an experience walking on this famous street. The bars and clubs are all really close to each other and there is a big competition on who has the loudest music. There are two different types of places: bars you can sit outside almost directly on the street, or places you enter that have more controlled and private access. These more controlled places always had a cover charge which would vary depending on the place, but it was not cheap.
- Fancy environment: Going out in a big city like Bangkok is a very different vibe from partying on an island. People dress really fancy, most girls were in short dresses and high heels. If you pack most of your backpack with bikinis and biker shorts, you will fit better partying on the islands where you drink on the beach and where your clothes really don’t matter. Fancy can be really fun, it just depends on your preferences. Being a backpacker at that moment, it was a little bit too superficial for my liking.
Pollution
The pollution is really what shocked me the most in Bangkok…
- Air condition: It is pretty sad to see all that smog hide the beautiful lights of the city at night. If you have the chance to find yourself at a high point, looking at a great view, you will face the reality of that matter.
- Floating markets: These special markets are very well known in Bangkok. When searching for activities on the internet, they will most likely pop up in your feed. What they don’t tell you on the internet is how much the waters are polluted and how disgusting it is. Seeing all that trash in the water, just sitting there, without any obvious effort to take it out, really broke my heart. Seeing the Bangkok community not seem to care for the planet is not something I want to encourage.
As I said, you will probably land in Bangkok. You might as well spend a day there since, in my opinion, that’s all the time you need to get the full experience of the city. Check out Perfect One-Day Itinerary Bangkok to see what to do.
