A Very Short Guide to Bangkok

My main takeaway from Bangkok is that it’s shockingly mellow for a city of its size. I lived in Cambodia when I was younger and was expecting that same level of guys yelling “motorbike!” at you every ten feet. But there’s really none of that in Bangkok. I don’t think I even heard a car honk the whole time I was there.

The other thing is that Bangkok is a very layered city, literally. There are elevated pedestrian walkways above the streets, some of them leading straight into parks, and then trains running above those. It reminded me a little of that Matt Damon movie where he’s kind of Mexican and has the robot exoskeleton on. Elysium. Not necessarily the dystopian part. Just the layers.

My main takeaway from Bangkok is that it’s shockingly mellow for a city of its size.

There’s food everywhere, cold coffee everywhere—often far too sugary—and more malls than you can keep track of. I’m sure Bangkok can get properly crazy, but I purposefully never made it to the Hangover part of town. I don’t need that energy in my 40s.

I stayed at a great hotel, ate at one genuinely excellent restaurant, drifted through more malls than I can count, and found a cool photography shop that still develops film.