Pick your Location

I had watched Muay Thai at both of the 2 primary Muay Thai stadiums in Bangkok when I had visited for the first time over 5 years ago.  I remember having a great time at Lumpini (often spelled Lumpinee) Stadium which had exciting fights and even a Muay Boran demonstration.  Muay Boran (Muay means ‘boxing’ & boran means ‘ancient’) is the ancient style of Thai boxing in which competitors wore ropes around their fists instead of gloves.  I also remember my night of Muay Thai at Rajadamnern stadium not being as fun so obviously I wanted to go to Lumpini Stadium.

It turns out picking the location to watch Muay Thai in Bangkok really depends on the day you wish to view it.  Lumpini Stadium has the fights on Tuesday, Fridays and Saturdays while Rajadamnern stadium holds the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday fights.  On a side note, there are also Wednesday night Muay Thai which is free, often has women fights and is located at the MBK shopping center.  The major stadiums do not have women fights and women are not even permitted in the ring.

2 Girls Duking it Out at MBK's Muay Thai Fight Night

Getting There & Buying Tickets

I knew that Lumini Stadium had the fights on Friday night so I planned to go there after my trip to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho I planned to take a taxi all the way from the old section of Bangkok to Silom during rush hour to catch the Muay Thai event that started at 6pm.  I told the taxi driver to take me to “Sanam Lumpini” (sanam means ‘stadium in Thai) and he told me there was no boxing there that night and I would have to go to Rajadamnern Stadium which was very close to the Grand Palace where I had just been.

I thought the driver had a commission arrangement w/ Rajadamnern Stadium or something so I continued to argue until I realized that it was Thurdsay and not Friday.  The taxi drivers are usually more than happy to take you to a Muay Thai event which suggest they get a commission.  Most farang (Caucasian foreigners in Thai) are offered the front row seats at a price of 2000 baht ($60 USD).  I had planned to sit as close as possible to get some photos with my Nikon D700 and assorted lenses so paying for the “better” seats was no problem.

Orono Wor Petchpun - Famous Muay Thai Great

The Event

It turns out that the ringside seats were not really great at all for taking photos as every shot had the ring ropes in the way.  You can view on the slideshow on the bottom of this post.   Rajadamnern Stadium has 3 main levels of seating (refer to the photo at the top of the post).  The floor level has seats mostly foreigners, boxes for the judges and standing room for the fighter’s crew.  The secondary level of seating has mostly Thai people from what I saw.  This is where the people place bets on each fight with hand signals like the New York Stock Exchange.  Then there is a top row of seating which is inside a chain linked fence.

One side of the 2nd level is completely devoid of people as it holds the TV cameras.  Other than being able to put the camera through the ring ropes, like the paid event photographers, this middle section which is elevated over the ring ropes would probably be the best place to take photos.  I am not sure how much it costs or even if non-gambling foreigners are allowed.  The event had mostly young kids with the exception of  a Muay Thai boxer I had heard of by the name of Orono Wor Petchpun (Muay Thai fighter’s last names are actually the names of their gym) who is one of Thailand’s best boxers.  He has 2 KO wins over the great Yodsanklai Fairtex and 2 decision wins over the K1-Max  international superstar Buakaw Por. Pramuk.  Check out this YouTube clip with him in action.

To me, most of the fights were pretty boring.  I remember the first time I went to Lumpini Stadium the fights were all exciting which makes me want to go back there and check it out again.  Not a single fight had a KO and there was a LOT of clinching.  I’m not sure what the exact rules are or how to score the fights, but it seemed that clinching and throwing was happening more than striking.  The event got lively for what I believe was the main event.

The championship fight pitting what appeared to be a couple 13 year-olds got lively when both entered the stadium with their entourages.  One was dressed with a pointy medal hat (see in slide show) while the other had a whole “hype crew” of a painted face guy, a huge fat guy waving a flag and of course, a Chinese-style dragon dancer!  The crowd was especially rambunctious for this fight but it ended with one being crowned champion, and of course, like all the other fights that night, I had no idea who was going to win the judges decision.

Scenes from the Championship Fight

Overall Impression

While I didn’t have the best time at this Thursday night event at Rajadamnern Stadium I still would highly recommend anyone who is visiting Thailand to check out a night of fights.  Like I stated before, I remember having a better experience at Lumpini Stadium but any place you watch Muay Thai in Thailand you will see a different side of Thai people.  People who are generally reserved and quiet are going crazy in a raucous crowd which had a few scuffles amongst fans likely over gambling.

For tourists, also keep in mind that Rajadamnern Stadium is very close to Khao San Road, Wat Arun, Wat Pho and the Grand Palace, some of Thailand’s major tourist attractions.  For those who live in Thailand and have never been to Muay Thai it is worth going as well.  I would be willing to bet a night of the real championships would be a very fun night to attend Muay Thai fights at Rajadamnern Stadium.  For those who don’t care to see fighting and especially don’t want to pay 2000 baht to do so, head to MBK shopping center on Wednesday evenings and you can see what Muay Thai is all about for free.

Fleeing Bangkok

I had just got back to Bangkok from San Francisco where I had visited Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon to extend my student Visa and re-start my Thai Language classes when I heard that the “red shirts” were at it again.  Without getting into details, tens of thousands and possibly millions of (mostly rural) Thai people unhappy with the current government were planning on converging on Bangkok for a huge protest.

Mass gatherings are not my cup of tea especially ones that could bring bombings or violent military responses.  I’d probably feel most comfortable in a large crowd of Thai people than any other but that’s not saying much.  My dislike for being in large crowds culminated as I was getting squashed and pickpocket during New Years on Copacabana Beach in Brazil and I have no desire to experience that again.

I felt that I needed stability in the midst of the political instability of Bangkok so why not head to one of the purported safest and most stable countries in the world?  I booked a one way Jetstar Asia flight to Singapore for Thursday the day before I heard there was to be a big red shirt rally in Bangkok on March 12, 2010.

Seeing Red on the Streets of Bangkok

Finding a Hotel in Singapore

I booked my flight to Singapore with a relatively short notice so as usual I had to scramble to find a hotel.  I used sites such as Hotels.com and AsiaRooms.com to get the general range of places to stay in Singapore and I discovered that there is not much as far as mid-range hotels go.

The cheap prices that came up in searches were usually hostels and budget hotels without basic amenities while the expensive hotels cost an arm and a leg.  I was debating a night at Novotel which is located directly on the scenic, vibrant Clarke Quay dining and night life area but the cost came up to around $200 a night which was too much for the 6 hours I’d be spending there sleeping.  I ended up staying at the same hotel for my entire stay which was located in the Geylang area.

Places to Stay in Singapore:  Fragrance Hotel Pearl

Colorful Singapore Police Station

Getting Around in Singapore

Often times the subway is the best way to get around in large cities.  When a subway is convenient I will always take the subway as the first method of getting around when traveling to new cities.  My hotel was located a 10 minute walk from the nearest MRT station.

About 10 minutes after getting the hotel room I strapped on my camera bag and began walking toward the MRT station.  It was Thursday afternoon around 1 or 2pm so as I arrived to the MRT station profusely sweating.  There were multiple lines at this station so I asked the MRT workers for help.

Upon arriving to the ticket machine you will see a rather large LCD display with the entire Singapore MRT system on it.  There are 6 options on the left one which is “buy single trip ticket.”  After choosing single trip ticket you are asked to select your destination by touching the map on the LCD display.  I believe the maximum cost was $2 Singapore which is around $1.40 USD which I found to be quite a bargain as some trips were well over a dozen stops.

My first trip on SMRT was only 4 stops and I was expecting a light load on the subways being it was mid-day on a normal week day.  Upon entering the train I was rather shocked to see how crowded the subway was.  I asked a student in the subway if it was always this crowded and he told me it was.  I was only going 4 stops to the City Hall MRT to see the harbor so it didn’t bother me too much.

Singapore City Hall MRT Station - 3:20pm Thursday

Things to Do in Singapore

I had an open ended itinerary in Singapore so my plan was to play it by ear.  Other than the few ideas for things to do in Singapore I got from my old client and friend Alvin which I wrote on a note card and put in my wallet upon arriving I really had no idea what I’d be doing.

Along with my friend’s recommendations I picked up 2 or 3 Singapore tourist maps at the airport.  I didn’t notice it until the end of my trip but each map was for something different.  There was a ‘medical’ map which listed all the hospitals and spas, a ‘night life’ map as well as a general tourism map.  I used the tourism map as a basic guide as I did some of the following:

Singapore River Boat Tour

Singapore Zoo / Night Safari

Jurong Bird Park

Singapore Botanic Gardens

East Coast Park Bicycle Ride

Singapore Flyer

Mount Faber Hike – Sight Seeing

Singapore Cable Car

The cable car was out of service when I was in Singapore.  It is actually a “bi-cable gondola lift” which is a cable suspended air trolley with glass bottoms for sight seeing.  Singapore cable car has 3 stations originating from 300m above sea level at the top of Mount Faber to the Harbour front station located on the edge of as well as Singapore’s resort island, Sentosa.  The fair cost of the cable car ride is 19 Singapore dollars ($13.40 USD) which would make worth doing, especially if you like taking photos and/or want to get to Sentosa in style.

Sentosa

Sentosa, which translates to peace and tranquility in Malay, is Singapore’s mega popular island resort, visited by some five million people a year. Attractions include a two-kilometre long sheltered beach, Fort Siloso, two golf courses and two five-star hotels, and the Resorts World Sentosa, featuring the new theme park Universal Studios Singapore.  Since I was traveling alone and was heading to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, Thailand after Singapore so I decided to skip my trip to Sentosa as I would rather spend less in Thailand and experience natural beauty than what I perceive as an artificial paradise.

Sentosa Island Montage (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Shopping

As with most large Asian cities, you can’t cram in 5 million people on a small area without having tremendous amounts of shopping centers and Singapore is no exception.  Places to shop range from small knock off clothes vendors to high-end luxury stores such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton. This paragraph blurb hardly does Singapore’s shopping scene justice.  If you are into shopping and find yourself in Singapore you will find everything you need and then some.

The prices seemed to be fair unlike Tokyo but probably more than places such as Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur where many Singaporeans go looking for deals.  As usual I didn’t spend much shopping for stuff but I did pick up a new Kata 123-Go 30 camera bag at Funan Digital Life mall, one of the 2 highly recommended electronic shopping areas by everyone along with Sim Lim Square which I didn’t have a chance to get to.

Ground Floor of Funan Digital Life Mall - Singapore

Places to Eat in Singapore:  Everywhere!

I was very impressed with the food in Singapore.  First off, I love Indian food and I had a chance to try numerous types of Indian food I had never eaten before in Singapore.  The convergence between Chinese, Indian, Malay and even Japanese people seemed to make Singapore a culinary paradise.

Geylang Road

I ate off hawker stands for almost every meal and was never dissatisfied.  Along with cheap food all over the city/country there is a large assortment of fine dining options as well.

Delicious Muslim Indian Food along Singapore's Geylang Road

Little India

To be honest I expected a lot more from Little India.  I expected it to be a huge section of Singapore when in fact it seemed to be more like a couple blocks.  The Indian food I had in Little India was definitely not a disappointment though.  For a very cheap price I got a huge square grass-like plate of some of the most delicious Indian Food I’ve ever had and Indian Food is my favorite!  I could have probably explored Little India in Singapore a little bit more but I’ll leave that up to you.

Typical Narrow Colorful Streets of Singapore's Little India

Chinatown

Chinatown was even less impressive than Little India.  Since the population of Singapore consists 70% ethnic Chinese I didn’t really expect too much from Chinatown and I was not surprised when it turned out to be a small shopping center with some small shops as well as food stalls.  I got a couple pork buns and was on my way as there is a Chinatown MRT station right in the center of Singapore’s Chinatown.

View from the Edge of Singapore's Chinatown

Overall Impression

After the initial “cool” factor of visiting a new place I always think about whether I’d ever live there and Singapore immediately received my seal of approval.  When thinking about it, it took me a while to come up with some reasons why I wouldn’t want to live in Singapore and one was the slight sterile feeling.

I would recommend anyone visiting Southeast Asia to check out Singapore for at least 3 days.  If anything it will give you a stark contrast from some of the less developed countries as although Singapore is still classified as a “developing country” it is just as developed as any city in the USA along with being safer, cleaner and friendlier.

View the full Singapore Photo Archive at tourismPICS.com

Marina Bay, Esplanade & Singapore's Central Business District

View the full Singapore Photo Archive at tourismPICS.com

Festival of Lights

I don’t have my calendar marked with the many Thai holidays and events but it seems like I find out one way or another when something is going on.  How I found out about the Loy Krathong festival was by pure chance.  I was walking around Bangkok far away from where I live to look for cool things to take pictures of hoping I would run into the Chao Phraya River when the inevitable happened.
On a Saturday night I got lost walking aimlessly around an area of Bangkok where I had never been before.  It was around 7pm and completely dark around the area with wide streets of several lanes.  I saw some canals but I figured I was no where near the river so I decided to get a taxi.  I found a taxi but as usual the driver could barely understand my Thai or English.  He finally understood I wanted to go to the Chao Phraya River and he seemed pretty excited to take me there.  I had no idea there was any kind of festival going on but when we finally drove over the bridge I saw the following….

Looking to the Shore of The Chao Phraya River From the Bridge Towards the Shore

Loy Krathong Saturday Night

I was instantly excited.  I was figuring that I would be taking pictures of the same Bangkok skyline that I had many times before but now I had a bunch of cool boats and other stuff.  The taxi driver let me off across the Rama VIII bridge on the bottom under the bridge where there was a large festival with tents set up with various souvenirs, games and food.  There were also monks who were on loud speakers talking Thai about something.  There was a Ferris wheel and marry-go-round for kids as well as a giant screen set up to watch movies.

There was probably a few thousand people there on Saturday night which I would consider comfortably crowded.  There was a bunch of people with their tripods taking pictures which was a lot of fun because there were many cool things to take pictures of.   There were these very brightly lit boats (above) with spotlights as well as other decorations along with the aforementioned children’s rides which were also lit up.

A girl came up to me and had me fill out a survey while I was eating this fried spicy fish cake.  A surprising question I saw on the survey was asking if I was satisfied with the level of security.  I did notice a lot of security guards around the area of the festival and many police patroling the bridge and I wondered why.  I would find my answer when I went back Monday night.

I stayed from around 7pm to 9:30pm and then I decided it was time to go home.  I walked back towards the east side of the bridge looking for a cab and under the overpass which was deserted with a couple homeless people sleeping in hammocks.  I had a chance to take a couple cool pictures from under the overpass which was the onramp to the Rama VIII bridge above.

Loy Krathong Festival Saturday Night - Under the Rama VIII Bridge

Getting to the Loy Krathong Festival on Monday Night

I found out when I returned home from one of my security guards that the official Loy Krathong wasn’t until Monday night so I planned to go back. I then realized that all the cherry bombs (fireworks) I have been hearing for the entire week leading up to Loy Krathong had to do with the festival.

At Monday at around 6 or 7PM I took the BTS to National Stadium which was as far west as the BTS (sky train) goes in hopes of catching a cab which would take me to the river.  I could sense that a larger celebration was in the air when I noticed that there are usually a dozen available cabs at any given minute this Monday there were maybe 1 every 5 minutes!

I was thinking there were many people going to the Loy Krathong festival as I walked occasionally turning my head over my shoulder and not seeing any available taxis.  I decided I would walk all the way there, which turned out wasn’t going to happen.

Krathong Raft

I was walking over an elevated street crossing when I saw a farang (foreigner in Thai) who I asked directions to.  I started talking to the farang who happened to be a transsexual woman originally from my home town of San Francisco!  He/She? recommended Chiang Mai which reminded me that I hadn’t been so I booked a ticket the week later!

She told me to get in a cab to take me to the river because it was far and I decided to cab it.  There was still not a single cab available so I found a tuk tuk who charged me 100 baht to bring me to the festival.  As I rode in the tuk tuk towards the festival I noticed there were many people lining the khlongs (canals) eating, lighting fireworks and of course their krathong.

I’m not going to explain the whole tradition of the festival but you can in the wikipedia article which explains the significance of lighting the krathong rafts (right) and releasing them in the canals and rivers.  It took around 15 minutes through and around traffic in the tuk tuk to get to Rama VIII bridge where the festival was being held.

Under East side of Rama VIII Bridge Looking at Loy Krathong Festival

Cool Scene Under Rama VIII Bridge Onramp

Loy Krathong Festival on Monday Night

Once I finally got to the festival via tuk tuk I noticed that the deserted area from Saturday night where I took the above pictures was completely packed with people like a can of sardines.  I now realized why the question about security was on the survey I filled out on Saturday.  Mix together crowding, burning hot air balloons (very top pic), cherry bombs, kids swimming in the river and people walking amidst traffic on the busy bridge I’d say security was a definite need.

There were at least 5-10x more people at the same place on Monday night.  On the east end of the bridge there was only 1 narrow staircase for the thousands of people going up onto both sides of the bridge and the thousands of people who were trying to exit, bottleneck anyone?  I actually felt pretty uncomfortable like I was about to get squashed so I went back to the top of the bridge and tried to hail a cab illegally in the middle of the bridge.

Down under the bridge was so crowded I didn’t even bother to go down, mostly because I checked out everything that was down there on Saturday and because it was super crowded.  It was very smoky in the air as people were lighting their paper hot air balloons (pictured at very top) which would burn in the air.  Police were actually catching people and making them stop lighting their balloons but many people got them off where they would burn in the air, crash in the river where cleaning crew boats awaited.

The air was completely filled with ashes from all the burning of the krathongs and balloons as you can see in the video at the bottom.  I still thought all the boats with spotlights and brightly colored designs were cool but after a while I just wanted to get away from the crowd and terrible air.  I failed to hail a cab on the bridge and failed to get through the crowd so I ended up risking my life and walking on the bridge on the side of the highway but I was not alone.

Walked on Bridge Back from Loy Krathong

Overall Impression

I though the Loy Krathong festival was very cool!  I saw pictures from smaller cities in Thailand and their celebrations looked just as impressive if not more as the giant capital city.  There was plenty to do for the entire family and many opportunities to take some great pictures which you can’t get every day.  Since I was there on Saturday night I didn’t want to say the whole night on Monday so I had a rough time leaving when most people were going to the party but I would recommend anyone who visits for the Loy Krathong festival to go on Saturday or Sunday if they don’t like sometimes suffocating crowds and go on Monday if they want to spend the whole night celebrating with 1/2 of Bangkok.

Change of Running Location

You may be asking yourself, “what does that picture have to do with Lumpini Park in Bangkok?”  Well, it has everything to do with jogging in Lumpini Park in Bangkok!  It is from a scene in the Thai action movie Tom Yum Goon with Tony Jaa fighting the monstrous Aussie Nathan Jones.  You may remember Nathan Jones from playing the giant soldier Brad Pitt slayed as Achilles at the beginning of the movie Troy.

The guy is 6’10″ and weighs 350 pounds of all muscle.  He is a former World’s Strongest Man contestant, Pride fighter and WWE wrestler.  What does this have to do with running in Lumpini park?  Well, according to his wikipedia entry Jones was the victim of a hit & run accident while jogging down the streets of Bangkok which severely injured his arm.

I figure if this incredible hulk of a human being can be injured by a driver I would have been killed instantly and I don’t really feel like instant death via tuk tuk.  I have gotten quite bored running the same route past the sewage smelling canal through the polluted, highly trafficked and crowded streets to the gym for some boring elliptical machine cardio anyways.  Today was my cardio only day so I decided that I would go to Lumpini Park to run.

Getting to Lumpini Park

Since I knew Lumpini Park was right next to the Sala Daeng (Si Lom MRT) BTS stop which is 4 stops (including a transfer) from my closest BTS (Phloen Chit). I always feel like a jerk taking a taxi / subway to go workout instead of jogging but I didn’t want to get lost.

I got in the crowded Saturday skytrain and was crossing the busy street to get to Lumpini park in about 20 minutes from when I left.  According to my GPS it was 2.2 miles from Lumpini Park to my apartment.

Running in the Park

Running was interesting because the park has a one lane cement path which is about 10 yards wide for running or walking around the park.  I was there on a Saturday afternoon so there was probably more people than there would be on a weekday but they posed no problem as I jogged at a fast pace. I was weaving in and out avoiding slower joggers and walkers.  I ended up running what I thought were mile intervals.

I used my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS to monitor my running and I got suspicious results.  It said my mile time was around 5 minutes which I thought was too good to be true and it was.  I had the Forerunner set on metric measurements so everything was not what I though it was.  The whole path around the park which surrounds the lake is a little over a kilometer long.

What Else is in the Park?

If you’re not from San Francisco you may be surprised that there are American bison in Golden Gate Park.  When I went to Central Park in New York for the first time I had no idea there was a whole zoo in it.  I wasn’t thinking about any of this when I was in Lumpini park but I soon found out that there are some truly organic surprises which await any park visitor as well as some man-made attractions.

As I was runing around I noticed lots of exercise equipment including crude exercise bikes, pull-up bars, dips bars, swings and even a full gym with equipment which was probably from the 1940s.  There was a large and surprisingly clean bathroom as well.  I will head back soon with my AWESOME Canon HG10 camcorder/camera to take some pictures and videos.

Not your Average Park

To take a break from running and stretch with this old man who was probably 80 I headed to a bridge.  I bought a bag of fish food for 10 baht from this little girl after I saw the many people in peddle boats feeding the fish.  It was pretty amazing the amount of fish in the lake.  When you throw a handful of pellets or bread in the water, you can see hundreds of large catfish piling on the top of the water.

I would estimate there would have to be literally millions of fish in that lake unless the bridge was where they congregated for their usual feedings. During the whole time at the park I didn’t notice any ducks in the lake or any dogs in the park and I soon found out why.

In the depths of the water are GIANT lizards.  Water monitor lizards which are several feet long live in the water and come out periodically.  The Thai people completely ignore these modern day dinosaurs which come out of the lake and lackadaisically walk around the shore. From what I researched these lizards are harmless and many people keep them as pets in other parts of the world.  The picture (below) I found online from the Bangkok Post but I will head down to Lumpini park to get some better pictures with my Canon HG10.

Also See:  Lumpini Park Gym Workouts

Shocking Bargains in Bangkok

Bangkok is world famous for its shopping bargains.  Whether you’re walking past the designer botiques in the lavish Siam Paragon shopping center, in MBK world renowned for cheap deals or on certain streets, shopping is everywhere.  While tourists may love the fact that there is so much shopping, especially on the streets, I find that for someone who lives in Bangkok, they are extremely annoying.

Shop til you Drop Whether you Like it or Not

Going to the gym is something I try to do every day.  I hate doing cardio on machines in the gym and would rather get my cardio while going to and from the gym.  The gym is a little more than 2 miles from my apartment but running there and back on the main street is literally impossible.

The reason being is because the Asok & Nana BTS stations on Sukhumvit road the sidewalks are completely covered with shops and tourists which slows your run home to a very slow walk.  At first it was cool because you can see the products offered on the street.  It gets old after you see the same things over and over again even though some are interesting.

Are you in the Market For…

Every time I walk by the ‘random stuff’ stands on Sukhumvit road I wonder 3 things.  1.  Who the hell buys that crap? 2.  How would a tourist get it past customs and 3.  What if someone sold it on the street in America?  Every day when I walk by the stands I have a little chuckle about the new stuff I see there.   Here are some of the random stuff available in addition to the Thai art, T-shirts, pirated goods, handicrafts and other classic tourist items.

Cross Bows
Nothing more important to own in a large city than a crossbow.  Maybe cupid is in town as a tourist?

Viagra & Cialis
I guess cupid is in town.  Who would buy Viagra in candy cigarette boxes off the street?  Especially when there’s a pharmacy on every block?

Stun Guns
The classic 1980s stun guns w/ the bolt of lightening are readily available for those paranoid housewives.

Brass Knuckles
If stun guns aren’t 1980s enough for you can get some brass knuckles.

Porn
You can’t have Viagra & Cialis without your international porn selection.

Rambo Knives
You can pick up a large survival knife right off the street table, and “haggle” with the shop owner.

BB Guns
There are plenty of rats, stray dogs and cats on the streets at night for target practice.

Those are just some of the fine products you can buy on Sukhumvit road on the sidewalk in between Asok & Nana BTS stations.  You can see in the picture something like what it looks like and imagine how hard it would be to walk through when tourists are browsing all the stuff.

Bangkok Dangerous

We’re not talking about a horrible movie remake starring Nicholas Cage.   To someone who has never left the “friendly confines” of the USA you may not know much about Bangkok.  You may not even know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.
Whether you think  elephants trampling people and huge protests with soldiers overthrowing the government are a day to day occurrence or you think Bangkok is just another peaceful Southeast Asian city you may be interested in the top 5 most dangerous things about visiting or living in Bangkok, Thailand.

5. Sidewalks

Sidewalks in Bangkok are always crowded, often disgusting, and sometimes dangerous.  I am an avid runner who likes to run to the gym to kill 2 birds w/ one stone but in jogging down the sidewalks in Bangkok every step you take could be your last.

The uneven sidewalks in Bangkok are complete with loose bricks, broken mane covers and of course stray dog bombs.  Compound this with the presence of the #1 danger and a trip or fall could mean a whole lot worse than a trip to the hospital.

As a guy wearing sneakers the sidewalks present a certain danger but to the women who wear heels, I can’t image how difficult it is to pay attention to every step to avoid a face plant onto a present left by one of the 300,000 stray dogs in Bangkok.

4. Water

Water is tricky to avoid because there are numerous ways you can come into unwanted contact with it.  From swallowing shower water, getting splashed in the mouth while in a water taxi, or the inconspicuous melted ice your iced tea, most foreigners who consume a generous portion of the water in Bangkok get terrible stomach aches.

Where the tap water comes in most residential buildings (to my knowledge) is roof tanks which are either filled by rain water or a water company.  I have heard that each year they check the tanks and find dead birds, rats and insects.  The worst water has to be that of the Chao Phraya river and Bangkok canal.   The canal has a smell the raw sewage which is pouring out of pipes into the canal 24/7.   Here’s a story of a governor candidate who fell into the water and got a rash before her campaign manager drowned in the dirty water.

I have been running to the gym along the pedestrian free canal path, but I am debating whether the evaporated canal water and occasional spashes from the river taxis will eventually be the slow and painful death of me?  I will leave that up to the experts but you don’t have to be an expert to know that the water is one of Bangkok’s dangers.

3. Street Food

The street food which exists all around Bangkok creates a barbecue smell which is a welcomed replacement of the usual bus exhaust mixed with raw sewage aroma which emanates from the Bangkok streets.  I’m not talking about the delicious fruit here.  What I’m talking about is any of the many meat products which taste good when you don’t think about where they came from.

I’m not talking about the typical Chinese food mystery meat but the conditions in which the animals were raised.  I visited Ratchaburi province and stayed with a traditional Thai family and remember the chickens running amok in the mud mixture of river run-off, sewage, and litter.  I really didn’t think about it too much at the time and ate chicken meat but when they served the Tom Yum chicken feet soup I couldn’t help but think of what the chickens were running around in.

I have never really researched (other than hearing preaching from San Francisco yuppies about free range meat) too much about whether how much an animal’s upbringing will effect the quality of the meat but if I see fried fish on the street and can’t hep but think it was fished out of the filthy canal.  I also see people living in next to piles of their own garbage by the canal with chickens freely walking around while they await their death, soon to be featured on the nearby chicken satay street stand???

I have been pretty lucky so far with the street food.  I have had some stomach pain but no problems with dysentery, severe stomach cramping, death or any other terrible symptoms which which are associated with contaminated food.

2. Thai Women

Thai people are so laid back and reserved you wouldn’t think that Thai women could be so dangerous but if you watch the video you will know how dangerous they can be.  Thai women are polite, beautiful and traditional but if you get on their bad side you could be heading to the local hospital!

My friend Jon who has a blog bout teaching English in Thailand told me that two of his friends had been stabbed and hospitalized by their angry Thai girlfriends.  Compound the language barrier with the Eastern-Western culture class and evidentially fireworks are possible and everyone knows how bad it is when they blow up in your hand.

1. Traffic

Bangkok is a city which has had a long-term traffic problem.  I cannot imagine how bad it was 20 years ago before the BTS which provides easy transit via skytrain and the MTR which is the subway system.

The traffic not only pollutes the environment it is dangerous in many ways.  I have not yet witness any accidents but I remember reading about the the week long Songkran Festival in which there were “Songkran’s “373 deaths and 4,332 injuries in 3,977 road accidents nationwide.”

The dangers of the traffic in Bangkok are out there if you’re in a car or a pedestrian.  In taxis you have to first search for the seat belt which is only available 25% of the time then all you can do is watch as the driver navigates through the extremely confusing and seemingly lawless streets.

As a pedestrian the streets seem even more dangerous.  The never ending traffic flow of cars, trucks, tuk-tuks, and motorcycles extends beyond the streets.  Often you have to dodge motorcycles and motorcycle taxis driving on the sidewalk.  The streets have lanes but the are only as guides as drivers weave in and around them.  Driving in a lane of oncoming traffic is a regular occurrence.

Perhaps the most dangerous part of the Bangkok traffic is crossing the street.  I personally use what I call ‘human shields’ which are the Thai people I wait for to cross some busy streets.  Often times there is no sign or signal which you can use to determine when to cross the street.  Even if you do cross at a little green guy walking light you still have motorcycles weaving in between cars.  You have to be on the lookout on both sides of each car for motorcycles as you cross any street.  Compound all this with the fact that the sides are switched from the USA and traffic is the most dangerous thing about Bangkok.

1 if by Public Transit 2 if by Foot

Now that I got a gym membership and I’m pretty much settled down here in Bangkok I’m ready to re-start my old routine of making it to the gym almost every day.  The only thing I’m not entirely sure of is how I’m going to get to the gym.

I live a 10 or so minute walk to the Nana & Phloen Chit BTS stations so I can always walk to the BTS and take the skytrain on down the road for 1 or 2 stops to get to the Asok California fitness where I have to walk for 2 minutes to get down the gym.

I could also walk the entire way there but doing so would require me to not only cross some busy streets which could take up to 5 minutes to get across, but also hundreds of street vendors and the browsers of their products who crowd the sidewalks and pollute the air with body odor:(   Either way the transit time would not be sufficient for cardio or even a warm-up so I looked into another option.

Method 1:  The Canal Path

I mentioned in the entry about choosing a gym in Bangkok how nice I thought it was to be able to jog back without any traffic even though it was along a filthy canal but I didn’t expect what was coming.

As usual I procrastinated my workout all day.  It was nice out one minute and the next minute I looked out the window the skies were so grey they were almost black.  I heard the exposive thunder and it started the typical downpour.  The downpour gave me another excuse not to head to the gym so I waited until it stopped.

The rain stopped and it was time to head to the gym.  I hate wasting time especially taking a train or taxi so I decided to run in the dark along the canal path to the gym.  That is where my adventure began as I walked 50 meters to the canal path which I took one time before during a dry day going the opposite direction.

I started jogging along the narrow canal path with my Garmin GPS Forerunner 405 which tracks distance and much, much more but also distracts you.  As I started running I noticed that the path was litered with stray dogs.  If you have been to Bangkok you will know that there are stray dogs everywhere (up to 300,000 according to National Geographic) but they never cause any problems other than the land mines they leave on the sidewalks.

I was jogging down the path weaving my way around sleeping dogs when suddenly I heard barking and I could feel dogs running after me.  I knew that running would encourage the dogs to chase me so I turned around and saw three of these dogs growling and coming at me!

I tried my best to growl at them which seemed to stop them in their tracks, but they still started creeping towards me!  I was prepared to throw down with these mangy muts but I opened my bottle of water and splashed them with water and they ran back around 10 feet which allowed me to walk away without any further agression.

It wasn’t a big deal at the time because I like dogs but as I started thinking if I got bit by one of these dogs, I could possibly get a host of disease including rabies!  Once I cleared all the stray dogs I started joggin on my way to the gym again.

The jog was one of the most death defying jogs ever.  Not that I’m not used to dodging drunk drivers, making sure not to step on syringes or human waste in San Francisco but this canal path had it all.

First of all I can’t swim or tread water and the safety railing is only 2.5 feet high.  There is no lights on the path other than the lights of nearby houses and the moon and the ground is wet.  As I’m running through spider webs and notice bats fluttering about I come across planks replacing the cement path in some places.

You’d expect the planks to be sturdy but I’m guessing they weren’t designed for joggers close to 200 pounds.  I thought they were going to break and deposit me into the filthy canal.  I kept jogging thinking I would find the exit which would take me to Suhkumvit 23 which goes to my gym but no.

I kept running trying not to slice my arm along the rusted tin roofs of the shanties along the canal on the path waterlogged with puddles in the pitch black.  I even walked by the most dangerous animal on the planet, the terrorist looking homeless guy under a bridge who gave me a death stare as I jogged by.  I picked up speed a bit to avoid any stabbing attempt from behind as I finally found an exit from the canal path which I thought was the right exit.

Getting Lost in Bangkok

I found myself on a narrow road which obviously was not the main road (Sukhumvit 23?) I was looking for.   It was narrow with slippery muddy patches which wasn’t very safe coupled with the electrical wires dangling in my face above the sidewalk and the steady flow of traffic in the street.  I wasn’t very “lost” but just misplaced really.  I could see the tall buildings which I knew are located along Sukhumvit 1 where I had to go and I knew the direction of the canal but I still was on a road which wasn’t heading towards the gym.

I kept jogging and came to an intersection where I had to choose which road to take as there were tall buildings in each direction so the choice wasn’t obvious.   I stopped for a minute and went in a 7/11 to get a Gatorade.  I didn’t bother asking for directions as the clerks didn’t speak a lick of English.  I walked outside and stood on the corner drinking some Gatorade thinking how to get to the gym and I saw a tall, slim girl in a pink skirt and black tanktop walking out small shack looking house.  This could be considered a Bangkok compass in my situation because my gym happens to be near Soi Cowboy (below) so I jogged in the direction she was walking which lead me to the gym which I got to 30 minutes before closing time.  Just another day in Bangkok.