Bangkok has now disappeared out of sight as the jet climbed thru the layer of smog and clouds, we are returning back to Shanghai after a 4+ days of excursion Yingjie and I had in Bangkok.

The traffic
Bangkok is impressive, much more modern than I had anticipated, it is a true world-class metropolis in every way. High rise buildings and levitated expressways/rail tracks hides the sky from the people on the surface. Although it doesn't have the sheer number of skyscrapers when compared to Shanghai, but it has just as many cars and moving objects in the streets. The traffic jam in Bangkok is among the worst of all the places I have been too, worse than Shanghai, worse than Tokyo, and probably even puts Seoul's traffic jams in shame. Mopeds, taxis, trucks and three wheeled motorbikes clogs every street and intersections, and there is no escaping from it, the traffic can be just as bad 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon. Being a popular tourist destination worsen the issue as tourists flocks in from around the globe, and gives the city rush hour traffics at any hour. Fortunately, the fairly new subway (MRT) and train (MTS) systems helps the getting around easier -- the stations are immaculate, the trains are frequent and comfortable, and the availability of one day pass (120Baht, ~$4USD), three day pass (230B, ~$7USD), pre-paid discount cards made it very easy to use. Yingjie and I have mastered the MRT/MTS over the course of four days, we were part of the locals, knew exactly where we need to get off and knew exactly which escalators to take for the MTS/MRT interchanges, and which skywalks would eventually leads to the stations... The best part of these mass transportation is, ahem... the eye-candies, which leads to the next important topic...

The women of Bangkok
ah... what can I report here? Yingjie and I are still recovering our necks from the frequent head turning we have endured in the past four days. There are soooo many cuties and hotties in this place! The decades of US and foreign influence, and the close vicinity of other SE Asian countries probably have made huge contributions to the exotic beauties of Bangkok. The Bangkok beauties ranges from the darker exotic to the fair skinned mixed looks, and each of them comes equipped with the tightest little figures imaginable. (ladies, if you are offended by my descriptions, please skip to the next section) Bangkok ladies has nothing to lose comparing to the cutesy-hotties in Shanghai, or the bling-bling, high-fashion Tokyo darlings, or the cosmetically flawless Seoul honeys. Bangkok ladies has the plump back, ample curvy fronts and shapely-long-thin-well-tanned legs, what a combination!

By the way, the most popular ladies' uniform in Bangkok consist of snug-fitted white collar shirt, tucked into a tight fitting black mini-skirt that ends six inches above the knees... store clerks, office ladies even high school girls all sport this type of uniform, what a great country!

Yingjie and I found ourselves constantly drooling uncontrollably. Drooling and sweating, add in the 95F degree temperature, and high humidity, I had to get drinks a dozen times a day, 7-Eleven, FamilyMart and other similar convenient stores are never more than a block away, offering the amenities as well as the temporary escape from the heat and smogs.

The Bangkok conveniences
I found Bangkok to be an easy city to adopt to, english translations are used everywhere, very important since Thai words are extremely long and the alphabets are squiggly, it would be very hard for the foreigners to navigate without the english translations.

As I mentioned in the last section, convenient stores are abundant, offering 24 hours quick services. Red Bulls energy drinks are only 10B (~$0.30USD), and GSM cell phone SIM cards are only 50B (~$1.5USD) which includes 15B pre-paid minutes. The SIM cards not only allowed phone usage, we were also able to send international text message to home overseas, and we were able to surf the internet using our PDA phone via GPRS/EDGE network! All these convenience from a pre-paid 50B SIM card, unbelievable!

Spent hours a day walking, sight-seeing and of course drooling, we were sticky, yucky and definitely smelly, massage parlors to the rescue! There are basically two types of massage parlors in Bangkok, one type offering bone-cracking, muscle numbing traditional Thai massage, foot massage or even Swedish/oil massage; and the other type of massage parlor, well, you can do the research on your own, just Google it. Well, in our case, Yingjie and I are all good boys, we might drool all day at the short-skirted, perfectly tanned goddesses, but when it comes to massage, we um... spent our money in the "normal" massage parlors. A quick shower wash away the stickiness, and an hour of rub down is a sure way to recovery from the day.

We did a lot during our short stay in the "Land of Thousand Smiles". I am going to try to capture as much as I can in the blog. Right now, I need to hail down the flight attendant and get myself overdued coffee.