I’m allergic to Bangkok.
No joke, I’ve been sneezing and sniffling since we got here. I don’t have a cold, and it’s not because I haven’t been sleeping enough. I know what both of those feel like, and this isn’t it. I’m just allergic to Bangkok.
I’m not really surprised. To be quite honest, Bangkok does not sit well with me at all. There are so many people here, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. There are millions of people in London and New York, cities that I love. But in Bangkok, the number of people is compounded by the fact that pretty much every sidewalk is crowded with vendors selling – well, pretty much everything. It is just too crowded.
In addition to all this crowdedness (and the smog and pollution that come with it – and no, it’s not those things that are making me sneeze!), there is a very distinct backpacker culture in Bangkok, particularly around KSR, that permeates everything. Though it’s not the backpacker culture itself that bothers me (though the drinking/smoking/partying atmosphere of it is really not my thing) – it’s the intersection of the backpacker culture and the Thai culture in this place that doesn’t sit well with me. There is something about it – especially in Khao San – that seems so…cheap. Almost filfthy. And it’s just not right. I’m definitely allergic to it.
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