Photo of the Day: Bangkok Downtown

downtown.jpg, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

Downtown of Bangkok looks as modern as other big cities in Asia. Though the air pollution is at extreme level making it impossible to walk on the streets. After some walk, check your spit and don't get shocked! There's always huge traffic on the streets. Tuk tuks overtaking the cars, seems like people don't care much about the traffic rules. Such things I've seen in Taipei and Istanbul before.

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Photo of the Day: Grand Palace in Bangkok

GrandPalace40.jpg, originally uploaded by aibek_dunaev.

One of the most beautiful palaces I have ever visited. From distance it glitters like gold and jewels. Thailand is the only country that was never invaded by the colonists, thus no war destroyed the ancient architecture here.

Wikipedia says: The Grand Palace (Thai: พระบรมมหาราชวัง, Phra Borom Maha Ratcha Wang) is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the king of Thailand from the 18th century to the mid-20th century. After the death of King Ananda Mahidol in the Grand Palace, King Bhumibol moved the official royal residence to Chitralada Palace. Construction of the palace complex began in 1782, during the reign of Rama I.

The palace complex sits on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. The other approaches to the palace are protected by a defensive wall of 1,900 metres in length, which encloses an area of 218,400 square metres. Further out from the wall is a canal, which was also created for defensive purposes, making the area surrounding the palace an island, known as Rattanakosin.

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мои города - мои дома

У нас на форуме была тема про города где мы живем и оценка этих городов в некоторых пунктах. Я коротко поделился о своем мнении о Сингапуре, Тайпейе и Бангкоке. Решил закинуть и сюда.
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- Сингапур
1-впечатление, производимое городом - 7/10
2-красота и климат местности - 7/10
3-экономический и образовательный потенциал - 9/10
4-ритм жизни и количество увлекательных занятий - 6/10
5-благоприятные условия для отдыха и туризма - 8/10
6-общая безопасность и дружелюбие жителей 10/10

Сингапур - крохотный остров 100 км от экватора, один из самых безопасных, чистых, красивых городов с замечательными людьми. Город-страна очень богата и является экономическим и индустриальным хабом в юго-восточной Азии. Климат - тропический. Основную часть населения составляют китайцы, потом малайы, индусы и люди европейского происхождения. Долгое время Сингапур был коллонией Великобритании. Символ города - Мерлайн (лев-рыба). Другие интересные места - островок Сентоза, театр Эспленейд, всемирно известный сингапурский зоопарк, заповедник МакРиччи, ЧайнаТаун, Литтл Индия, Араб Стрит, Чайниз Гадн, и тд.

- Бангкок
1-впечатление, производимое городом - 7/10
2-красота и климат местности - 8/10
3-экономический и образовательный потенциал - 5/10
4-ритм жизни и количество увлекательных занятий - 9/10
5-благоприятные условия для отдыха и туризма - 9/10
6-общая безопасность и дружелюбие жителей 8/10

Бангкок - центр туризма в юго-восточной Азии. Круглый год сюда едут туристы со всего мира. Неподалеку находится пляж Паттайа. Тайландцы очень приветливый народ и улыбаются при любых обстоятельствах! и почему-то всегда кивают головой даже если они тебя не понимают. Город экзотичный, Бангкок река - отличное место для прогулки на лодке, к тому же лодки один из самых быстрых передвижений в городе. Есть и мотороллеры-такси которых называют "тук-тук". По сравнения с другими городами Азии, в Бангкоке все очень дешево (почти как в Бишкеке). Интересные места; замок Гренд Палас, храм Уат Арун, Бангкок река, утренный базар на лодочках, ночные клубы, массаж салоны (везде!), субботний базар, можно на автобусе поехать в Паттайу или в дрейний город Айуттайа, муай-тай бокс шоу, кабаре шоу (парни переодетые как девушки танцуют), и тд. Если вы будете в Бангкоке, то обезательно попробуйте тайский массаж! (в марте еду в Бангкок на новую работу! ).

- Тайпей
1-впечатление, производимое городом - 7/10
2-красота и климат местности - 7/10 (город красивый, но климат плохой)
3-экономический и образовательный потенциал - 8/10
4-ритм жизни и количество увлекательных занятий - 7/10
5-благоприятные условия для отдыха и туризма - 7/10
6-общая безопасность и дружелюбие жителей 9/10

Столица Тайваня - один из самых редких точек где можно увидеть настоящию китайскую стиль жизни. Но только без знания китайского языка будет трудно, поетому если вы едете сюда надолго, то советую сразу же учить самые элементарные вещи на китайском. Тут поистине полюбите чай (зелёный, уулонг чай, и тд.), у чая есть своя отдельная культура. Больше всего мне нравится тайванцы сами, народ, один из самых дружелюбивых народов к иностранцам. Заметил огромную симпатия к американцам и Америке, и к остальным людям европейской внешности. Девушки - красавицы! Если бы не было барьера вроде религии, то невесту бы брал из Тайваня. И меня тут любят . Интересные места; вышка Тайпей101, храм Лонгшан, тёплые рудники(ключи), хайкинг на горах Йангмингшан, река Даншуей, мавзолей Чианг Кай Шека, нац. дворец-музей (очень богатая коллекция, когда партия КМТ и многие китайцы бежали от коммунистов из Китая в Тайвань, они захватили с собой почти все ценное что находился на императорском дворце в Пекине (Forbidden Palace), сейчас эти сокровища находятся в этом музее), Змеиная Аллея, и тд.
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It's Bangkok, baby!

So I got confirmation (yet nothing is signed) about my job in Bangkok starting from mid-March. It will be more about computer network security programming, it is different area of IT than I have been working for, but I am willing to learn more about it and get experience, so again new challenge. (when will I start doing things that I already know well?!...)
Thailand is amazing country itself, and life in Bangkok both attracts and repels me at the same time. Travel spots, food, culture, nature is amazing, yet I had some negative impression about Thailand after my visit there last year. Bangkok is more exotic and chaotic compared to Taipei or Singapore where I spent my last 2 years, the same language problem, the same risk of tropical diseases, and similar issues made me think a lot over it, but
on the other hand, the fact that I will continue working in my favorite region of the world, traveling opportunities, new career experience (as I have been looking forward to change my job in Taiwan for a long time), flexibility in new work really attracted me a lot.
So, here I come, Thailand-country of smiling faces! meet this smiling guy soon...
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Thailand trip

(Photos from the trip)

"Sawasdee" (Welcome) was the first word I learnt in Thai language. There was a huge Sawasdee in Bangkok International Airport Arrival terminal. After getting cheap e-ticket from budget airline Air Asia, I was happy to be in this exotic and mysterious country. I have heard a lot of interesting things about Thailand, culture, people, food, Thaiboxing, massage, ancient architecture, elephants, beaches, palaces, ancient towns and, of course, its popularity as a sex tourism destination. Almost all the guide books about Thailand I read were mentioning about it, and I had a chance to witness this ?other face" of Thailand. So after 2,5 hour of flight on the board of Boeing 737, I was at Bangkok. There were lots of hotels, so we found one near to Grand Palace (Wat Phra Kaew) area. We started our first day by exploring Grand Palace. The architecture was amazing, all the curvatures, artistic drawings and decorations were worth to see. Grand Palace hosts royal residence and throne halls, temple of Emerald Buddha, and beautifull architectures like reliquary in the shape of golden chedi, the Mondop (repository for Buddhist sacred scriptures), miniature Angkor Wat, the Royal Pantheon (in which statues of past sovereigns of dynasty Chakri is located), etc. After that, we headed towards Wat Arun temple (one of the attractions of Bangkok). After crossing Chao Phraya river by a 2-baht ferry, there was beautiful ancient but restored Royal temple - Wat Arun! Its shape somehow resembles mosque with minarets like in Turkey. But it was a big temple, all covered in thousands of porcelain and china decorations in myriad of patterns - a spectacle which is hard to find elsewhere. After exploring it by climbing stairs and walking around it, we took some cool shots for memory collection and went back to hotel. Next destination was night market. Also finally we had a chance to witness night life in Bangkok. Near the night market there were lots of bars and centers of nightlife and show places. As I reached the place, locals were trying to get our attention by offering all kind of live shows (you can imagine what kind of live shows they are). Lots of prostitutes hanging around the bars, a lot of guys-turned-to-girls were everywhere (coz of the business many men turned into women in Thailand, one of the sad and pity things there). Things were in extreme level there. After some shopping and nice dinner in Mexican restaurant, we went back to hotel.

Thai people in general seem very soft and polite, they always smile. Whether they understand you or not, they smile, bow and say "Yes!". Also they are not very familiar with English, even they don?t have many English signs in streets, shops, touristic centers, which is very surprising knowing that one of Thailand?s main income is tourism. Especially I had some difficulties with taxi drivers trying to explain them location we want to go, even map couldn?t help sometimes. Also traffic is really terrible, air is very polluted and it is very hot in November. All these things can easily depress any tourist, especially if you don't know much about Bangkok. But besides that we met a lot of friendly and helpful people too.

Second day started with a tour to explore more about Bangkok. I took train to Sukhimvit and then took a walk to Siam square which is more near to downtown. After a Siam square I went to see Victory monument ( there were nothing much to see actually), and then I went to some night street markets. After a good amount of coconut juice, i concluded our second day. On third day, i went to weekend market. It looked like those bazaars in Kyrgyzstan and Turkey but very big and full with all kind of souvenirs, clothes, stuff for very reasonable prices. Many Singaporeans come to Thailand for shopping because there are lots of different things here and prices are very low comparing to Singapore. After some shopping, i went to Bangkok zoo. Well i was so tired that neither zoo, nor the Marble temple attracted me much. So after a short tuk-tuk (it is a motorbike with a cabin behind) ride, i went back and headed to bus terminal to start our Pattaya trip.

Pattaya is small touristic town on the coast of South China Sea in south of Bangkok. It is popular with its beaches and nightlife. Coz i couldn't go to Phuket, which is more beautiful and exotic, due to less time and far distance, i decided to go to Pattaya to get some sun and swim. Unfortunately weather was not sunny, but still i had some swim in the sea. The very common view in Pattaya was a Caucasian(european) man (mostly old ones) with a local woman (mostly with sad face). Later we learnt that tourist rent women during their stay and they use them in every way, they walk with them, sleep with them, women do massage for them, women obey them in every way. That was very sad to know, those women spending their life in this way. Even most of their faces were sad and telling that they are not very fond of this life. Pattaya left some sad impressions on me.

On fifth day i was back in Bangkok. After getting a nice hotel near city area, i went out to tourist market and then for Thai massage. Thailand is popular for its massage!
Last day was unlucky for me. In the morning, due to passenger service tax at the airport I missed my plane. Then I had to pay another 120$ to get new ticket for the flight at 7 pm that evening. after that I spent whole day in airport. Luckily I like planes, so I spent most of day by watching incoming and outgoing planes and took lots of photos. Finally it was 7pm ann I flied back to Singapore. But bad luck didn't left me there too. I reached last night train. Coz I was very tired I fell asleep and woke up at last station, Boon Lay. While rushing out of train, I forgot my plastic bag with souvenirs there. Train was gone back to garage, so I went and reported to security guards at station. Then I had to walk till home with my huge backpack, it was midnight and all transports stopped and I didn't have cash for taxi. So after 30-minute walk I was finally at home. It was around 1:30 am. In my room I threw myself to bed?
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