The Worst City in the World
OK, well, the worst city I have been to is Bangkok. When I found myself there, on a four day stopover between England and New Zealand, I was both disgusted and horrified. First it was the heat, second it was the smell. The smell of the sweat and the sewage was thick and overpowering from the moment I stepped my foot to the ground.
The very first Thai experience, right after getting an oversized ink stamp into my passport, was being ripped off by a taxi company. Having read all those horror stories about single female travellers getting kidnapped and sold into go-go slavery, I allowed some uniformed woman to arrange a cab for me. I paid about 900 bhat for the transfer to the hotel. Four days later, hailing a cab from the hotel lobby cost me only about 150Bh.
So I check into what was supposed to be a solid four star hotel, and go for a walk in the neighbourhood. I like the fruit vendor - a tiny stall where a smiley man sells various fruits none of which I recognise (oh, those mangosteens, dorians and star fruit!). I buy a pre-cut "assortment", just to get a taste of everything and trying not to think of the food handling hygiene (Oh my good, is there an A grade on display?!). I instantly dislike a rather large food stall - not so smiley vendor selling some noodles in a take away plastic bag, out of which you are supposed to eat just walking down the road. Err.
I walk down the road, trying to find a decent place to get something to eat. I am in the mood for some authentic tom yum soup. I see a sign Body Massage in English and a Thai woman outside handling out the fliers. I inquire about the price, which seems unbelievably low, and tell her that I get something to eat and come back. Then a typical Thai thing happens - she grabs my arm and tells me she knows a great place for lunch, kindly suggesting to walk me there. I agree, thinking to myself that I am such a cool tourist, doing Thailand and befriending locals. We walk down the road in a frisky pace and end up in a small cafe with plastic chairs and laminated menus. It looks plausible, so I order and wait. The massage woman, though, is sitting on a tiny chair by the door, watching me eat! I tell her that she does not have to, I will be able to find my way around - but she just nods and smiles. I eat, she watches. I feel awful, I shovel my soup down and obediently follow her back to the massage place. I get a decent massage, which kind of brings the score to the draw of 2 positive experiences (fruit+massage) to 2 negative (food vendor + persistent woman), and I decide to return to the hotel.
Other than that, it is a great slum, overpopulated, dirty, noisy and ready to take advantage of you. You have to walk two blocks to cross the six lane road by the overhead bridge, and it is so narrow you basically force your way through the beggars. It is hot and humid and sticky and shops don't have large-ish European sizes (44 is a problem), and you feel the power of dollars and it makes you sick, knowing that they'd do anything for it. I was glad to be flying out, and I hope I won't have to have another out-of-airport stopover.
Disclaimer: This is a topic post about the city which I consider the worst. There were many things I liked (the shrines and temples, the cultural show, the transvestite show, the floating markets, the Thai elephants, the river Kwai bridge, the kickboxing and the counterfeit gucci watch I bought for my brother), yet I have to struggle to recall them. All I remember is that woman taking me down the dirty street along the people eating something with their chopsticks out of plastic bags as they keep walking.
