I finally found the time to explore Bangkok a bit – a city I only knew from chan­ging gates at Suvarn­ab­humi Airport before.

In a sense Bangkok reminded me of Hanoi. At first sight it’s a somehow frantic exper­i­ence. But once you accli­mate your­self to the city and the jet lag fades out, it’s a fas­cin­at­ing place.

I stayed in Chinatown’s Yaowarat neigh­bor­hood which I’d whole­heartedly recom­mend if you con­sider your­self a foodie.

While I was in Bangkok the anti-government protests slowly gained momentum. Coming from Wat Saket temple I walked to Demo­cracy Monu­ment and watched a massive rally – thou­sands sup­port­ing Suthep Thaug­suban (see a short video here).

If you’re con­fused about Thailand’s current polit­ical situ­ation (almost every­body is) try the Q+A’s by the BBC and WSJ.