Bangkok was always a great unknown to me. One of the reasons I moved to Thailand, especially to a small (tourist ) village, was having peace, lovely beaches, and fresh air. So far, living there was quite enough for me. But, as a kind of a low season forcefully continues for almost nine months, it became maybe too quiet. Nearby Phuket is also catastrophically affected by this COVID situation, and the lack of tourists brings the whole city to a halt.
As a passionate music lover, I decided to go to Bangkok, explore the live music scene, and try to get to know this famous city better. I reckoned that now without the tourists, the city will be more or less empty.
I was wrong.
How Bangkok lives now
Yes, some parts of the city appear empty and sad, but Bangkok is much more than a major tourist destination. It is a lively, 12 million souls city living to the fullest of its potential.
The main tourist attractions are now much less crowded, and the ladies of the night have a lot fewer customers, but Bangkok will always have a bunch of older foreigner men to help this branch of tourism. Hotels are much cheaper, and many restaurants have happy hours that stretch throughout the whole day. Taxi drivers also adapted their prices to regular non-tourist users.
People are wearing masks. They did that always to protect them from the pollution anyway. Social distancing is questionable. More or less, life is continuing as usual.
The shopping malls are full, mainly in many food courts, and public transport works just fine. As per usual, there are the traffic jams, now aided with daily protests on the crucial intersections in the town center, replacing tourist vehicle traffic.
The power of context
If you are talking to the people who have no perception of the impact that the lack of tourists will have on their lives, you find out that they don’t want to reopen borders.
Unfortunately, most of the people on the streets are of that kind. They see their own world of problems, and they don’t need to add more.
Outside the tourist areas, both daylife and nightlife are thriving. There are many clubs, pubs, and restaurants with live music of high quality. Some of them we can easily compare with similar ones in Europe. Bangkok’s many parks are beautiful and full of joggers, cyclists, and others that enjoy this small part of the city’s green area.
It always depends on what your small part of the environment is, and you will have your opinion based on it. While here in Khaolak and Phuket, almost all people can not wait for borders to reopen. And while many Isaan people are sitting at home having no jobs, Bangkok is different. Unfortunately, Bangkok is what the government is most focused on and will listen to their opinions.
It seems that until the vaccine is widely in use, it will not be any changes in the current COVID policy. The high season (December to March) seems to be lost. Ones that endure to the next one will take the empty space in the market supply. As always, the catastrophe for many is an opportunity to some. Again, as always, the poor will suffer; the rich will get even richer.
Next year in Bangkok
Bangkok was and always will be one of the most exciting cities in the world. This year only for residents. Next year hopefully, to the whole world again.
For me, I cannot put myself in any shoes, both the ones that are continuing as nothing happened and those that lost everything. I stay as an unbiased observer as my current situation luckily lets me do. But I honestly hope that this shall pass soon and that Khaolak will thrive again, although I will lose some of the peace I found here.
If you want to know more
I hope you find this story of my Bangkok experience useful.
If you want to learn more about the things I write about, check out my books. See also what the goal of this website is. You can check out my other post about mindfulness and share your thoughts and comments.
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