by Felix Asuma

Created on: May 05, 2010

Thailand is the land of smiles. And there are very many of them in Bangkok – from the immigration officer in the airport to the receptionist at the hotel to the policeman on the street – genuine smiles that add to the friendliness in the city. There are appealing sights all around, the most magnificent I have seen yet being Wat Phra Kaew (temple of the Emerald Buddha), one of the several temples scattered throughout the city; saffron-clad Buddhist monks with clean-shaven heads are a usual sight near the temples.

Contrasting sights are everywhere: the modern and massive Suvarnabhumi Airport and Baiyoke Tower 2, Bangkok's tallest building; the impeccable MRT underground trains with exotic, fully automated stations; the dirty Chao Phraya River that flows through the city on which canal boats cruise for views of the temples and the floating market; glitzy shopping malls in which you can find everything you want and everything you do not want; imposing statues of elephants and the towering King Rama VI Monument in Lumphini Park; rat-sized cockroaches in drainages, cat-sized rats, and lazy dogs lying on the roadsides.

3-D theatres offer memorable movie watching experiences. I remember screaming loudest in the 4-D theatres which have 3-D screens, goggles and additional physical effects like jets of water, mobile seats and brushes against the feet. The screams are an addition to the cacophony on the roads, especially during rush-hour when motorcycles compete with tuk-tuks for the space between the vehicles, blaring their horns throughout. The tuk-tuks are so loud you hear them before you see them.

The bustling Pratunam Market, like most markets and bazaars, gets an new injection of life as night falls and more vendors erect their stalls. After buying a plethora of items, most of which will never find use for (everyone just buys items because they are too cheap to resist), the sounds change to those in restaurants, bars and, as the 2am curfew nears, to night clubs. But long nights are better started on a full stomach.

For locals and daring tourists, the tastiest meal is perhaps the deepfried bugs - scorpions, crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms - with the soy sauce. For the less adventurous, there are numerous international restaurants and fast-food establishments like McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut. But there is no point of going to Thailand and not try the Tom Yam Goong soup with prawns, or the other seafood specialties.

I had an uneasy feeling when I was

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