My expectations of Bangkok were quite high since they came from the mass amounts of movies, tv shows, and guides that are being constantly output each year. Known around the world for the delicious foods and gorgeous tourist attractions, it's no wonder that millions upon millions descend on the city every year. Bangkok is one of the most traveled destinations in the entire world but to me it feels like a stereotypical international destination if you want to visit Asia for the first time (this is why it's so popular with western travelers). The city does have moments of uniqueness and amazingness, but far too often I'm left finding myself thinking that I could find the many tourist things to do in any other country/city.
The food was surprisingly disappointing for how hyped I was about Thai food. When we asked our local family friend about authentic Thai food and restaurants, he told us that there wasn't really lots of proper Thai food served in restaurants. Many of the "established" (meaning they have a store front, health inspections, and a waiting staff) restaurants in the city served a variety of other styles of food from other countries. Authentic Thai cuisine only existed in kind of janky street-side vendors of which some looked like they were a health inspectors worst nightmare. Don't get me wrong, I love street food as it's cheap and more "home-made."
The throng of street food vendors in Thailand didn't seem to appeal to me as much as street food in other places like China or Europe. I'm definitely haven't spent nearly enough time to fully explore the city and the next time I visit, I'd definitely like to spend more time trying to find the perfect plate of stir fried noodles.
For every native that I saw, I saw easily 2 or 3 tourists. It's not bad that there are so many tourists as this kind of creates an atmosphere of "tourism economy" in all of the natives, but some times it can really detract from a "culture-shock" experience. Sure there's all the typical cool/weird things to do such as the infamous ping-pong shows and night markets/event, but there's also a fair amount of beautiful temples. Taking one of the many boats alongside the river was pretty fun as the buildings and natives whizzed by. The weather was exactly how I imagined it (hot and annoyingly humid) so there was really no surprise there.
My time in Bangkok was shorter than I wanted, but my time there was a fascinating experience. I guess what surprised me the most was NOT being surprised about Bangkok. My expectations were probably too unrealistic that maybe I'm more disappointed than I should be. However, this experience definitely won't detract me from visiting again in the future.