you are not wrong.
While i am still here, i'm going to do a small review, having seen enough to get a good idea of what's around.
Bangkok has slight Night City vibes, but not enough to warrant a visit on just that ground.
This was until recently a shanty-town and you can see the enormous, modern buildings shoulder to shoulder with corrugated-steel shacks.
My friend from Buenos Aires asked me if there is as much poverty, and the answer is no, nowhere near. BSAS has hordes of people dumpster-diving at every hour of the day, families on the street, BKK has none of that.
something thats valid for both BKK and Phuket, is that luxury is everywhere. However, luxury is NOT expensive. I have the Four Seasons next to my hotel, and their all-you-can-eat super fancy buffet is $30 per person. Sure, you can find the bar that bumps cocktails to $9 each and beers to $4, but overall the price for the rest of the food is pretty much the same as everywhere else.
Thailand as a whole is unexpensive.
As i arrived at the airport, for $30 i bough a SIM with 30 day unlimited 5G data, AND i am using it for tethering right now without issues.
Wifi is very common everywhere.
The Metro system is initially a bit confusing, but once you figure it out it's very convenient and by far the best way to get around.
im currently paying about $150 for 9 nights in a hotel 30 sec walk to the beach.
My AirBnB in BKK was more or less the same money, $300 for 10 days - mini-apartment all to myself.
Foodwise, Thais are less into eating and more into snacking. Which makes sense with the heat, as you don't really want to eat a full meal then walk out at 2PM.
Street carts selling food are ubiquitous, but again, they are just to grab a bite, they'll sell you ONE chicken wing on a stick.
Thais have no concept of continental breakfast, they eat fried chicken at 7AM.
Starbucks are everywhere and they make lovely, cheap cold drinks.
Taxis are not as scammy as they paint them out to be. Thais in general are not scammy. I only had 1 guy charge me like $9 for a small rack of ribs which im sure was overpriced but, you know, it was one time.
In Phuket you will get tuktuks and taxi constantly asking you "taxi? taxi?" but they are nowhere near as annoying as anywhere else i've been - they will not for example, swarm you and try to touch you.
English is pretty much everywhere. Ofc you should expect the occasional situation where the person does not speak english, but most of the time they will be able to easily communicate. Most signs are also in english.
The city is .. not DIRTY, but it's badly built. Sidewalks are optional. There's power cables everywhere that constantly fry in the rain. Traffic is bad, so forget takin taxis during the day.
Thais are polite and absolutely not aggressive. They do however take their own gooddamn sweet time to fucking do anything. Espresso? that's at least a 5 minute wait.
7-11 are everywhere, and they sell everything you need.
Beer and booze are cheap; they do however have weird OTC sales hours. Bars dont follow these rules, but they do sometimes have no-alcohol days (it's a buddhist thing).
Walking in Bangkok is really difficult. Not only you need to be an experienced jaywalker (e.g. anyone from a non-US country), but the heat and distances will kill you.
I would much rather recommend - if you want to visit Bangkok - to go during the "winter" months. Then you can enjoy what is essentially a much cheaper NYC.
As we said, weed is legal.
NO, it's not 2%. The range is between 18-23% and easily rivals the kindbud you find stateside. Street smoking is still illegal. Cigarette smoking is pretty much confined to smoking areas, most restaurants will allow you to smoke at the table if in the open, but even Patong BEACH has a f* smoking area.
Thais LOVE uniforms. Basically everyone looks like a cop.
If you are going for a beach holiday, i would recommend you skip BKK entirely and just fly into Phuket, or another of the islands.
Rather than a cheap holiday, Thailand looks good for someone that wants to enjoy a upscale holiday .. spa's, massage, fancy hotel, etc .. but then wants to pay much less for those services.
Thai food is nice, but you can also find pretty much every other food within walking distance - kebab, italian, pizza, chinese, BBQ, burgers, etc.
AirCon is everywhere.
I have seen very, very little street vibe. I mean fashion, anything that you could identify as "modern culture". And i dont mean US-culture, but anything at all that you could say "oh yeah this has got to the their equivalent of X culture".
Everyone wears a mask pretty much always. They are NOT mandatory, anywhere except flights.
Helmets are not mandatory on bikes (but they are for non-Thai travel insurance purposes).
Thais tend to dress conservatively in general. I don't mean "repressed", but i couldn't identify any obvious fashion trends.
Did not see a single club. Did not really hear much music.
Thai women are .. kinda meh. Honest, don't come here if you are expecting hot chicks. You want gorgeous women? Go to Jamaica.
Is thailand worth it as a holiday destination? Eh .. yes. There's better, but if you want a non-committal, not risky or adventurous, fairly standard beach holiday, then absolutely yes. This has been an extremely trouble-free experience, which you may well value. If insteasd you are looking for something more extreme .. let's say, you want to smoke every brain cell at your disposal - then Morocco is a better choice. You want to go to the bar and get fucked up drunk every day - go to the caribbean, Cuba, St Domingo, etc. You wanna fuck until you wind up with a limp noodle, Jamaica. Looking to make your nostrils explode? South america. (the top bit, e.g. Costa Rica) or maybe you want to engorge until you bloat - then Europe is a better choice, Spain, Italy, France.
If you want to be in a hotel and have everything taken care for by someone else, and not have to pay ten grand a head for the service, then thailand is a top tier destination.