Well, we’ve been here TWO nights now, but how could I resist?
Our flight from Kuala Lumpur was unremarkable. However, we did get to board from the tarmac directly and up a flight of mobile stairs. First time for me. I felt like the President, but I had no one to turn and wave to.
Once we landed in Bangkok, I picked up a local SIM card and nabbed a taxi to meet up with the CouchSurf fellow we’d arranged to stay with. I did not verify the number before leaving Malaysia, and I had inadvertently saved the wrong number to my phone. After some confusion, we had our taxi fellow take us to a small hotel near Khao San Road, the main tourist area of Bangkok, for reasons I don’t yet fathom.
We checked in to this little out-of-the-way place ($7/night!) and went for a walk down Khao San. More like Chaos San! It’s like Kuta, Bali was only turned up to eleven. Touts were everywhere and they were offering just about anything you can imagine. Transport, clothing, fake ID’s, sunglasses, massage, and much much more. English is back to Indonesia standards with most folks speaking in broken phrases and lots of misunderstanding on both their and our parts. Traffic also appears to have moved back to Indonesia-esque craziness, though not quite at that level.
Yesterday was a long day. We awoke and set out to take a river taxi to anywhere. After some walking we found the main river through town. We decided to take the boat to the central SkyTrain station, which was about a thirty minute ride. From the river, we saw the Royal Palace and many Wats, our boat fellow all the while telling us about them from his loudspeaker. It was only fifty cents, too! I think we’ll do quite well monetarily here.
Harry Potter was playing at the IMAX (so that had to happen) and we saw another mall, this one having a Lamborghini dealership on the third floor. I tell you what, Bangkok has a style unto itself. It also has Soi Cowboy, a small street on the east side of town known for it’s, shall we say, flamboyance. We enjoyed some people watching (there are some CRAZY people here, and quite a bounty of the ‘old white guy with young thai lady’ set) and I had way too much to drink. I don’t even remember the cab ride home. Been some time since that happened.
Today, aside from my recovery, we moved to a new hotel (via Tuk Tuk, yay!) Old one was fine, but this one wasn’t much more expensive and it has a rooftop pool. We have two days left before Indi sets off on her retreat and she’s already started her pre-cleanse by eating fruits and veggies only. And stopped smoking. For the next few weeks, we’ll be hopping around the south islands for some beach bumming. My Hawaiian shirt misses it’s natural environment. After that, it’s Cambodia!
Rhys' Pieces 