Yay! I still haven't gotten sick

I got up pretty late today... it's good having a full night's sleep after a 24 hour, stop to stop transit. Today we had two things on the agenda: getting suits made and getting a place to stay at our next location.

Bangkok is incredibly humid.. it's like living in a steam room. I haven't been to another place like it. Luckily, we were staying in an air conditioned hotel so our acclimation is going a bit easier. Combined with the smoke from scooters, tuk-tuks, and poorly maintained cars, it can be an atmospheric nightmare.

A number of people told me that I had to get a suit made in Bangkok. The city hosts a bunch of tailors that, using the inexpensive, skilled labor available, are able to knock-out custom made suits at a low price. We decided to be lazy and went to the tailor the concierge at our hotel recommended. The shop sent a car and picked us up at the hotel and, after 20 minutes, dropped us off in some strange corner of Bangkok. The ride to the tailor was free, and they claimed they'd still take us back if we didn't get anything. Inside, there were a number of people in dress shirts milling around and lots fabric samples on the wall. The guy who appeared to be second in command sat us down and offered us beers.

After the requisite rounds of negotiating with an old British guy who seemed to be the owner, we arrived at a fairly decent price. I was fitted for my suits and shirts, given a certificate of purchase, and had another beer. Leaving the tailor's we asked our driver to take us to Chinatown, where we'd get lunch.

Before we got to Chinatown, Bangkok had felt like any other American or European capitol. A brand new airport, an extensive highway system, clean sidewalks, a nice hotel. Chinatown, on the other hand, was a network of alleys, lined with vendors selling everything from flip flops, to burlap sacks, to an array of mystery meats.

It was time for us to play the game about how not to make ourselves sick and still eat cheaply. We passed by a number of questionable hawkers, and settled on a woman selling barbecue pork skewers for 15 cents. The criteria we used for safety was if we saw the hawker cook the food in front of us. We gobbled down the pork without much apprehension. They weren't bad.

Next, we decided to be a little more adventurous and eat a full meal of street food. We settled on a slightly mean looking little old woman. She didn't speak a word of English and, seemed to be gesturing that we were breaking some sort of taboo. We sat down anyway and she cooked us fish and noodle soup. Judging from her expressive gestures, it appeared we were supposed to use the spoon to cut the noodles, and the chopsticks to eat the noodles. Right after we finished, she tapped her fingers on the table indicating hat we had to leave. We paid her the hefty sum of $1.00 for the meal.

After Chinatown, we needed to get back to the hotel. Riding on the back of a scooter was a bit much and a cab ride was too expensive, so we decided to settle on the happy medium, a tuk-tuk. Tuk-tuks are small, metal carts towed by mopeds with a couple of benches facing each other. We deluded ourselves into thinking they were safer than riding on the back of a scooter. A cab driver in Phnom Penh told us that tuk-tuks (he used a different word and scolded us for using Thai in Cambodia) were hand made and had inadequate safety features.

One of the things we hadn't anticipated was just how polluted the city streets really were. It was hard to get a full breath in of fresh air with out dust, soot, or emissions finding their way in. Luckily, our driver knew what he was doing and got us back to the hotel safely, in time for us to get a swim and have a second fitting at the tailor.

It was hart to get a real feeling for Bangkok, staying at a sterile hotel and being chauffeured around to respectable establishments. When we make it back at the end of our trip, we'll get a better sense of the city, staying on the Khoa San Road and fending for ourselves.

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