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Published: January 20th 2008
I landed on the 18th January and have had a weird time of it since arriving.
There are no photos as yet because my tourism so far has been unsuccessful!
The story so far....
I met a guy at Heathrow called George. He's 20 and also traveling solo. We bonded on the mutual fear of coming to Thailand alone but we parted ways after arriving at the airport. I got an airport transfer to my hostel with three English girls. They were staying at a different hostel so I didn't end up sticking with them after arriving at my hostel as it was late and I was jet lagged. The hostel is ok. I have a private bathroom and a double bed for 780Baht a night which is quite pricey I suppose but really it's about 13 quid a night.
On the first night I decided to see if I would meet anyone in the bar so ordered a beer - there was nobody in the bar! Ok, I thought, tomorrow is a new day and I'll just start with a fresh head. I woke up really late on the 19th at about 12 and thought I better get up and find something to eat (I hadn't eaten properly since Heathrow, the airport food was minging! Thank christ for a packet of Skips purchased earlier!) so I ventured to Khao San Road which is about 10 minutes walk from here. What a shock that was! More like a really, really mental Camden with massive neon signs hanging off every building (Don't worry I will go out and get some shots of that at least!). I walked up to one end in about 2 minutes during which time I was hassled by two tuk-tuk drivers suggesting they can drive me round all the sights for an hour for 20Baht. Seeing as I read my Lonely Planet guide about gem and tailor scams I knew where this was leading so I just told them I was meeting someone and went off in the opposite direction in search of food.
I found a travelers bar called Gullivers and saw football emblems for Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd etc (booooooo, where's the Spurs emblem eh??). So I thought this would be a good place to meet people from my neck of the woods. I sat down and ordered some chicken fried rice which was pretty good. Meanwhile a Thai girl called Ann started talking to me. I entertained her thinking it would be interesting but eventually realised there was something amiss. She told me all sorts of stuff I didn't really want to know but it was an experience nevertheless. She told me she ran away from home when she was 15, married an English backpacker and returned when she was 22. Her husband sounded lovely..... she talked about how he doesn't give a shit where she goes or what she does as long as she belongs to him! Ok, so this is a bit too much information to be telling a stranger, but it didn't stop there. She told me she has been thrown out of this bar many times, how she gets annoyed that everyone thinks she's a prostitute (this became a case of the lady doth protest too much), then told me she was an alcoholic and asked if I wanted to go drinking with her! After she told me she bottled an English girl in a bar for talking about her, I thought it was time to try and strike up a conversation with somebody less scary! So I told her I had to check my emails in the bar and thankfully started chatting to a chap called John from Manchester who was sitting near the internet terminal. We struck up a good chat about music, being in a strange place alone and all that. I sat in the bar for a good couple of hours before he had to go back to his violently pukey travel companion.
I trundled off to the guest house feeling a bit shit faced but had to go to Starbucks to meet a girl I met through Travel Buddy. She was really nice and gave me an insight into the workings of Buddhism, why Thai girls on Khao San in particular get friendly with "farang" (foreigners) and how massive the sex trade is in Thailand. Fascinating stuff. It seems that Buddhism is much like how the Christian church operated in England, it's all about money so that they can build temples to show their status of civilisation. Power and money seems to be the route of even something like Buddhism - they didn't tell me that at uni!
After a while the pollution of Khao San and Bangkok in general was starting to make me feel very ill indeed. Very difficult to breath so I left Dodge and came back to the guest house when George finally made contact at about 1am. He's in a guest house round the corner from me but I didn't know which one so I walked back up to Khao San Road to meet him. We came back to the bar at my place and chatted until about 3am. I told him that I was still feeling really intimidated and hadn't done a great deal but he assured me I just need to get out there and walk around. I did do this today in search of the Grand Palace.
I walked all the way down the busy main road in search of it until yet another tuk tuk driver started to tell me it was closed. When he got his map out I lied and told him I had been everywhere he was showing me so I didn't need a ride - he gave up and then told me which direction the Grand Palace was in - lol, rumbled - I thought you said it was closed!? So I walked some more and asked a French tourist where it was. Following her directions I ended up at a temple that seemed rather small scale to be the Grand Palace and there were no tourists other than me, what happened next was hilarious and could only happen to me! I walked around the complex thinking "where the f**k am I?" until a Thai man waved me into the temple, motioned for me to take my shoes off and walk into the temple and donate 50baht to the collection. I didn't have 50Baht so had to give 100. I had no idea what I was doing. He gave me a tray with some plastic looking balls to give as an offering to Buddha I guess. Then he gave me some joss sticks that I had to place in the opening of the temple. He took me back inside where a monk through a load of water on me whilst chanting so I guess I was receiving a blessing but without any translation he could have been cursing this joke tourist! I left the temple realising that I was not in the right place and headed back to the street. Having no clue where I was and no water left, I headed back to the guest house which seems to be the place I am spending the most time. So, I have not seen the river, the Temple of Dawn or the Grand Palace. George however has! Oh well.
I thought I would be more adventurous but I am finding it quite difficult to walk around in the heat for very long. So at this point I am thinking of calling Thailand to a halt and flying out to New Zealand early. There's nothing to stop me coming back later at the end of the trip. I feel like I need to be around english speaking people right now. It's not easy to meet people here as they all seem to be in groups so it's a bit tricky, plus I am not the party person I used to be, I prefer to chill out and this area is full of young people that want to drink, drink, drink. Evident lsst night when I saw the two girls from my airport transfer walking passed my guest house when suddenly one of them started throwing up in the alley way.....
Oh dear!
So I guess I will call the airline tomorrow and get my flights changed and come back later. Part of me feels I have failed already but you know when something isn't clicking so I don't think it's the travel wobbles. I would be happier if I had teamed up with someone. George has been a relief but he is heading to Cambodia so I can't hang with him for long.
Hopefully I will find better fortune in New Zealand. Pictures for this blog will follow when I have taken some!
Tata for now!
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irit
non-member comment
That sounds quite funny to be honest... but it is clearly not the place for you. but please do take photos!! if it makes you feel any better it is raining and raining and raining in London.