Bangkok Part 1

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The 12+ hour flight 'flew' by with all the latest feature cartoons (HappyFeet 2, Shrek 3, TinTin) and some sleep in between. Had booked a hotel thru internet, not a clue where was heading, however picked area closest to airport, which turned out to be the business district, a Las Vegas looking neonlit strip with nightclubs, massage parlors and tall buildings. Not interesting looking at all but then i noticed two young kids appearing from a small alley and in i went... within 50 feet i ended up in a hidden slumb, little huts without walls or windows, laundry hanging across the tiny paths. Families hugging together over lunch. While stepping over the dogs and cats which clearly had taken over the remaining area i zigzagged my way through this contrasting aread to end back into the 'riches' world. I was sore, warm and tired so i spoiled myself to a 1hr massage for €4 ... i thought because of my physical (and emotional) state it sometimes felt sore, however forgot i tend to bruise easily and i walked away with many black and blue spots ... When dragging myself back to the hotel a young taxi driver, Tong picked mi up (or perhaps i picked him up). He became my tour/companion for the next two days. 25 years ago i had visited the Royal Palace and its temple area where i visited the Emerald Buddha and a 20 mtr lying Buddha ... Those two statues had a strong memory to mi and wanted to c them again. However the place had become a major tourist trap and on top of it both Buddhas were locked behind closed doors for some kind of 'official business', so i took my few snapshots of the buildings and had Tong take me over to a crowded Chinatown, which amazingly felt very much like i was walking through NY chinatown with the second language not being English but the beautiful but completely Thai calligraphy. This stroll ended up in booking a bycicle tour the next morning. At night Tong took mi on a nightlife adventure for which i believe this site is not appropriate to share any details on ;-). The next morning i hopped on the metro at 6.15am to get to central chinatown as the tour started at 7am. I complimented my fingerprint massage bruises with more scratches and bumps as we travelled thru tiny narrow living and shopping allies, lifting the bike up and down and over steps, in and ouf of ferries and long boats, one of the best choices i've made while travelling. Right in the moment, concentrating on not getting too much hurt, busy streets and narrow paths through the jungle which happened also to be part of Bangkok (see pictures). Due to the speed of the bycicle the 33 degrees (100 F) was 'blown' comfortably around mi. One more note on the Thai...when asked if they speak english they all nod, u ask them a question and all they say 'ok, ... ok... however when u expect to receive an answer their faces turn into an blank expression and u realize that they didn't understand a word u were saying. This happened also on the second day at the hotel when i asked to stay one more night 'ok, no problem'. 'And what's the price?'. 'Same, same it's ok, no problem, ok!' However upon return of my 5hr bike adventure i was asked when i was leaving the room. Turned out nothing had happened to my booking, and i was to be charged the a larger fee for the one additional night compared to the two nights i had booked from Holland. At the moment my fuse is still short and tried to stay focused and centered and polite. The result was if i booked the one night through the internet i could stay with a 70% discount... by the time i got into my room my zen state due to the wonderful ride had vanished and i returned to my breathing exercises to calm down again...i realised there were many more things i wanna do in Bangkok, however it's gonna b a central returning point through my travels as instead of going to the North of Thailand i decided to go visit Angkor Wat, one to X off my bucket list ...

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