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Published: October 24th 2006
Sippin in Seoul
Enjoying some Budweisers in Seoul, Trevor and I wait for our flight to Bangkok.Before our flight from Seoul to Bangkok, Trevor and I managed to squeeze in a beer outside a convenience store near the airport. We were glad to have few hours in Seoul (12 to be exact) during which we could relax and get excited about what the next 6 months would entail - we had no idea. but we were ready for anything!
Our brisk flight to Bangkok was nice, exit rows again, and we arrived at the new and fancy Bangkok airport at 9pm Sunday night. We withdrew our first 10,000 baht (B) and headed for the dreaded taxi stand. Not as bad as we thought, though we simply ignored the countless cab drivers trying to lure us to their ride. A pretty nice, and not too aggressive guy finally got our business and we were able to get a ride to Khao San rd. for 700 baht. 30 mins later, and after experiencing our first bout at hectic but efficient thai traffic, we arrived at the intersection of Chakraphong rd. and Rambuttri rd. Where's Jason? "Green Guesthouse, big green sign" were our instructions. After finding two green gueshouses, and trying to describe Jason to the front desk, and
Big Buddha!
My first day in Bangkok I saw several Buddha, this being the largest at 45m in height. Spectacular! having a random tall white male come downstairs, Jason was no where to be found. @#%! The instructions seemed to simple! We were nervous, but had to laugh - it couldn't have been that easy to find him in a city of ~~5 million. We wandered around aimlessly for a bit, sweating profusely, and finally found ourselves in front of "Green Guesthouse" Woooooot! Where were we? We had done a loop and found ourselves on an extension of the original road - the streets aren't as well organized as Vancouver... So excited, we ran inside, dropped our packs, and in the common room laid Ryan and Jason, casually enjoying some drinks - the rendezvous was complete! After much excitement, we calmed ourselves and just started to catch up. We found ourselves up until 2am and decided to call it a night for we had much to do the following day.
We got up early - it's tough to sleep in 30 degree heat and sun beaming on your face. But as excited as we were we felt no fatigue. After breakfast (very tasty strawberry smoothie) we finally left our hostel/guesthouse (most moderate accomodation is referred to as a guesthouse)
Diggin the Muay Thai
From our nosebleed seats (only 10 rows up!) we throughly enjoyed the exceptional athletic display by the 100-120lb kickboxers. and hit the streets of Bangkok. We decided that we would explore via foot, for it would give us a better bearing of the town, and we could absorb more fo the culture. This was very difficult, only because the Tuk-Tuk drivers would constantly approach us with "where u going" "i take u" fair enough, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. We learned to be stern, and continued our exploration of Bangkok. Jason and I set a steady ogre pace, and before we knew it we were seeing wats, (temples) markets, crowded streets, rivers, shops, huge beautiful boulevards, and much more. It was a great day and I was loving the city.
We checked out the Muay Thai arena, and were told that a great fight was to start at 6pm. We then headed back to our guesthouse, ate plenty, napped wonderfully, and returned to the stadium for our first taste of traditional thai martial arts. What a show! We bought the cheapest tickets, which were a great deal because we were only 10 rows from the ring, and sat back and relaxed. 10 matches of extreme kickboxing ensued, and I gained much respect for thai boxers.
Typical night cap?
After our first full day in Bangkok, we enjoy some celebratory Molson Canadian, cigars, and pad thai. I could get used to this! They're lightning fast, but what I found more interesting was their respect for each other, the sport and the crowd. The athletes put on a great show.
We rode our first Tuk-Tuk to/from the stadium. Yes, one Tuk-Tuk, four people, and not small people either. It was a great ride. The night life into which were thrown after the match was new to me as well. Essentially you could see/do anything you could imagine in Bangkok, though we had planned a pretty laid back night after a busy day. We enjoyed some Canadian beer which we brought from Vancouver, some cigars we purchased in Korea, and some Pad Thai from our guesthouse. It was a great night.
Today we plan to check out Chinatown, do a riverboat ride, and explore the.... oh yes... red light district. Though this may be difficult as it's like 40 degrees and very sunny outside. My Neophyte skin may have trouble!
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Emily
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James: Writer Extraordinaire
You write of your travels so eloquently!! I have a feeling you are going to have written quite the "novella" once you string all your blogs entries together when you get back. Glad you found your bro... what a huge reunion that must have been for you guys!! I love how you brought your own beer. Canadian = Classy!!