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Published: October 31st 2009
Really built-up
A sliver of BangkokWhew! I was pretty busy my first day in Thailand. To wit:--after a leisurely breakfast overlooking the Chao Praya river (I am still working on the photo upload part) in downtown Bangkok Thursday, I walked (one of the smells I was referring to when I last wrote was the smell of raw sewage-not as bad as it used to be some years ago-but memorable) to the train station to buy my ticket for the trip to Chiang Mai. The trip is a twelve hour affair and cost around $20.00 I was a man with a mission-I needed to get myself a SIM card so I could keep in touch with people I meet here;and to call a friend who has retired here, and buy some CDs. It can be a real challenge finding the services you need because addresses are so screwy and people don't know the name of a street 500 meters away! The first place I went to they spoke broken English. Coupled with my broken Thai we are able to achieve some sort of understanding/misunderstanding. I bought a SIM card and time card but could not get my phone from home - which I had unlocked - to
World map shower curtain
'Sit' and study at home preparing for trip work. They sugessted I visit 'MBK' a large shopping center with many phone 'stalls.' So I took the subway to a Skytrain connection - and it is hot here around 88 to 90 (this is their cool season) - and there I was. How many people (cultures) do you know of whose stalls are situated side by side selling the identical product? There is no sign of road rage, either. The vehicles seem to mesh quite nicely with what would appear to us multiple multipile close calls between tuk-tuks, motorcycles, and othe vehicles of varying size (google tuk-tuk-riding them is quite an experience). I got talked into buying an inexpensive cell phone and the SIM card is compatible with it as evedinced by the sales girl calling my phone with hers (I still can't figure out how to make the damn thing work-and this after asking both foreigner and Thai alike). Next I asked about a place selling cds. I was directed towards one (many times these people get a commision - shit, nearly everybody (it seems at times gets/is looking for a kickback) and showed them the list I had conjured after litstening to streaming Thai music at home.
Cute couple!!!
Sadly, this was at home, and not on the trip-- Brand new CDs are about $5.00 each. I was able to buy several and these are for a fellow Thai music-phile. Then back on another skytrain going in a different direction to search for a Western-friendly bar.
There are several main districts in Bangkok which comprise many houses of 'leisure.' When you walk buy these ladies know all the right things to say to attempt to get you to enter their establishment. Things like 'you so handsome,' 'where you going?,' you need massa (massage)?' How do I know you ask? Previous experience-you just smile and say, 'mai pen rai, khrawp' which translates roughly as 'no thank you.' I found a little theme bar - Australian - minus the harrasment, and sat down to relax and drink a beer outside but under a fan. After a couple hours I was back on the skytrain heading home. I remembered how to get back, but the motorcycle taxi driver was a bit confused. Eventually we made it and I paid him an extra 10 baht as a tip. I was friggin tired and went to bed with plans to ride the train to Chiang Mai in the early morning.
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Little Bee
non-member comment
me love you long time!!!!
Hi handsome!!! OOoOoooohh...you SosoososososooooOoooo handsome! Me love you long, long, long time....NOW!!!!! Tee-hee! So easy to just "get" a girl, eh? You so lucky!!! Me make you massah!!! OooooOOohh...feel nicey nicey!!! Okay....hopefully that was really enticing! Thank you for calling me before you go to bed. I love you, really! Long time, honey!!!! Your Bee