Back to B'kok

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After strenuous temple exploring, memorable eating experiences and the tuktuk episode, we headed back to Bangkok for two days. Here, we met with our cousins, Arpan and Anuj, before starting a tour of Northern Thailand. We also met the rest of our tour group and our tourguide, Chai, who we will be with for the next 8 days as we trek through various hilltribes and explore the northern city of Chiang Mai.

While we were in Cambodia, Arpan and Anuj relaxed in the beach town of Pattaya. Popularized by American GI's who needed some R&R while staitioned in Thailand during the Vietman War, Pattaya is now known for its infamous redlight district. Not going to lie, I'm kind of glad we stuck with Cambodia instead! Anyway, back to Bangkok...we actually barely did any sightseeing save the Grand Palace and Lumphini Park (the city's impressive answer to Central Park). Instead, we squandered away the money we didn't spend in Cambodia on beer, street food and at local markets. Since it rains atleast once a day, ducking away into an indoor market or a restaurant/bar for a cold drink became key to fending off the monsoons.

The first night, we stayed at the Urban Age hostel in Bangkok's thriving business district. With sky scrapers, international banks and modern streets, the locals were too busy carrying on with their day-to-day activities to pay us any attention. Another huge, yet refreshing change, from Cambodia. Also, as the Patpong redlight district was not too far away, we quickly learned that when shady men ask if you want to see a ping pong show, they are not referring to an intense game of table tennis.

After a day of bumbling around and sampling tasty street snacks (Thai Iced Tea, coconut pancakes, Pad Seeyu, etc.), we moved to our next hostel in the famous Banglamphu district, home to the backpacker haven, Khao San Road. Here, we met with our group for some tour debriefing and delicious dinner. Then, it was off to to explore Khao San's tourist-centric markets. In a moment the rest of us will never let her live down, Mihira tried to bargain so hard for a pair of Tuk Tuk t-shirts that she managed to send the vendor running from Khao San road altogether. Literally, the lady grabbed her wares from Anuj's hands and walked away, shouting over her shoulder, "you go, you crazy, I no sell to you." We felt awful and tried to come back the next day and then again a week later during our next stopover in BKK, prepared to pay closer to full price, but she was no where to be found.

One of our favorite finds in Bangkok was Full Tank, a model of efficiency that served as a gas station by day and an outdoor bar by night. Staffed almost exclusively by lady-boys (exactly what it sounds like) and displaying Animal Planet footage on an oversized projection screen, it was an oddly perfect place to end our stay in Thailand's eccentric capital. The next day we were off to Chiang Mai via night train.

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