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Published: October 8th 2007
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Well we've now started our third country of the trip, Thailand. Since we decided to fly out of Mumbai a little early we now have a few more days to play with over the course of the next month. Originally we had planned on staying in the center and north of the country, some light trekking in the mountains up north, Bangkok for a week, and a little beach time out east. Now that we're here though with a little more time we've shifted our thoughts a little and are going to make this a little more relaxing trip. Unfortunately (or maybe luckily) since we're here without visas we're limited to 30 days in the country so we're still slightly pressed for time, though I'm sure we'll manage.
After a long night/morning of airports, flights and buses we finally made it to the 'backpacker section' of Bangkok. We decided we wanted to avoid the huge touristy crowds at least a little and so we opted for a room around the corner rather than the usual, super crowded Khao San Rd. We dumped our stuff and decided we were both pretty hungry so we figured we'd solve that problem before anything
else. Coincidentally, my cousin James happens to be staying in Bangkok for a week on the way back to Kathmandu so we walked across the street to his hotel and met up with him before starting down Khao San. The rest of the night was fairly chill, our first Thai food in Thailand (even better than at home), a walk around the streets and parks in the area (sooooo much cleaner and less crowded than the past few weeks in India) and drinks and music in a Thai bar (every song was a weird mix of soft rock and slow jazz, sung in Thai).
The next day was a little busier. We we up and showered by 9am and on our way over to meet with James. Not that we needed to do any shopping or had to travel far to find stuff, but he knew of a special weekend market that was supposed to be good that he hadn't been to yet so we decided to join him. The place was gigantic. Row after row of clothes, furniture, jewelry, statues, art and food. There was even a giant section devoted to animals, for both pets and food. We
spent a couple hours walking around there, getting lost in all the aisles and bought a couple little things at a few shops. After the market we hopped on the skytrain and rode down to Siam Paragon, the local mall, and shopped around in the complete opposite of a cheap street bazaar before getting lunch. After that we split up and James headed back to his hotel for a massage and we hit the streets looking for the Jim Thompson house, the ex-home of the man who basically started the Asian silk market. After an hour of walking and random directions from a number of Thais we decided to give up. With no map and only a general idea of where we were headed we figured we could just come back later a little more informed and make another attempt. We headed back towards the hostel and found an amulet market that was hidden behind the university along the river and explored that for a while before heading back to the room to rest for a bit. We met James around the corner from our hostel at the local water taxi stop and caught a ride down the river. As
we rode down it was amazing to see how seamlessly the buildings along the waterfront blended a Western uniformity and structure with Eastern tones and decor. We got off at the Oriental Hotel and walked around back, sitting at their restaurant along the river to have a couple cocktails and a little mango rice (technically a dessert but no ones mom was there to stop us so who cares :D). We walked around Silom Rd for a while, stopping to look at the South Indian temple and section of town for a few minutes as we passed it. Our next stop was a little bizarre. Well, maybe risque is a better word. We had heard from several sources that one of the 'must see' places in Bangkok was the sex district along the Patpong Night Market. We walked around the market, seeing much of the same sights and shopping as most other markets, but with the one exception being the massive amount of 'ping-pong shows' being touted by the locals. Letting our curiosity get the best of us, we decided to walk in and see what all the fuss was about. We'll just leave it to say that it was
definitely interesting and something not to miss if you ever make it to Bangkok.
Today has been a little more relaxed, but slightly more productive. First and foremost was a massage. We had put it off for two days already and that was way too long in our eyes. For US$8 each we got a full body Swedish oil massage. They took us to our own private sectioned off area and two Thai women came in and massaged us. Absolutely incredible!! We got up and headed over to a local travel agency to get some prices for buses out of Bangkok and are starting to formulate a plan for the next few weeks. We also are finally getting around to putting up a few blogs (obviously...) and some pictures from the past week or so. Now we'll maybe do a little more shopping and then dinner with James to say goodbye until we see him in Nepal in 6 weeks!
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Kevin Su
non-member comment
OK, first thing is first...welcome to SE Asia by your true azn friend. Second, awesome picture of that bridge. You know as being a civil engineer, bridges have a very special place in my heart. You need to eat all the curry and pad thai while you are there. I also hope you aren't allegic to peanuts and coconut sauce cause that's all it seems some part of their dishes. You should have stop those ping-pong matches as Forest Gump is an American and was the ping-pong champ. You should have also set up some cups in a trianlge and filled it up with beer to show them another way to play ping-pong. About the $8 US massages, those are great. I had some when I was in China, and I don't think I can think of a better ways to spend my $8 US. Good luck on the rest of your travel there! PS What's the capital of Thailand?