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Published: January 3rd 2008
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I wake at 12:15 and get a call from reception "Mistaaaaa - you check out Mistaaa, 12 ocrock". Woops. I am now starting my first day in a flustered hurry, not knowing where Im going or how to get there. Im sure things will improve. I check out and decide to head to the Rambutri Villgae Inn near Koh San Road in the old part of the city. Chris, a friend from work, and my personal travel advisor over the couple of months receommended it, so im confident it'll be alright. Bangkok has something called a 'Sky Train', its like a train system that runs above the city on huge concrete pillars. Its very cheap at 40 Baht a ticket (about 65 p) so I catch one to a stop that is at the south of the river, where I get a boat all the way North up the Phra Arthit to the stop nearest Koh San Road. Its blue sky and sun today, about 30 degrees already, and the boat journey is the best way to travel. On the banks of the river, there is a contrast between rich and poor buildings, many hotels and most noticably picture of the
Image of the King from the River
A spottless image of the worshiped king. King. The king is reveared in Thailand like a God, and everywhere his image looks on, and i suppose offers comfort to the many poor people of the country. I pay 200 Baht to a Tuk Tuk driver to get me to the hotel. Tuk Tuks are like motor bikes with carriage on the back, and they are an experience to ride in, the air rushes through your hair as traffic beeps warnings. I find out later that the 200 baht journey (3-4 quid) was only a 20 second walk down an alleyway - he saw me coming alright.
I check into the Rambutri Villiage Inn and as Chris said, its clean, air con'd and im relieved to drop my bags. There's a restaurant outside called "Oh My Cod!" which I think is genius, so I get batterred Red Snapper and Chips, which is great, but I do feel a bit lame eating English food in amoungst all the Thai Food carts. Energised, I head out to get the lay of the land, first thing I decide is that you dont need to pack any thing to come here. Its all for sale, bags, shoes, sleeping bags, books, hats, clothes. Travellers who are heading home must have sold things back to these street merchants before leaving as much is second hand, but dirt cheap.
I meet a nice Thai guy on the street who is a history teacher, he directs me to a travel agent and some other attractions. i want to be on koh pan ngan for new years so I visit Amy, and spend two hours going through some options of how to spend way too much money for my own peace of mind. In the end I get a certain amount of peace of mind for a lot of money, and feel 'mugged off'. I justify this feeling by knowing that I will be on the island for the new years party which is relief and exciting. I walk around some more, and now dark, the city feels vast but not unfriendly, the steets are quite clean and there's no chewing gum on the floor! All the girls are very thin and petit and its quite a nice change not to have obese people everywhere. I eat some crab with black pepper and crispy pork with rice which is hot but delicious - I feel good again after this, and decide that staying full up is key to my mood (some of you know this).
Looking for some company I head to Koh San road, its bangin and neon. I get a bucket of cocktail "Sex on the Koh San Road" - which in itself would be unadvisable, but it makes a good drink. I meet a German guy named Torsten and we basically gt smashed on the local beer 'Chang' which is 6.4 percent. He has lived a lifetime of travelling already it seems, and is very intersting. We get appraoched by loads of street sellers, some girls as young as 5, and some of the stuff is quite cool, most just wierd, like big wooden frogs or fish nets. Maybe, on reflection as I write this, they were hammocks... damn.
A young Thai guy pukes on the street hard. A group of Aussies take the opportunity to have a picture of it, and the party continues. I've always said its a small world, but as I turn around I cant belive my eyes, Faye from my old company is sitting behind me. I knew she was coming to Thailand but this is just wierd. I say hello and get a picture.
The night is ended at a live music bar on Koh San, watching a Tha group playing classic rock hits, they are really good and me and Torsten have a bit of a sing along. Torsten says to me (add german accent) "For a girl, the voice sounds wery good yah?".... "Torsten mate, its a boy!" I laugh. He obviously hasnt got used to the small frame of the Thai person.
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