Heat Exhaustion

---

You have to be here. That's the only way I can describe Thailand. Things here are so incredibly wild and different, I could never explain it with words and pictures. Nonetheless, I will try as best I can.

First off, it's hot. Very hot. According to my guidebook, the average January high in Bangkok is 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Right now it's evening, which I am grateful for. I've probably spent half my daily expenses on drinks alone. Fortunately, that brings us to the next thing: Bangkok is very cheap. Being a tropical nation, there is no shortage of fruit drinks sold on street stalls. And it is ridiculously affordable. For 20-25 Baht (about 66-70 cents) you can get a coconut sliced open so you can drink the juice straight out of it. Orange juice is available for about the same price, and this stuff is lightyears ahead of the Tropicana crap we drink at home. This orange juice is made naturally, and thus actually tastes like an orange. I've had 3 or 4 coconuts today and orange juice twice. It's very cheap and very refreshing.

Bangkok, for the most part, is an ugly city. The skytrain provides a great means of transportation, but its rails obscure the roads through which it passes. The city is dirty and beggars and touts abound. Furthermore, the infrastructure was made, apparantly, by sadists, as there are very few places to cross the street safely. Crossing almost any street is like playing frogger in real life; wait for a gap in traffic (a very small gap, Bangkok is crowded) and run like all hell. However, the places I visited today were very beautiful, although they do not represent Bangkok as a whole. Stray dogs roam about the streets.

I started off by visiting the Jim Thompson house. Jim Thompson was an OSS (the present CIA) agent from America who was stationed to Thailand and fell in love with it, later spending the rest of his life there selling Thai silk to the West. His house is a collection of priceless Thai art and sculpture, and is built in Thai style.

I then headed briefly to Erawan Shrine (a small shrine on the corner of a street) before heading back to my hotel, as the extreme heat was getting to me. After recuperating and dropping off some belongings to lighten my load, I went to the Wat Pho (another cheap thing here are taxis, I took a taxi from the train station and it cost me less than 2 dollars), a beautiful temple famous for its giant golden statue of a reclining Buddha. I then took a ferry across the river to Wat Arun. The ferry ride cost about 10 cents, and felt like a 10 cent ride. The boat was exciting but I felt like the thing could sink at any moment. Wat Arun is the temple of the dawn, and serves as a viewing point for Bangkok. You climb up and get a great view of your surroundings, but the climb is steep and daunting.

Unlike Japan, pretty much everyone working at any store in Bangkok speaks English. I would imagine this is because unlike Japan, many people in Bangkok make their entire livelihood off of Western visitors. This is very handy, because I have found Thai to be completely unpronounceable and thus cannot speak the simplest of phrases. I think I have a lot more to say, but I don't know what. Things as always will come to me after I leave the internet cafe. Oh well, if you want to know more, ask me when I get home...or through messages here!

---

Photos

Top of Wat Arun
Ignore my seemingly happy demeanor in this photo, when it was taken I was exhausted from the unforgiving southeast Asian heat.

Jim Thompson's House
The entrance to Jim Thompson's House. Photos are not allowed inside, sadly.

Coconut!
Sadly, I had no lime to put into the coconut.

Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho
He's so damn big I couldn't even get his feet into the picture.

Wat Arun
The Temple of the Dawn is a steep climb.

Long Live the King!
The king of Thailand is beloved by all. Even the Hard Rock Cafe gets in on the praise. Signs like this are common throughout Bangkok.

Comments

[man]

Bangkok is not Thailand
Bangkok is just a megacity that different from other parts of Thailand .Now, if you go up to Chaiang mai, you will touch cold air(17 degree celcius).Bangkok is 30 celcius ,now.

[A Pseudonym]

17 degrees Celcius in January still isn't that bad :P. True, Bangkok isn't all of Thailand, but I think one could say a significant portion of Thailand is in a climate which is hot year round. I am aware Chiang Mai is also a popular destination in Thailand but I don't have the time to go there. Hopefully the travelers visiting there are enjoying the more tolerable climate.