Sweat

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I arrived in Bangkok to rain, which didn't surprise me, but made me worry about my stay. When I picked up my baggage, I noticed that my bag smelled like eucalyptus. It turns out my mosquito repellent had spilled. Everything smelled like damned eucalyptus.

Since it was late at night and I couldn't take a shuttle to the backpacker's area, Khao San Road. After a bit of haggling, I took a taxi into town for 400 baht. This was about 30%!m(MISSING)ore than I expected to pay, but then again, gas prices have risen about 30%!i(MISSING)n last year and it was around midnight, so I didn't complain. My taxi driver was crazy. He was driving faster than anyone else on the road.

I got off at Khao San and immediately noticed that the place was filled with drunk white, college-aged kids. Whatever, this was only going to be for a night. After walking around for 30 minutes and finding no vacancies at decent-looking places, I took a risk and choose a shady place on top of a restaurant. Big mistake. The place smelled like sewage and the sound from the bar crowd downstairs carried very well into my windowless room. That's what I get for paying 300 baht. Good thing I had earplugs.

The next day, I resolved to find a better place to stay as soon as humanly possible. I checked out at 7:00 am and didn't look back. This is when I also realized that Bangkok runs on Tourist Time. Which means nothing is open until 9:00 or 10:00. I had to wait around for a few hours for an internet cafe to open. When it did, I found a place call Roof View Inn.

Roof View Inn turned out to be wonderful. It is run by a little old lady who speaks conversational English and fluent Korean. As a result, most of the guests are Korean. The place is incredibly clean for SE Asia and two bottles of water magically showed up in my mini-fridge every time I returned from a trip in town.

As it turned out, my first day in Bangkok was incredibly rainy. This worried me at first, but then I learned that a tropical depression was moving through. In the last afternoon, the rain had stopped. It did not rain for the rest of my stay in Bangkok. So much for the infamous monsoon rains.

Backing up a bit, the first order of business was to eat noodles. I had some amazing chicken noodles at a small restaurant on the street for 50 baht (~$1.50). The noodles were delicious and just the right amount of spice, which was great because restaurants too often err on the side of caution when it comes to spice in the US.

Later that day, I saw the Giant Buddha temple (GIANT!), the Lucky Buddha temple (lucky!), and another large temple, the name currently eludes me (elusive!). The tuk-tuk I hired for the trip ended up only costing me 50 baht for half the day.

Back at Roof View, I asked the owner lady which bus to take to Wat Pho. Asking her about the bus routes turned out to be a regular morning routine, which saved me quite a lot of money. The regular bus in Bangkok costs 7 baht and the air-conditioned bus costs 14 baht. You can't beat those prices, folks. I'm pretty sure I was the only tourist in Bangkok riding the buses.

Wat Pho was incredible. The sheer size of the temple was quite amazing, as was the reclining Buddha inside. I had a little trouble getting in at first because the cost of admission was 50 baht for non-Thai people and the only bills I had left were in denominations of 1000 and the cashier wouldn't take them. After walking around for quite some time--there are no large commercial establishments around Wat Pho--I found a bank near the flower market (close to Chinatown). The flower market is no joke. It was several blocks of shops selling nothing but flowers. A dozen roses costs 30 baht (~$0.90). In the evening, I took a stroll around Chinatown (GIANT!) and found the restaurant with shark fin soup. It was delicious, but left a heavy aftertaste of guilt. Look up the practice of harvesting shark fins. You'll understand.

Although it's not in the most convenient location, the journey to Wat Arun was well worth it. The journey consisted of two buses, a lot of walking, a lot of confusion, a lot more walking, and a ferry. This could have been avoided if I had taken a taxi. Wat Arun, or The Temple of Dawn, was unlike any other temple I have ever seen. It was built as Hindu temple and is decorated in porcelain, which shimmers in the morning light. It is also very steep and fun to climb. Although I was tired and dehydrated, walked to Wat Kahliah (not sure about the spelling), which was built in the Chinese style. There, a Buddhist service was going on, which was wonderful to witness. Of all the world's major religious, Buddhism is my favorite.

My visit to Patpong, was much less enjoyable. Patpong is one of the red-light districts in Bangkok. Yes, I saw boobies. No, it was not enjoyable. No, I don't want to talk about it. However, the Patpong night market was great. I bought some underwear there that would cost a hell of a lot more in the US. I'm pretty sure they're authentic. It was also my most impressive haggle. The merchant was clearly not happy to sell it to me for the final price.

On my last night in Bangkok, I went to Ratchadamnoen Stadium too watch some overpriced muay thai fights. Ratchadamnoen is the second most famous stadium for muay thai fights in Thailand, and the fights were incredible, but foreigners pay about 10 times more than Thai people for the same seats, hence, overpriced. The fights were well worth it though. Two of the fights ended by brutal knockouts. The main event ended abruptly in the first round with a stiff head kick. The K.O.ed fighter was taken out on a stretcher. It was nap time. The next fight ended in the second round from a leg kick. The K.O.ed fighter either had a dislocated or broken hip. Overall, it was a fine way to end my stay in Bangkok.

Sorry about the tardy entry. I have plenty of excuses, but there's no point in listing them all. I don't have any pictures because the internet connections in Cambodia all seem to be universally slow. It's about dial-up speed.

My next post will be about Siem Reap and Angkor.

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