Bangkok! (a bit of a late entry)...

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It is the first night of the trip, and Dave and I are resting in the lobby/café in our hostel. The first day has passed by both slowly and quickly. A quick hour of card-playing during lunch, and drink-sipping while planning the rest of the day, and painfully slow minutes of balancing our enormous backpacks and dragging unwieldy suitcases through the streets of Kao San neighborhood. Thankfully, with only a few snags, we’ve managed to find a hostel with wifi (though it is 30 Baht - .95 c - an hour), munch on authentic street pad thai, take the sky train and an express boat, and get a good handle on our area in Bangkok.
After heading into the central section of town by squeezing onto bus 511, we exited right in front of the IT mall. Bought a computer power cord (not explaining why we needed it), and walked around the neighborhood toward Lumphini Park. Took shelter under the overhang of a HUGE mall during a quick afternoon rain, and then cheerfully watched a foot soccer match - four on four - in the park with a bunch of Thai on-lookers.
The dusty streets and rusty buildings remind me of New Delhi, but the people, their smiles, loud giggles and easy chatter, remind me of my week in the Philippines. I’m more relaxed here than I was in India thanks to the easy-going vendors (rather than the insisting, relentless ones in Delhi and Agra), and the trees and bushes that line the wat borders and peek out from the hostels and houses.
Despite my current near-paradisiacal surroundings and Dave’s warm companionship, I cannot instantly recover from the stressful weeks in Korea. I find myself antsy, more irritable and less able to focus on what is in front of me, whatever discussion or game is taking place. I know that I will need many good nights of sleep, and days of only laughter and travel-giddiness before I can return to my relaxed, trusting attitude. I feel guilty for putting Dave in this situation, where he’s used to easier and less stolid friends, and now he only has my friendship. Occasionally, I think, DAMN, what a good full day of yoga, massages and saunas would do! But, I’m on the road now, and the budget is tight (although you wouldn’t know it from the amount of coffee drinks and mango shakes I purchased today), and there’s no time for that sort of responsible, (and narcissistic) healing.
So, here is my first, unusually confiding blog entry for this trip. If Dave and I can keep each other in check, there’ll be another entry in less than twenty-four hours.

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