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Published: February 11th 2009
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Baan Dinso Room
My little A/C'ed retreat. Day 1.5.
The plane ride was smooth. Ambien and Cathay's in-seat screen made that 14 hour flight (that's only the SFO-HK part) seem almost not long enough.
Bangkok airport was incredibly easy to navigate. Essentially no line through immigration. No one bothered to check my bags through customs. And they have this wonderful, cheapish (150 Baht, $5) express bus straight into the city - something that most US cities somehow still hadn't invented - a testament to how wonderfully our lobbists work, those taxi and aiport parking ones. In any case, despite my very fast realization (even just in the SFO transfer) that I've still packed too much, it was only a 3 minute walk to the great little guesthouse Baan Dinso.
On the bus ride, I can't help but again feel how everything outside of US is like China. Except for the ritzy, cultural parts of course. But all the actually living parts, just like China, but just a bit cleaner or dirtier - or at least I thought so thus far.
Baan Dinso is awesome! Just off the Democracy monument, close enough, but far enough from THE backpackers ghetto Khao San road, and still walking
distance to the major sights. First of all, my reservation exists. Trumps everything else already. The place itself, very cute and absolutely spotless (partially because you have to leave your shoes at the door, like any good Asian). My single room is pretty small, but A/C'ed and comfy. Even comes with 2 free bottles of water in the mini fridge. I have shared bathroom and shower, which has hot water (which I love regardless of how hot it is outside) and good water pressure. My OCD internet hours finally paid off.
Spent to rest of the day semi-running errands. Looked into Chinese visa, which can't happen because the trip is too far from now, so I'll have to hunt for the Chinese embassy in Athens or Madrid or something like that. Went to Khao San road for tailors to hem my pants, which I'm sure I was royally overcharged, but those Indian guys were nice and still much cheaper than my Korean lady in SLC anyways. And Thai SIM cards are definitely the way to go. Much cheaper than my original plan of the international SIM rate.
Errands done, off to the massage. The best $15 worth of
masochistic two hours.
Now to the important part: food!
First meal of veggie green curry, < $2, at a very touristy place with all foreigners, but nevertheless filled with herbs that I've never seen before. The evening meal was even cheaper - noodle stand just outside the hotel. Thai's capacity for eating boiling hot food exceeds even that of eating spicy. Probably burned my mouth every which way possible. So far, just like China again.
But the next day, venturing out a little more, I realized exactly why all the foreigners eat at every limited places, here, and in China - ZERO ABILITY TO READ THE MENU. Or in fact, the restaurant name. So like any good little traveler, I looked for some Lonely Planet recs, of places that seem authentic and local by description. One Thai veggie place, supposedly less than one block from the hotel, was only found after the 7th pass right by it. Because I can't read the name, at all. The first time actually, being in a non-Roman alphabet place, except for China of course.
Thankfully the English-speaking people are rich. The rest of the world more or less has to
deal with us on our terms, even on their soil. And thanks to Western dominance, I was able to order the most wonderful steamed fish on a roadside stall not really knowing what it was ahead of time. After wolfing down the still-boiling whole fish in soup, I realized that when I said "yes" to being able to eat spicy, I wasn't quite prepared for the sauce made of 50 thai chilis and 25 cloves of garlic (no exaggeration at all). But my taste buds still thought this was the best meal so far.
That issue with not able to even try to read the language also came in handy looking for restaurants in China town. Somehow I managed to walk 2 hours in the mid-day sun in China town and not find a single restaurant that is not a roadside stall. Oh, and picking fish meat off the bone without chopsticks (but rather fork and spoon) was quite the challenge too. Probably explains why most Americans don't eat fish on the bone. Not so much like China afterall...
By the way, the sight-seeing was nice too. Train to Chiang Mai tomorrow.
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