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Published: March 31st 2006
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Before these crowded streets lies a backwards metropolis full of fun and excitement—that is, if you can decipher what street you are actually on!! I’ve explored most of Bangkok by accident and have developed some great legs in the process! Bk reminds me of NYC, except for the unorganized urban development and lack of street signs! So what have I been up to the past 8 days.. Let’s see…
My first night here Carson and I went to Roti Mataba for some Indian food—we were the only westerners in the joint so I figured it must be good if it was packed with locals, right? Well, when we were served our dinner we couldn’t help but wonder if the chef seasoned our rice with Windex b/c parts of our rice was blue! Perhaps the fact that there were no westerners around should have been a signal to dine elsewhere!? I wanted to take a picture of the blue stuff but I was too busy being watched by the wait staff... in retrospect I should have spooned it up and ate it with a big, loud, “MMMMMM,” for giggles ;-) After leaving the restaurant with empty bellies, we took a boat
down the channel to Chinatown. The plan was to walk from Chinatown to Siam Square to see these break dancers that perform at night according to the LP guide. But due to MY superior navigation skills, numerous u-turns, pit stops and questioning non-English speaking locals as to our whereabouts it took us two hours to reach our destination. Shirts soaked from sweat and in dire need for a western comfort-food treat, we jumped into the Aircon in MBK, bowed to the wai’ing Mr. McDonald and ordered some Oreo McFlurries! After walking around for another hour or so, blaming each other for not remembering where these break dancers practiced their stunts, we gave up and decided to head home. This time Carson was navigator and had this hotshot plan that if we walk towards the water, we’ll be heading in the right direction towards home. It took another two hours of walking down the streets before we hit the water, by which time the boats stopped running! Exhausted from walking in 90 degree weather, we agreed to cool down in the luxury of an aircon taxi for 100b back to Khao San road. The ride was pretty long and I made
Chatuchak Weekend Market
this is not an asian instrument!!?? sure to joke with Carson upon how much I admired his navigational skills and appreciated the 50b fee for his lesson on street smarts and sense of direction! 10k later we are dropped off on Khao San and walked past all the bars blasting Black Eyed Peas and James Blunt songs back to our cozy little guesthouse away from all the madness..Our first night on Thailand’s most famous street and we’re passed out by 10pm!
On Saturday, the 18th, we went to the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market and got a lot of bang for my baht (Start looking for packages in the mailbox)!! There were rows upon rows of clothes—new, used, knockoffs, shoes, fisherman pants, US army gear, puppies, pet squirrels (u know how much I dreaded walking by those cages!!) stingrays, bonsai trees, knifes, food stalls, plants and a plethora of other random things.. It was bustling with excessive energy and I wonder if this was a sneak peak of the madness I’ll be facing in Delhi!
That night was my first “night out” on Khao San and it didn’t take us long till we found ourselves in the chair of tattoo parlor getting my nose pierced and
Carson getting his bellybutton pierced for some shock and awe!! Got some great pics of me wincing and being a baby. Drinks were in order after our piercings and we celebrated with a couple buckets of Red bull and Vodka underneath the neon lights and smoggy skies of Khao San. We also dined on some fried maggots and grasshoppers and washed them down with some pad Thai and pancakes!!
Sunday the 19th was spent doing the tourist thing at the National Museum of Bk. I basically spent the entire day in one building learning about Thailand’s first settlers, the dynasties, and how the social, political and economic structure was created and developed. No pics guys.. No cameras allowed in the buildings!
Carson and I met up for dinner and planned to see the Grand Palace and Wat Po (2 of Bangkok’s most famous landmarks) at sundown. We got turned away though because we weren’t dressed in the proper attire but out of the blue this man comes up to us and tells us of two other temples that were still open. He flags over a tuk tuk and tells the driver to take us to these two temples and
to a special “tax free today only” expo that we just had to see—the negotiated price, 30b!! My eyes bulged out of my head from the price considering farangs can’t get a tuk tuk to drive one block for less than 50b! Our skepticism turned out to be true though as we were pushed into a custom tailor shop (aka “expo”) so that our driver could get a commission and a gas ticket! Coming out of the shop w/o a suit in tow, our Tuk tuk driver didn’t look too happy with us.. He dropped us off at the second temple and vanished by the time we came back out! Clueless as to where we were and what direction to even walk in, we headed for the river, again!! About an hour into our trek we accidentally ran into a protest rally against the Prime Minister...cops marching, people chanting, posterboards shuffling up and down over the crowds.. I was terrified of course and Carson wanted to get closer to the action believe it or not! We walked as fast as we could without tripping over our own feet until we were out of sight and out of sound of the
Steph..
look at my eyebrows.. not my good side.. a tear or two was shed as well crowds. Various twists and turns later and we run right into a dead end...no water in sight! Now satisfied that we have seen the northern neighborhoods of BK, we back track our steps and find the first tuk tuk driver to deliver us back to backpacker central! Another evening of aimless walking!! What’s that? A map? Of course we had a map! But in Thailand those things doesn’t help that much!
Monday, the 20th... Now that the weekend was over both Carson and I could continue to make our travel plans for the rest of our time in South East Asia. I was able to book my plane tix for India (now leaving on the 10th), and I also booked my train ticket to Chiang Mai, where I will spend the remainder of my time in Thailand, and scoped out bus tix prices for Cambodia (need to renew Thailand visa, might as well check out another country!). Being in a foreign country (that likes to rip off farangs) though, this ended up being a very stressful, all day event and baht was leaving my wallet way too fast! So I figured, now in the hole, I might as well
post-piercing
Me, Carson and the tattoo artists who pierced us! stay there and splurged on some well deserved sushi! And my gosh.. It was def my favorite meal so far in Bangkok! It wasn’t close to Sakae or Sushi Hana, but it was damn good for Thailand! Broke and full we decided to call it a night after that but on our way back to our guesthouse, Carson ran into Kaylin, a girl he met in Taman Negara, Malaysia! She was gulping down buckets of RB and Vodka with a bunch of English teachers so we ended up being persuaded to join the madness with the teachers and Carson’s old buddy!
Tuesday the 21st I did a little guesthouse hunting since Carson was leaving for Chiang Mai and I needed to find cheaper accommodation. Ended up at Mary V, sharing a room with Kaylin which was a huge mistake b/c it was after I paid the bill that I sat down on the box spring bed! No mattress!! Watching my buddy Carson leave that night was sad but I was looking forward to being on my own again! Watched Memoirs of a Geisha and spoke not one word the rest of the night..Just some good quality reflection time...
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Mooooo
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hey
cant believe you got a photo of that poor elephant...next time try the giant grasshopper. they are nice and crunchy and salty...