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Published: March 7th 2012
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After touching down at midnight my first night in Bangkok was supposed to be a tame one, but being only around 1 by the time I got to my room and unpacked I realized I wasn't so tired. So, I went down to Khaosan Road, had a few beers, and chatted up some fellow backpackers. I also bumped into a Thai friend I had met in 2006, named Toey. Though she was quite drunk. and not communicating overly well, it was nice to see a familiar face on my first night in town.
I actually ended up having a very nice sleep, and woke up at 10am feeling refreshed. This is nice, as I really didn't suffer any kind of jetlag. I spent the day taking it easy, indulging in some local Pad Thai that they make just inside the temple walls on Rambuttri Street, and then had a Thai Massage. The Thai massage was actually more painful than anything, but it was refreshing afterwards. That night I went out to an outdoor theatre festival in the park nearby Khao San Road. There was puppetry, ballet, and some comedy performances. There was also a magic show, put on this Thai
kid who was probably in his early teens. He was quite talented and drew a large crowd. There was also a group of ladies exercising in a group with an overly ambitious group leader. It was funny to see him quickly doign successive side steps, shouting out maneuvers to the group, with his back turned to them. All the while, most of the group was just stepping side to side casually and a few tossing in the occasional spinorama. I watched a group of youngsters doing some breakdancing before making my way back to my guesthouse for the night. The next morning I checked out my hotel, as it was expensive and I had only booked it for 2 nights, and checked into a nearby hotel where a friend's girlfriend works at.
It was still early, around 8am when I checked in, as I had a plan to check out the Grand Palace and the rest of the city via skytrain that day. Things went according to plan, and I made it to the grand palace by 9. The temple was overall quite impressive, including the tiny mirrors hand placed all over the building. By the time I left
the temple grounds, about an hour after I arrived, there was probably 20x as many people as before and I really felt lucky that I had came so early.
I spent the rest of the day exploring the city. I got a taxi ride with a chatty Thai guy to the MBK mall and did some shopping within its air conditioned walls. I bought a pair of sun glasses and a thai cell phone. Buying the cell phone was no easy task, but using some iffy Thai I was able to not only barter the price down, but also have him set it up for me. I sat down for lunch in the mall food court and hard Lard Nah. Actually, usually when you order Lard Nah, it comes on broad noodles, not like in the restaurant we have back in Canada. However, I actually ordered the Bah Mee Lard Nah, which is what we are accustomed to, being the Yellow Crunchy Noodles covered in the Thai Gravy. It was yummy, but the consistency of the gravy was a little too thick and kind of off-putting.
From MBK i bought a day pass for the skytrain system,
as I figure I would probably get lost multiple times and need to get back on the train often. I turned out to be right in this assumption, but still got to see many different areas of the city. I went to Sukumvit, which is another popular area for backpackers and tourists. I think I didn't really get to the heart of the area, but it was interesting nonetheless. I ended up in an area of town where the writing was all in a middle eastern script, and ordered donairs.
After Sukumvit I made my way to Lumpini park. On the way I bumped into an American who lives in Bangkok, working as a Chef. He went to culinary school back in the USA, and has worked as a chef in many countries in the world. I was surprised to hear that he only makes 300 baht per day (about 10 dollars) for his 6 day a week, 11am - 1am, job. He pointed me in the direction of Lumpini Park and we parted ways.
The park was stunning, a highlight of my trip so far. There was so much activity going on in this massive
greenspace, peacefully existing amongst the cities skyscrapers. There were people jogging around the directional paths. There were outdoor gyms setup, filled with equipment you would see in any indoor gym in Canada. People were doing Thai-Chi, and exercising in groups with instructors. People were playing outdoor badminton, and people were relaxing near the small lakes. It was a really nice time, and I just sort of sauntered through the park as the sun slowly went down.
I took the skytrain down the river, hoping to catch one of the boats back to Khaosan, but there were no more rides for the day. Luckily I had sold my all day pass to some other backpackers at the station before getting off, as the 150 baht I had in my pocket was the exact amount the tuk-tuk driver agreed upon to drive me back to Khaosan.
I got some money out, got myself a swank haircut for l00 baht, bought some flip flops, and that night I took it easy, staying in my small but nicely air conditioned room in the Happy House guesthouse, as the next morning I was taking the bus to Ko Chang.
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