Day 2 Bangkok

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Day 2 Bangkok

Words can hardly describe this place. Once I went through customs and finally stepped out into the street, I knew I was in a different world. The heat and humidity was so overwhelmingly thick it felt like I was walking through a living peanut butter sandwich. I jumped into a cab and told him to take me to the infamous Kho San Road. He dropped me off and as the taxi speed away already on the hunt to rip off another half drunk and jet lagged backpacker, I made my way toward my hostel. To be honest this was the moment were once again I told myself "shit, I really have to do this now".

Kho San Road is not just some backpacker mecca, or 24 hour party zone. This is a living breathing entity of sin, vice, misery and ecstasy. As I walked through this circus of hookers, lady boys, pad thai stands, hustlers and thousands of intoxicated backpackers, I knew this was to be the genesis of the most gnarly trip I have ever done. Every where I looked there were open street bars, "tourist information kiosks" and tattoo parlors. Dark ally ways sprinkled with leering eyes of weepy eyed kittens and seemingly unattended children. I walked down the street desperately searching for my hostel which at the time seemed to not exist. The blank and frightened look on my face brought the lady boys and women of the night over to me all chanting a very rehearsed "You alone big boy? I so sad for you. You want company?" I began to wonder if I was ever going to find my hostel. I began to wander like a lost puppy up and down the street right into the heart of Kho San Road. I finally decided to step into an internet cafe to Google the exact location of my hostel and the cafe so I could get my bearings. After I printed out my directions I asked the very overweight woman sitting at the counter where my hostel was and I asked if she knew where it was. "Not far, go this way" was her only response as she briefly looked up from her magazine. So I gritted my teeth and gave her my thanks and headed back out into the sticky night. By the stroke of luck and using my gut I found the little glowing yellow sign of my hostel. I checked in and exhausted and jet lagged beyond belief I threw myself on my bunk and tried to go to sleep. I was still a little too excited and my 30 person dorm room was beginning to fill with other travelers returning from their adventures. So I got up and went to the common room, bought a half cold Chang beer and began small talk with some of the other backpackers. This is when I met the boys from Bristol...

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