Advertisement
Published: February 26th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Our last day at Ko Phi Phi was spent lounging on the beach and swimming before we took our ferry to Krabi and onward to the airport to fly to Bangkok.
We arrived at just before 2300 for our “One night in Bangkok.” We have already passed through the airport twice already, but not long enough to stop and get into the city. I had originally only planned for about 24hrs here, and went back and forth wondering if it was enough of time to do any justice to this infamous city. After speaking with numerous fellow travelers whose opinions we valued we kept to the original plan seeming like everyone disliked the city and got out as quickly as possible.
For the last few months there have been protests in Bangkok regarding the elections that have just taken place. The people feel that the Thai Prime Minister is corrupt and are pushing for her resignation. Politics in SE Asia is tumultuous, Thailand having 18 military coups since they became a monarchy in 1932. There have been several deaths and the violence has been escalating in the week prior to our arrival. We have been checking the news and
getting the latest on the ground updates from fellow travelers and it seems as though the protest areas are easy to avoid and clearly demarcated. Unlike two idiot Kiwi party girls we overheard calling the protests “like one really big cool party in the street,” we wanted to steer clear and let the Thai people deal with their own internal problems without spectators.
As we were leaving the airport and I was trying to figure out the cheapest way into the city, a Canadian girl around our age invited us to share a tuk-tuk into the tourist area of Khao San Rd. and show us a convenient and cheap guesthouse. She had been traveling for the last few months and plans on a few more months volunteering as a child physical therapist in China. She said one of her favorite places was Bangkok so we trusted her to show us where to go.
We were led by this smiling Canuck to Sweety’s Guesthouse ($6)just off Khao San Rd, the epicenter of the tourist area where they block off the streets and the road becomes a restaurant/bar/dance floor/massage parlor/you name it. Sweetys was grimy concrete block building, but the
price and location was awesome. Once inside our room we were bowled over by how disgusting this place was. The walls were stained with various fluids, and the ceiling was peeling large sheets of asbestos laden paint. There was just a thin sheet on the bed with no top sheet to sleep on, and an oscillating table fan bolted to the ceiling. Our filthy bathroom was shared with the rest of the floor, maybe 20 other rooms, and of course there were only squat toilets, no toilet paper, and a hand ladle and bucket of water for flushing. I could feel the spirits of all the dead junkies, hookers and trannies that have died in this place, how fitting for our one night in Bangkok.
We wandered around a bit with the Canuck, who seemed delighted with her room because it had tons of graffiti written on the walls to entertain her all night. Dennis was offered drugs and a “ping pong show” within seconds, along with the popping sound effect of a ping pong illustrated by the creepy sweaty tout. There were hundreds of white tourists partying in the street chugging beer towers and buckets, many still in
bathing suits they haven’t changed since they left Phuket. After seeing these people, the same ones that think the protests are a big party, we were so happy we bypassed Phuket all together and minimized our time in Bangkok.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.149s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 19; qc: 74; dbt: 0.091s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb