The infamous Khao San (and Kanchinaburi)

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Chris and I finally made it to the dreaded Khao San road-- where all stinky, stingy backpackers must eventually turn up and submit to the ultimate tourist trap. It wasn't quite as I expected-- much more clean than fellow travelers had warned me (did they miss the trash piles of Laos and Vietnam?? At least Thailand has a sanitation system!) and full of waaaaaay more people than I could have imagined. Right there in the middle of the City of Angels is a self-sustained pocket of foreigners' playground-- bars pouring endless drinks, music pumping out on the streets, vendors lined as far as the eye can see, offering everything from clothing to books to jewelery to cds (I could go on, I won't)... It was almost disgustingly overwhelming after a few minutes.
Luckily, we didn't stay there too long-- our Australian friends we traveled through Vietnam with had recommended a nice guesthouse on one of the calmer side streets (GH called Merry V; 200 baht double), which served as a great homebase while we explored the city with our new Isreali friend (we met on the bus). Of course, we had to pick up some of the iconic pad thai from the street vendors, as well as the jugs of fresh squeezed orange juice, but otherwise we did little to no shopping-- simply wandered.

Day 2 in BKK Chris and I walked up along the waterfront to see the Sleeping Buddha-- 46 meters long! I was surprised to find its actually inside of Wat Pho, I had assumed it to be outdoors. It is, however, encompassed inside large temple grounds full of very ornated stupas-- uniquely colorful and more detailed than we've seen so far.
We wanded up and down this strip of sea front all day-- passing through the amulet market, stopping in numerous back-alley shops and stalls, and tasting a few interesting food stuffs (like the world's worst "pizza", squid on a stick, and pineapple) en route, then made our way back to Khao San after sunset.

The next morning we had an "adventure" taking the bus 3 hours west to Kanchinaburi-- the bus station we were told to go to closed years ago and no one bothered to mention that when we asked for directions, but eventually we got there. We stayed at a guesthouse called the Jolly Frog, which was extremely peaceful-- a large manicured garden overlooking the river, floating rooms (we didn't get one because we showed up too late, but the regular rooms are quite nice also), and a big airy restuarant. Our main reason to come here was to check out Erawan National Park (and waterfall), which was recommended highly by several other people. Come to find out they came here a few month ago-- in the beginning of the dry season-- and now by the end of January the park was dry and barren like Arizona! We wandered around the park and falls anyway and enjoyed splashing around with the local Thai children. I was in fact terrified by the abundance of catfish in the water-- not something I am used to! They would come up and start "kissing" my legs and ankles... and I screamed, much to Chris' embarassment.
Kanchinaburi is pretty small, with some seriously lame museums, but there is a pretty lively night market (we almost bought some knock-off cologne for our future Albanian host families) and the cutest seashell-decorated restaurant (modestly named "Fine") that served some wicked bowls of green curry.

Back to Bangkok after that-- this time our goal was to do some shopping! That didn't work out though, because when we went to the big Weekend Market we couldn't find anything that we thought friends and family would like. The market was absolutely huge (we got lost many times) but it is mostly full of typical Asian knicknaks we get back home at MacFrugall's. There were planty of 'bohemian' clothing stalls (all of which were totally unflattering outfits for me), T-shirts, jewelery shops, and endless kitchen/housewares options-- but really nothing of good quality or interest. We left virtually empty-handed and downtrodden-- I really wanted to stock up on gifts so I will have to buy later or offer my sincerest apologies!

The best thing we did in all of our time in BKK was to explore the other areas of Chinatown and especially Little India! The streets there are much more interesting-- sari shops, Hindu statues, golds and reds... we wandered down some mysterious alleyway and stumbled upon a tiny south indian restaurant full of dark-skinned men drinking chai and chatting loudly-- our arrival caused a brief shock in the rhythm of the day, but went quickly back in step after we pointed to a plate of roti and curry, two glasses of chai, and quietly became mesmerized by the loud Bollywood flick playing on the back wall. Two hours (and some plates) later we forked over a whopping 104 baht for the bill-- less than the price of one palak paneer dish I bought near Khao San!

Our final adventure in Bangkok was spent getting kicked out of the Chabad House (we're obviously not Jewish enough for them!) and then boarding a late night bus south to Ko Tao-- where we decided to get our PADI ceritifications...

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Comments

[Mom]

Happy Birthday Chris!
I hope you enjoyed the cards from home. Reading about your adventures with Courtney is heartwarming. Can't wait to see you both.