Last night I decided I was done with the Sukhumvit area, or more like, I decided I just can’t physically take this area any longer . . . but I didn’t make a 'next plan' for today.
I had a vague plan of doing yoga, eating in an actual restaurant, finding a post office to send Pennys postcards that she left, printing out my India visa, and there were a couple other places of interest I thought I’d check out too.
Its easy to slip into “vampire mode” here. A lot of things stay open till at least 1am (the latest Ive stayed out), and probably a lot later. But since i have to be up by 6am on Friday to get to the airport, I need to start trying to reign in the late-night stuff.
(My India plan was to fly into Delhi and soon after that take the train to Varanasi. However, it doesn’t look at this point like I will be able to buy train tickets online because-- to make a long story short— of their bureaucracy. There’s a work-around that Im trying, but it takes *at least* a week to process and times running out. From what I gather, there are other ways to get a train ticket once Im there. So I will start praying now. Im sure I’ll figure something out. Regardless, after spending a week in the busiest part of Bangkok, Im not feeling that psyched about more big city time. I am dreaming of mountains, which India has (Himalayas), but its the wrong season for that. Maybe Darjeeling or some of the lower foothills could still work. I’ll see what trains are available to me once I get to Delhi where I have a room within walking distance of the train station. There’s also the option of taking the relatively shorter trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which Im considering since I was told not to miss Ankor Wat in Cambodia, and . . . I missed it.)
Stuck in Sukhumvit for another day, I took the Skytrain down one stop to the “Thailand Creative and Design Center” which took up the top floor of the Emporium shopping mall. I think if I lived in Sukhumvit (god forbid), the design center would be a place I’d spend a good amount of time. They had an enormous really well organized library of quality books and videos on designing stuff. Everything from designing bridges to engines to clothing to treehouses. Serious stuff. And, Im not sure why, but everything was in English. They also had a materials library where they had 1000s of samples of all different kinds of materials— synthetic and natural, old and new (they boasted that Nike, Target and Aveda had all come there to look for materials to use in their nefarious plots of world domination). They also had an exhibit that compared unique designs that came from different countries. And an exhibit on sustainable design (mostly complex hi tech ways to generate energy like an energy-generating dance floor). There was also a section of the place that showcased different innovations that people from Thailand had created.
I ran the errands at the post office and printed my visa to India.
I decided it was time to eat at a sit-down restaurant. I picked a place that was a short walk from my skytrain stop which was a vegan place called Mays Veggie House. I was honestly just craving a freaking salad. I had the delicious plan of just camping out there in the restaurant for a few hours-- I fantasized about just ordering one thing after another for the next few hours while reading/blogging. I did have a satisfying avocado salad but I also ordered crimini mushrooms wrapped in (fake) bacon which they recommended. It was pretty good but it totally filled me up and ruined me for anything else.
I came back in the hopes of getting to sleep on the early side and having a full day out somewhere else tomorrow.
