Leaving Egypt behind with a smile, it was time for my next destination. Wake up early again, got picked up by my driver to the airport of Aswan. Everything went smooth and about one hour later I arrived in Cairo. I had to change Terminals, as soon as I walked out 20 taxi drivers stalked me but I knew there was a free way, just not where. Finally I found my way thru another empty Terminals, they seem to rebuild that one, whch was quite interesting to walk thru. Then a steward helped me to a skytrain, very, looked like a pretty new train with nice views. From there the real adventure started. Everyone had to go thru one door , metal detector, body search and bags scanned. After that checked in and needed to go thru boarder control which was once again chaos. That took me 2 hours but the good thing was I only had to wait one hour to my next flight but before I could enter that one, again bags scanned, metal detector and body search. Yet people complain in Belgium. Time for my first Qatar Airways flight. This plane was without a doubt the best plane I have ever been on till then. Big comfy seats, great service and new movies! I put on The Revenant and watched it until the end, just minutes later I arrived in Doha, Qatar. What a beauty of an airport, a few hours waiting here with unlimited free wifi aint too bad! My next airplane with Qatar Airways was even better, double deck, better seats and more movies + free wifi (ok, only 15 minutes without paying). I expected to sleep on this flight but no chance of that. So I watched The Martian and Creed and got annoyed from not sleeping. 24 hours before I arrived in Bangkok... Arriving there I found a direct train to the city. The way people wait properly, between lines on the floor, nobody enters the train before everyone left it. Such a dicipline. Ofcourse I stood on the wrong spot on the ground and the guard put me in the right direction. First Thailand lesson learned.
It was cooler then in Egypt and naive as I was I walked with long pants and a sweater and my 7,5 kilo backpack. I guessed it was a good idea to walk from the trainstation towards my hotel with google maps, only 5km. I started walking and I noticed the place became more dirty until I end up at a lot of trash and a railroad. I crossed the railroad and unaware as I was I walked into a very poor suburb. I didn't know Bangkok so I guessed this was normal, I had seen poor markets next to railroads. After 5 minutes walking in this suburb a woman came to me shouting "NO! NO!!" and escorted me out of there as soon as possible. I still don't know if that was dangerous or not but I walked back and took a taxi. Another Thailand lesson learned I guess. I knew I always had to ask the taxi to put his meter on. I never found one who didn't do it, compared to Jordan a luxery! I arrived too early at the hostel and I felt like I had a shower for 5 hours, sweat dripping everywhere. Lucky as I am my room was cleaned and I could check in immidiatly. 26 hours after leaving Aswan. I couldn't sleep so decided to walk around a bit to find some food, which went pretty easy but every step felt like a shower. I went for a sleep pretty quick after that not to wake up until the next morning.
The next morning pretty early I started walking towards the things I wanted to see, after looking at a small temple I ended up in Khao San road (the backpackers street).Nothing special to see except people trying to sell me things and tuktuk who desperatly wanted my attention. I decided to walk. A few hours later I arrived at the palace and I wasn't allowed to enter, only Thai people for some reason, so I walked towards the temple next to it. I would search for the name but I'm too lazy. The entrance was 100 baht and I only had 1000 baht, the guy behind the desk was very annoyed and not friendly at all. Thailand the land of smiles? Not at a temple entrance I guess. This temple was wonderful! Very beautiful and I went to see the big laying down Buddha. I needed to put my shoes off and I noticed my bag on my pants was open, the place where I put my wallet.. This could not be possible, would I already have been robbed in a temple on my first decent day in Thailand? I walked back in panic t notice my wallet was just in another pocket but lesson learned. From now on I put everything with value in different spaces so if I do lose one thing I still have backups. This Buddha inside was a masterpiece, such a massive golden statue. Very wonderful to see local people praying to some religion I know nothing about. Interesting. After a good hour inside that temple I decided to walk back since I lost enough sweat to fill a bath with I guess. When I arrived back at the hostel I walked for 6 hours, I was full of doubt, which I have every time I enter a new country or culture. Will I be able to survive here? I miss European weather.. Can I actually follow my masterplan? I can always buy a flight back home and travel thru Europe.. I always give myself 2 days to adjust and tell myself, its only in my head, stay positive! I saw a flyer in the hostel with a Khao San pubcrawl in the evening. I decided to join that one and do my washing until then to escape the heat. I didn't tell you but I was horrified from the mosquito stories in Thailand, especially Dengue Fever. I read so many horror stories about it and plagues in 2016 that my mind was even more troubled. Before I went to that pub crawl I put on long pants, a sweater and my head covered in citronella. This should protect me for now I hope. I googled to find out if DEET could be used on a bald head, try to find any info about that online, since its toxic it should not get in to your eyes, how will I be able to protect my head if I keep sweating all the time and it would get in my eyes if I put it on my head.. Worries for later. The smell of citronella could probably be noticed meters away from me.
Before the pub crawl I went for dinner and found the pub. I noticed everyone was wearing tanktops, small shorts,..nobody seemed to care about mosquitos, are they naive or am I paranoid? I meet some friendly people who joined the same event, the cost was 300 baht, I got a free tanktop and they directly offered me a wodka bucket. When I started drinking that I noticed I forgot my keys from the hostel and I was not supposed to get there before 2AM. I didn't want to be locked out so I walked back to the hostel and changed cloathing as well, I also had to enter 3 times again to check for my locker keys and stuff, I don't know if its the jetlag or the heat that plays mindgames but I intend to be confused a lot. When I got back to the bar there were a lot of people and we started playing beer games. I had some lovely talks and 2 hours later we went to the next bar. We got a large meter high beer thing for free that filled us all a bit more, then they offered markers and pens to write stuff on people back, which we had no idea what they wrote. After a few more drinks everyone started dancing on the streets, a nice experience to whitness but this commercial hiphop styled music isn't my thing. All those girls shaked their asses off and enjoyed themselfs a lot. I choose a hardcore night over any of this. The guy next to me told me this place is full of ladyboys, except our host who looked like the asian female version of Jack Black I never noticed one. From that point on I was curious and started to take attention. I only managed to soot 3 in about 3 hours (except our host). This means, not getting close to Thai girls for me. Too risky business! A little later I watched my first Thai street fight which seemed like every local was a Thai boxer and a drunk tourist didn't stand a chance. Good to know it happened right in front of a police car with flashing lights on and no reaction at all. I had some nice company but about one hour later I became too bored with that commercial music and since everyone went to a club I deciced to go to bed. I had to travel tommorow and I didn't want a hangover in this weather! A good thing to know I didn't meet a single mosquito until I found one outside the hostel.
When I returned to my hostel and while taking a shower I noticed a girl I spend time with wrote "Belgium guys are sexy" on my tanktop, a nice memory of my first night out in Bangkok. I went to bed to be woken up by the snoring of a man sharing my room. I put in earplugs but even then only managed to sleep a few hours. The next morning I stayed in bed until it was time to check out, went for breakfast to the trainstation and the story and Bangkok ends there for now, more stories will follow soon!
