Early in the morning out of bed, get a free ride to the bus station and after a little wait I leave this wonderful place that Sukhothai is behind. 6 hours to Bangkok with a free meal included. I wasn't sure if I would write this Bangkok episode but doing it anyway. I'm not the biggest fan of Bangok since my last visit and arrival in Thailand but everyone told me, give it another chance, so here I am, my return to Bangkok. The bus stops at a bus station a few km's outside Bangkok city center but there are a lot of taxi's waiting. They serve locals first, not a problem to me. After 5 minutes it was my turn ofcourse this taxi driver did not know where my hostel was, the Golden Mountain Hostel, next to the Golden Mount.. After showing this guy directions with google maps on my phone, we finally made it. I checked in and found myself in a beautiful shared dorm. Tired from all those endless bustrips I wanted to get out for some food, to my surprise everything in the area was closed before 6pm. Good thing I had some powerbars packed. While I was eating one of those to have at least something like a meal before going to bed I looked down from the terrace in the canal and spotted big animals playing in the canals. Monitor Lizards. I didn't even knew they lived in Bangkok or Thailand at all. A great discovery! They were almost 1.5 meters long. Impressive. I shoot some pictures and go to bed.
After a very long sleep I decided to get my laundry done today and mission food. Since the laundry place I used last time did a wonderful job I decided to walk there. I walked around 40 minutes via Khao San Road to find out the place was closed, lucky as I am the one next door was open. Could come pick it up the next day at 12. I had a wonderful breakfast nearby, also one I used last time. Last time tourists forgot their bag and they tried to run after them when they noticed to return it. Since they didn't find them they waited for them with the bag and never opened it. People like that I love to support. On the way back I visited the temple near Khao San Road but after all the magical temples I have seen I wasn't very impressed.. A long walk back to the hostel in this heat and my energy was gone. I took a rest for a few hours and went wanted a Mc Donalds. If there is one place you dont want to end up when school in Bangkok finishes its a Mc Donalds, its completly filled with students for the free wifi I guess. Not a single seat left. I changed plans and went somewhere else for food. To end the day I enjoyed watching those Monitor Lizards leaving mud trails behind in the water.
Since I do know this all sounds quite boring and not very positive, the following day had something wonderful to offer. First I needed to pick up my laundry, went to the same place for breakfast again. Oh, I forgot to tell you yesterday I walked to the Giant Swing, only to notice that there is just the base left and no swing at all. Anyway, positive things. When I got back I took my daily rest routine and time for some tourist stuff.
The Golden Mount. This is a temple on top of a man made mountain with a big golden stupa on it. The entrance price is 20 baht, about 50 eurocents. Its a long way of stairs going up but its magical. Full of decorations, plants and bells. Bells that Buddhists seem to ring all one by one. Such a lovely religion this is. The whole way to the top you get to see beautiful sights on the city and skylines. When you finally reach the top there is a recorded voice going thru the speakers, "Please, keep your shoes on.". Quite unusual for Buddhist temples. The temple inside is not very special but if you see the passion people pray for the Buddha statues it always makes it special. There are small stairs to get to the roof, the funny part is, they have a sign with "Watch your head.", the face on the sign wears sunglasses. The most magical is part of this temple is definatly the roof. There is a massive golden stupa on it. Surrounded by bells and gongs. I really love all those bells in heartshapes making sounds by the wind blowing, the cute passionate people praying there. That in combination with a 360 view on the Bangkok skylines is just a wonderful experience. I stayed there until sunset and a super lovely ending of the day.
Since I was staying in dorms for a long time I planned a good night in a hotel with a room for myself, also in Bangkok. I arrived there and went for a drink in front of the hotel and a girl comes sit next to me and starts to talk about sports. We talked about 10 minutes and suddenly she asked me I wanted to come to her room. Since I don't trust any girl in Bangkok for a million reasons I kindly told her I already have my own room. There goes my once in a lifetime chance to get drugged, robbed and maybe raped in the same time. I went back to my room to watch some television and relax and do the paperwork for my coming flights, bankstuff etc. I got hungry and went out to look for some food, not even walking for 5 minutes and 2 police officers on a motorbike stopped next to me. They asked me to empty all my pockets, check my passport and check my wallet. I must say I was quite suspicous about them being real cops or not. The search took about 10-15 minutes and I was allowed to go. Since this happened in most of the countries I visited I didn't really make most of it, except being worried about them and my passport. Anyway nothing happened and I went to sleep. I also wanted to visit one attraction but since it was sunday there was a massive que and I cancelled that plan.
Well I don't know if this part was worth mentioning apart from the Golden Mount and the part to get to the airport was interesting as well. I read there was an airport bus from Victory Monument, I took the skytrain to Victory monument, little did I know this big round point has a million busses stopping there. The information desk? Back in 20 minutes. It took me 40 minutes before I found my bus, good thing I left early. Anyway a small adventure to close another Bangkok chapter down. The next chapter will be more interesting! Until then.
