Actual it was five nights to be exact. What a place Bangkok, part asian part western, all happening at the same time and pretty much all the time. I touched down on a Wednesday afternoon off an overnight from Rome/Frankfort. Found my little hostel with out much problem and began to explore the surrounding area. Bangkok(bgk) has a relatively new sky train and metro system with a sky train station right down the street. So after meeting an English chap named James we decided to travel to the "night" market to try our luck at bargaining plus I was looking for several things least of which was a new backpack of sorts. I arrived in bgk with a $1.50 Euro vendor bag, you know the ones with plaid and one crappy zipper on the top. I bought one in Florence, through my stuff into it and put it inside my checked baggage duffel so the damage would be minimal. I found lots of bags at the market but I was waiting for the huge weekend market I had read so much about so I was just comparing prices. I did help James negotiate a new pair of "oakley" sunglasses for something like $3.50 quid, pretty cheap.
The next day I set out for Old Town bgk. It is where most of the famouns temples and the like are found. The hostel was some distance from it so I took the skytrain as far as I could and hoofed the rest. It was quite a walk but I was rewarded with the Grand Palace which houses the Emerald Buddha. Probably the most famound buddha statue in the world next to the Reclining Buddha and quite stunning yet like the Mona Lisa, quite small in person. It is also made of Jade not Emerald but it who cares. It was quite hot so I made my way around with some shade breaks while avoiding the Tuk-Tuk drivers chant of "hey where you go?". Tuk-tuks are three wheeled motorcyles with a back bench seat for two passengers and some stuff. Not the safest but cheap and all over bgk. I kept walking along the river to catch all the major temples and landmarks. By the end of the day I was pretty tired and had a long walk back to the skytrain station. It started to get dark but not to worry bgk is pretty safe I have experienced first-hand. I was walking along a canal on the way home and I saw something swimming in the water. I thought oh baby alligator, happens all the time in Florida canals. I kept walking and saw another one, except this one got close to the shore and I walked down to see it. Turns out it was a pretty big lizard about 4 feet long swimming in the water, kind of freaked me out but was also pretty interesting. A quick note on all the wonderful Thai street food in bgk. It smells and mostly looks great. I did try some but am a little gunshy after getting sick in Greece so bad. I have had some good dishes so far and I am sure it will get better just easing my stomach into it one meal at a time.
The next day I finally reached my couchsurfing host Wiwat, I was having phone issues (surprise!). We arranged to meet after work meanwhile would need to purchase a local SIM card for my phone and do some more price shopping. Bgk has some huge new mall like places along this street close to where I was staying. Very western in that respect complete with a crapload of McDonalds and Starbucks. I also wanted to get in touch with Guiseppe, Jessica's Florence friend who just moved to bgk to live with his girlfriend Lucija. I had met both before in Italy so I thought it would be nice to see them again for dinner or a tour. Lucija had lived in bgk since January and would know her way around. I did finally text Guiseppe to see if he wanted to do some weekend market shopping. He declined but invited me to see a movie at the Bangkok Film Festival. Side note: all summer Jessica and I always wanted to attend a film festival or concert, something like. ALl summer we were either too early or too late by sometimes just a day. So this was my chance and it turns out Wiwat, my couchsurfing host, also was attending some films because he had done some work with their advertising and had a few free passes.
I finally met Wiwat at his condo Friday night, we were both tired so we had some dinner and went to bed. The next day he was attending some films so could not go shopping with me. I boarded the skytrain and headed to the last stop-the weekend market. I have been to the Grand Bazaar in Turkey as I mentioned in my turkey blog. The weekend market is like the Grand Bazaar without the cool 15th century building and with tons and tons of knock off crap from other asian countries. And everyone wants a piece of your action as you walk by. Just about anything you could want in the form of clothing, accessories, art, pets, food and crap-you can find at the weekend market. On top it is blazing hot in and out of all the stalls. So I set out with water in hand to find two bags, flip flops, linen clothes and two locks for the packs. After getting lost several times because there are buildings after buildigs after buildings with so many stalls you would need at least a week to cover it maybe more. I came away with the flip flops, locks, small bag and one cotton(linen look a like shirt). No big bag which I sorely needed but I had come across one the night before and could not beat the price and I promised the woman I would come back to buy it if I did not find one at the weekend market, which I did after leaving all hot, sweaty and hungry. The thing I did not want to take away was how I felt after wandering into the pet section. All kinds of puppies, rabbits, kittens, fish, crabs, etc. in these small, hot cages. The worse for me was stack upon stack of little squirrels with shoe laces around their necks so the would not run away. They just laid there like they were in shock. Not sure if they were intended as pets or food either way it was tough one for me. No value judgement on the culture just surprising.
I talked with Wiwate and he was still watching movies and then Guiseppe and Lucija. The movie was at 8:45 so I went home to shower and change before meeting them at the festival. They had picked a Brazilian films called "Elite Squad" about the secret, honest police squad within the police who fit drug dealers, etc in the Rio slums. It was very violent but pretty good. Also made me not interested in visiting Rio anytime soon. We went for a drink after the movie and Lucija took us to the gay district. We had a hoot watch the red carpet transvestite lip sync show right in front of our table on the street. Yours truly was a favorite of all the young waiters at the bar, not sure why??
The next day Wiwat went to his families house north of the city and I did some packing and sightseeing on and otherwise slow day. The traffice in bgk is horrendous, it never seems to move but on Sunday it was a little, just a little better. I was to meet Wiwat at his club for yoga but he called and canceled so I went without him. I was the only whitey in the class except the instructor named Jessie. It was Birkam yoga so the room is at 42 degrees celcius during the class. Always wante to try it and it was intense but I very much enjoyed it, just what I needed. I also bought my train ticket and then headed to meet Guiseppe and Lucija for dinner.
The next day I did some laundry and took a ferry to the otherside of the river to see a very famous temple. Forgive me for not remembering the names, there are lots in Thailand and they all begin with Wat. Also saw the Reclining Buddha, very cool indeed. Not sure if you can tell his immense size from the pics but you get the idea. Finally Skyped with Jess for an hour and then headed to the train station for my first train in Thailand. The train was much like the Eastern European trains we took all summer, low on asthetics but high on functionality, for the most part. Except no separate sleeper cabins, everyone just sleeps top to bottom along the entire cab. I actually had a good nights sleep an arrived in Chiang Mai the next morning. Bring on the elephants!
