Imagine a time when you were scared. I'm talking butt cheeks clenched, praying to God that it'll end fast and painless scared. Remember that feeling? Now imagine feeling that way for nine hours. Apparently British Airways felt that Gen and I needed to earn our passage from Australia to Thailand and so subjected us to nine solid hours of turbulence. And I'm sure you're sitting recalling the last time you flew and the little bump you hit at 30,000. What Gen and I experienced makes your turbulence look like magic fingers. If the lightening and thunder didn't do the trick, what really sent my heart sprinting was the drop from 34,000 feet so far and so fast that we watched a woman in front of us fly from her seat and hit her head on the roof of the plane; I saw her knees come above the headrest. So when that fasten seat belt sign lights up, listen to, okay kids?
And so we arrived in Thailand, happy to be alive, and stepped into the balmy night, only to realize that we've missed the last bus to our hostel by 10 minutes. So let the games begin. Rule number one in Thailand: Haggle. For everything. With that in mind, we approached a cab driver, gave him the address, agreed on a price, and into Bangkok nights we went, apparently no more certain of our destination than our cab driver, as he repeatedly asked us for the address.
Once again we've been duped by YHA/HI. If I can offer one piece of hostelling advice, it would be to never stay with YHA/HI. In our experience, they're over priced and never conveniently located. And our first two night’s hostel was no exception. But that didn't faze us! With McDonald's in our bellies, we headed out to meet up with Blake and Becky (our new travel buddies) and plan our trek through Southeast Asia. Turns out we couldn't have been more inconveniently located. The main backpackers’ destination in Bangkok is Ko Sahn Road, which ended being a 45 minute bus ride from where we were staying.
It is immediately apparent that Bangkok is a crowded city. With over 80,000,000 residents, there's only room for single file walking in either direction because the rest of the sidewalk is occupied by food vendors' carts. And don't get me started on the pollution so thick you literally suffocate from the mixture of humidity and smog-carcinogens shmarcinogens. If you ask me, Thailand is out to pollute the whole world, and doing one hell of a job. Ko Sahn Rd is that much worse. There are so many vendors on this street traffic is limited to one lane, regardless of direction. And there is nothing that isn't sold on Ko Sahn. You want it, you can find it. And everything is cheap. Real cheap. You want Diesel jeans that are $250 at home? Fine, you can have them here for $50. And everyone haggles. The rules for haggling are as follows:
1. Never accept the vendor's opening offer.
2. Your introductory offer should be about half of what the vendor offers.
3. Smile. This is supposed to be fun.
4. If they accept your offer, take it.
5. Don't haggle in nice stores.
Follow these rules and you'll soon be a master. I continuously find myself haggling over 5 or 10 Baht only to realize that I'm arguing to save no more than 35 or 40 cents American. But its still fun.
And fun is what Ko Sahn is all about. That and Pad Thai. If you're a PT fan, and we are, then this is Nirvana. Every other food vendor sells it, and it’s never more than 25 Baht (about 90 cents American). After you’ve gorged yourself on Pad Thai, and you’ve satisfied the haggler within, its time to do what Ko Sahn does best: party. With limitless opportunities to blur your vision and impair your judgment, we partied the our two nights away on Ko Sahn, where large Tiger Beers (1 litre) are only about a buck and a half.
Exhausted, we decided to blow town and make our way north to Chiang Mai.
