Where the hell do I begin... Arrived in BKK via Korea. Loneliness on flight turned into an overabundance of Fa-rang (foreigners) once I landed in Bangkok. Khao San is filled to the brim with a collection of interesting people. Let me try to explain who I have seen so far... Ex-military from the Vietnam War still lingering around in their old ratty cammo, retired expats from the US holding onto their "youth" and who knows what else, euro-trash-hippie-wannabes meets party-loving-pilgrim-beach-bums, fresh off the boat travelers doing what they want to call "backpacking" but is really rich kids dressed in khakis and dropping hundreds a day on booze, hookers and pot, general drug addicts looking for a fix, trashy looking asian guys with slicked hair and j-lo glasses offering everything from boom-boom to long tail boat rides to adventure-tourism, and last but not least the actual adventurers, the lone wanderers, the educated escaping society, looking for life beyond the realm of the library and white collar jobs. I seem to fall into this last category.
Bangkok is a wake up call to my soul. They say that you either love BKK or hate it to death, I fall somewhere on the scale, leading towards the latter. This city is soo overpopulated, overgrown, polluted, diseased, and is just damn gross. People seem have to skipped health classes about disease prevention and cleanliness. An open mouth full body sneeze right next to me and misting on me makes me want to punch the guy in the face but reason keeps me restrained. I can say that I have felt every emotion today while walking around, taking taxis into the Thai only areas, busing it through busy streets, taking the train, to god knows where, and trying not to fall on my face while watching a fist fight while walking sideways on cobblestone.
Overall, while pleased with my temple visiting, traditional thai food tasting, dirty water drinking, sweaty adventure in the worlds grossest city, I cannot wait to get out of here. Therefore tomorrow I am hoping the night train to Chiang Mai and starting my real off-the-beaten-path travels. I have a couch to surf in Chiang Mai and hopefully a new friend to make.
I will try to make it back to Bangkok for the Water Gun Fight April 13th in Khao San Road, other than that, I have no plans to ever come back to this city for more than a stop over until I catch my flight home.
I did make some wonderful friends in Rotaract here, Mes, Toto and Veevi, my personal tour guides who I owe for so much in the past 2 days.I am going to Rotary tomorrow to meet all the haunchos and then off to the bus depot.
Oh, ps, there is some major political violence about to be unleashed in Bangkok. Something about the ex-pres stealing a grip of money, the new pres trying to get it back and the ex-pres' supporters going to start a massive violent riot in the next couple days. I would love to be here for that, and then again, I am glad I won't be. Oh the choices in life... :)
So until I write again... adios world!
