Bangkok

Hello! Sorry for not blogging sooner but internet access is not as readily available or as I thought it would be…

The flight wasn’t that bad. I did get stuck next to a huge guy on my way from Austin to LA but he was so nice and kept apologizing for crossing over into my seat/personal space. Jonny Knoxville was on my flight too. LA to Taiwan was so long, and of course, there was a screaming baby nearby. Either way, I was so deprived of sleep that was I was able to sleep through it.

Day one in Bangkok was definitely one of a kind… I checked my e-mail from Taipei and Charles had e-mailed me to let me know that his flight had been delayed. I was a bit worried about finding him but it all worked out. Our planes landed 10 minutes apart from each other. We were waiting in separate taxi areas but once I figured that out, I went and found him. His back was turned to me but I could tell instantly by the full head of hair that it was Charles. It helped too that he was bigger than most of the other people. He’s definitely not the pasty Charles we all knew before. He actually has a darker tan that me! We took a taxi to Khao San Road and began what ended up to be another night of no sleep and 12+ hours of walking.

I didn’t see many prostitutes and crazy foreigners like Charles did his first night. The prostitutes I did see were really gross and had blood shot eyes. Serena, I know you wanted a picture of one but trust me, it’s not a pretty site. Hookers, at least the ones I saw, are not in any way attractive like the ones in Pretty Woman. Think more like Cops, Christmas specials of Hoes, Hoes, Hoes, Asian, and usually with some kind of a deformity (one had a ginormous head!) I definitely saw a few lady men and many with questionable genders.

Since Charles and I got into Bangkok around 1:30AM and thought we wouldn’t be tired, we had decided not to booked a hotel that night with the intention to wander. We ended up just eating and talking until 9 AM. We ate some street food- big flat noodles and this tofu with pork dish. When I got up to pay, I saw a roach running around in the containers of food. Damage was already done by then. There were rats, lizards, and stray dogs and cats everywhere. There were so many people up throughout the night, half asleep next to their karts. We stopped at 7-Eleven for from ice cream, then again for some waters. We went to a little diner and had some slushies and toasted cheese sandwiches. We went to Mcdonalds and had some hash browns to kill some time. They have chilisauce instead of mustard next to the ketchup. They also sell pineapple, chocolate and mango pies in addition to the classic apple pie. I realized that people were staring at me and Charles said it was probably because we had wandered out of the really touristy area and I was wearing shorts. I was a little paranoid about wearing shorts at first because I read that some considered it disrespectful but as long as I am covered up in a temple, I don’t feel like I stick out that much, other than the fact that I am taller than most of the people here.

We were in the Khao San raod area because Charles had had a custom suit made from from the last time he was in Bangkok and had to pick it up. The card for the suit store was in Thai and we couldn’t find our way there. Finally we had a Tuk Tuk driver take us. Tuk Tuk driver is basically a motor cycles with a small carriage attached to it and is cheaper than taking a meter taxi. OMG, the second you mention the word, ‘suit,’ all the Tuk Tuk drivers go crazy. I guess the deal is if they take you to a suit place, they somehow get a cut of the profit. They say they get reimbursed fro petrol but they are so pushy that I think it has to be more than just some free gas. Anyway, it was my first time in a Tuk Tuk and the bastard got us lost. He had no idea where he was going and finally just pulled over. I gave him half of what we had agreed to but in retrospect, I shouldn’t have paid him at all. We then decided to take a meter taxi to the place but the guy just laughed and said e didn’t know where it was at. We finally found the place after asking for directions from people who barely spoke English. Even though it got a little frustrating, it was kind of fun being lost half way around the world.

Covered in sweat, Charles tried on his suit and asked me how it looked. I inspected it and ask the guy to fix a few things and steam clean it again. He said that it was fine and that they would drop it off at the hotel. I could tell I was getting on that guys nerves but I didn’t really care. We then bused it to the main city which only cost 30 cents and checked into out hotel. We walked into the hotel drenched in sweat and the front desk had people grab our bags and bring us tea. We were just so happy to be off our feet. It was only about noon then. We took showers and walked around the corner to eat. We didn’t want to go any further than that. There was a nice little Bakery called Pak’s Bakery next to the place we had dinner. We ended up visiting that place twice had red bean buns, taro roll cake, éclairs, this awesome cake that had an Oreo crust with banana’s pudding and whipped cream and taro bread. We went down once again for dinner and then went to the hotel’s pool. We showered again and went to bed.

Chander arrived around 1 AM and I went downstairs to get him. He came up to our rooms and showered and then ended up spending a good chunk of the night in the bathroom reading because me and Charles were sleeping and he was trying not to disturb us. We got up at 4:25 AM and were hauling ass to pack up and go since we had requested a taxi be downstairs to take us to the airport to catch our 6:30 AM flight to Chiang Mai.