As you know, I have been in Bangkok for 2 days now. It has yet to impress me.
While eating dinner on the stopover from Koh Tao to Bangkok (the busses always let you stop at least once to get food, stretch your legs, etc.) I met a really cool couple from Chicago. We immediately hit it off, as we both had America in common. You know, it's so funny how you can gravitate to someone for the most subtle things when you're in an unfamiliar territory. Meeting people this way reminds me of freshman year in the dorms: I became pretty good friends with some people from my high school that I had never spoken to before...all because they were familiar, but I digress. As we arrive in Bangkok and gather our packs from the bus, we part ways and wish one another good luck. After finding a guest house and putting up a blog, I decide to take a stroll down the road to see what the street vendors have to offer.
Before long, I bump into the two of them and again we strike up conversation. Marquee and David are their names and after having a beer while sitting on small plastic chairs on the sidewalk, we decide to meet up the following morning to go and explore the city. We decide to meet at 11 and get breakfast together. I was up at 9:30, so I read a little of my current book and then headed to the internet cafe where I got to Skype with my dad. I show up at their hotel at 11 where David is waiting for me. He tells me that Marquee needs another hour, so we venture out on the street to see what we could find. After walking around for a bit, we decide on McDonalds, haha. Neither of us have had Mickey D's in months, so it was justifiable. They had stopped serving breakfast, so a cheeseburger and fries were in order for the two of us.
We head back to the hotel, pick up Marquee, and head out on the town. We take a look at our Lonely Planet books and decide that the Grand Palce and Jim Thompson's house sound like sights worth while. We decide to walk instead of taking a tuk-tuk of taxi (although we are begged by a driver every 8 feet or so...extremely annoying!) It wasn't five minutes into our walk when we are told by several people that the Grand Palace is closed for the day due to a Buddhist holiday/the King's sister dying. We are then told about all these other great temples that we should see and that they would drive us to them for a minimal fee. Good thing I've read my travel book well...this is a classic Bangkok scam.
From what I gather, the driver will take you to a few temples, but before you know it you're stuck at a market and he is demanding for more money to take you back. All the other drivers are in on it and won't give you a ride back either. This scam has been around for quite some time, but it still seems to get people more often than you'd think. Anyway, we dodged the scam and carried on our merry way to Jim Thompson's house...deciding to forego the Palace.
On our way to the house (located in Siam Square), we passed several Wats (temples) along the way. At one of the temples there were hundreds of pigeons loitering around...gross. In my option, pigeons are the rats of the avian world. As we walk through them, this lady rushes towards me and forces a bag of corn kernels in my hand. Being quite alarmed, I drop them on the ground as I don't want them. Her face looked completely disgusted by my rude behavior, so I pick up the bag and hand it to her while apologizing. She then takes my hand, opens the bag, and pours the kernels in my hand. Before I can react, I have pigeons ALL OVER ME! She does this SIX more times before I finally snap out of my coma-like state and ask her to stop. I begin walking away as fast as possible. She begins chasing me and demanding that I pay her for the very bags that she poured in my hand! Is she really serious? I tell her that I'm not going to pay her for something that I did not ask for, and she begins to HIT ME! I couldn't believe it! She wanted me to pay her 150 baht (almost $5 usd) for the seed...so I eventually give her 90 bath (3 usd) to keep her away from me. I wasn't the only one who got suckered into the Pigeon Scam, Marquee and David fell victim to it too. Argh! These people are ruthless!
We shake ourselves off, put some hand sanitizer on our hands and continue on. Thank goodness David is a good navigator, or else Marquee and I would've been pretty lost. I'm not sure who came up with the road system here in Bangkok, but I'm pretty sure they were on opiates at the time of implementation. It took us FOUR hours to walk the 4-5 kilometer walk to the house, and by the time we were in the area it began to rain pretty hard. MBK (a huge shopping center) was right in front of us at the time, so we decided to go check it out. This place is MASSIVE! It is seven floors FULL of vendors...you can get anything that your heart desires over here (as long as it's fake). I immediately thought of Heidi when I saw all the knock off Gucci, Prada, Coach, etc. purses cluttering the walls.
We strolled around the mall for a few hours, checking out all the junk that they have there. David and I both bought these cool shirts for a "good price" as the locals love to say. After a while, we got pretty hungry and found a nice Japanese restaurant. We had great conversation, per usual. Marquee works on movies as an art designer (something like that...can't remember exactly.) Let's put it this way, she helped design the laser (among many other things) in the new Batman movie! She told me that she worked on that movie for 9 months...pretty cool, eh? David is a driver for the entertainment industry, which is also much cooler than it sounds. I could listen to the two of them all day; they've got some really cool stories to tell.
After dinner we decided to head back to Kho San Road (i.e. the "backpackers paradise"...gag me) and get some sleep. Wanting to save a bit of money and dive more into the culture, we opt to wait for a public bus. After waiting for 15 minutes or so, our bus arrives and we hop on. According to the book, the fare is around 12 baht. We get prepared to pay as soon as we hop on, but it's so crowded that we can't reach the lady in uniform. The bus is beyond backed...it's exactly like you imagine, people on top of people. My guess is that we pay once we get off, since nobody else is paying either. I immediately notice that the bus is completely SILENT...something you'd never find in America. I guess these people all respect one another enough to give each other peace and quiet on their commute; something I wish would happen more back home. I quietly ask the man next to me when is our exit and he's able to convey to me that he is getting off at the same one and to follow him. Then I ask him when do we pay, in which he replies that we don't have to due to the bus being too crowded. WHAT!?! You mean to tell me that I get ripped off by the pigeon lady but not by the public bus? Some things never cease to amaze me. I felt pretty weird getting off that bus without paying...but hey, when in Rome...
I walked around for a little while before retiring to my room fairly early. I sat in bed and watched "Happy Gilmore" on my iPod before crashing for the night. The breeze was cool, so I opened my windows and let the sounds of rain put me to sleep.
Woke up this morning around 8, had a nice breakfast, and read more of my book while people watching. There are times when backpacking alone isn't much fun...but then there are times when it's really perfect. This was one of those times. I'm able to do what I want, when I want...something that doesn't happen as often as it should.
I found a new place to stay (this one has a rooftop pool!), walked around some, and ran into one of my diving buddies randomly on the street! I went up to the pool after while and layed out, although it's quite overcast here. Josh arrives within in the next hour (6 pm), and then we'll figure something out I'm sure. I really want to get a massage (around $9 for 1.5 hrs) and everyone raves about them.
Just checked the weather and I don't like what I see. Looks like Ike is going to be a real nightmare and my immediate thought is for all my family and friends in the Houston area. I talked to my dad today and he told me that my grandparents have evacuated which I am grateful for. I don't know about the rest of the family...but if you are reading this and haven't evacuated, I urge you to grab some clothes and get in the car! Please send me an e-mail and let me know once all of you are safe. I'll be worrying until then.
