Bangkok, Thailand 10-25-09

Bangkok, what a crazy and overwhelming city! I arrived around midnight and with my hostel directions in hand, had a taxi driver (who spoke no English) take me to my new home- Niras Bangkok Guesthouse. The driver continuously called his boss so I could explain to him where my hostel was and then my driver’s boss would relay the information back to my driver. Thirty minutes into the drive, my taxi driver had figured it out. Luckily we had already agreed on a reasonable fixed fare (provided by my hostel) so I wasn’t too concerned when he circled the same area a few times. When the driver found out I was American he started yelling- “AMERICA, YEAH!” And said: “Christian” and pointed to himself. Then he put in a mixed tape which played an American preacher reciting bible verses; Thai translations would follow the English and my taxi driver was proving his religion to me by yelling out each verse in Thai. Perfect.

We finally arrived at my hostel an hour later and I was greeted by the sweetest Thai girls I’ve ever met! May and Venus work as receptionists and are the most bubbly girls I’ve come across yet! They giggle and smile non-stop and it’s pretty contagious. They settled me in and I was off to sleep instantaneously.

I woke up in my four-bed dorm room to find a Scottish bloke named Ciaran waking up as well. He had just arrived yesterday too and we decided to explore the city together. First we headed to Wat Arun, also known as The Temple of Dawn. I was required to put on a shawl to cover my shoulders and we climbed up the sides of the temple and took some pictures. The steps to climb up were so steep we had to pull ourselves up with both hands, and everyone was walking backwards on the way down, similar to climbing down a ladder. The temple was completely covered in mosaic tiles of different bright colors and surrounding the structure were religious statues and materials.. The temple overlooked the Chao Phraya River and after exploring the site for a while we took a little long tail boat across the river to check out the markets, the boat ride cost us 24 cents US.

At the market I bought a fresh Thai coconut and sipped the sweet milk while thinking about how exotic this one tasted compared to the ones back home. Ciaran bought a smoothie made from pink dragon fruit and we walked through the food markets of newly discovered (to us) fruits, foods, spices, and smells.

After passing a fish market, which smelt horrible, we walked a bit further up the road to check out the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. Wat Pho holds this Buddha, which is lying on its side and is 46 meters long and 15 meters high. The best part of this visit for me was walking out. As a visitor I was able to give a donation in exchange for 100 Thai one-cent coins. Dozens of small tin bowls are positioned side-by-side along the length of the wall and while walking out, we all tossed coins in each bowl. The coins made a clink-clink noise and the ringing chimed throughout the temple.

Leaving the buddha, we headed towards a flower market. On the way we walked under a passageway and watched two ladies playing bat mitten while laughing hysterically. The other women underneath this overhang were separating brightly colored peppers or sorting through vegetables, the men were sleeping in recliners, children were running about playing with toys... it was a pretty cool place to be. The flower market was impressive as well, hundreds, maybe even thousands of varieties of flowers.

Back at the hostel, Ciaran and I were relaxing as James walked in. I met James, a fun guy from Australia, about 3 months ago during a five minute conversation in Ios, Greece. We both discovered that we would be in Thailand at the same time and promised to keep in touch through facebook and meet up. About a week before we both arrived in Bangkok we worked it out and decided to stay at the same hostel.. and, here we are. James got settled into his room, just as a sweet, bubbly girl from UK walked downstairs. Holly is from England and is traveling around SE Asia on her own as well. We sat and talked for a bit and then grabbed James before heading out to check out Bangkok’s night life.

We ate some good Thai food and walked around an antique market and past other vendors selling clothing, fake watches, bags, shoes.. that sort of thing. We drank some Chang beers at a café and soon after called it a night.

The following day, James and I decided to check out Bangkok's most legendary shopping mall, MBK. On the way there we passed through Koh San Road, the busiest backpacker area in all of Thailand. The street is filled with bars, restaurants, hostels, hotels, and tons of vendors selling shirts, shorts, bathing suits, jewelry, fresh fruit, pad thai, smoothies, you name it!

To get to MBK we took the local transportation and hopped on a long boat, which cost us 3 baht a person (9 cents US). Local Thais piled in and soon our big motorized canoe was crammed with 36 people. Less than 10 minutes later we arrived at our stop for MBK and had our first look. The place was enormous! MBK had eight floors packed with over 2,000 shops that sold everything. We spent the day looking at clothing, electronics, jewelry, luggage, accessories, and tons more that we would never take home.

A few hours later we reassembled our group and headed out to Koh San Road. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and had our feet massaged by fish! It’s the weirdest feeling and Holly and I laughed non-stop for the first 10 minutes of it. Eventually we got used to the ticklish fish and enjoyed it. A young 10 year old Thai girl selling roses challenged James to a thumb war match. She was vicious! And less than a minute later, James lost 100 baht and his dignity. We stayed out for a little while checking out the different bars and took a tuk-tuk home which was an experience in itself. The tuk-tuk’s are motorized rickshaws who supposedly know the city the best. Well, our driver got us so lost, he had to keep checking our map to see where we were. He didn’t know any English, of course, and we finally managed to get back to our hostel after I walked up to a Thai man on the street and motioned that I wanted him to call our hostel’s phone number. He did and our driver was finally able to figure it out.

The next day was our last in town; Holly, James, and I decided to head to the south of Thailand. We wanted to make sure we got to Koh Phangnan in time for the Full Moon Party, so we planned accordingly. For 400 baht, $12 US, we were told we would have an air conditioned bus to drive us 12 hours south of Bangkok and the price would also include the ferry boat to the island we wanted to start at, Koh Samui. We thought it was too good to be true, but went with it anyway since it was a great deal and the travel agency seemed pretty legit.

At 6:00pm we were back on Koh San Road carrying our backpacks and waiting for our bus. More and more backpackers joined until our group grew to about 20. An older Thai man walked up and gestured for us all to follow him. We walked about 10 blocks through tiny streets, cracked sidewalks, and even through a Thai boxing room- with a ring and all! The rain started and our guide must have timed it perfectly, because as soon as we ducked into our “holding room”, the monsoon began! The rain didn’t stop for over and hour an almost like magic as our bus pulled up, the rain slowed. It was almost as if out of a movie.

The bus was even better than expected too! A double-decker with cloth seats, blankets provided, tv screens throughout, and each chair reclined almost bed-like flat. We watched a couple movies and then slept through the night. At 6am our bus unloaded and four by four we piled into little tuk-tuks to take us.. somewhere. A travel Thai lady tried to get us to pay for our boat ride and we had to say about 30 times that “we had already paid and the boat ride was included in our ticket”. Eventually she understood and believed us, and then asked if we would like to exchange our slow boat tickets for the fast boat ones, free of charge. “For Free?” “Okay.” Someone must have been on our side. Our same tuk-tuk driver brought us to a random spot on a main road where a chartered bus picked us up and took us to the local port after an hour ride. We boarded the boat straight away, they accepted our tickets, and we were set. Wow, that was way too easy. The boat ride over was only an hour and a half and we were able to lay down on the chairs inside the boat’s air-conditioned section. James had a foot and back massage during the ride for $6 US. And all I kept thinking was… welcome to Thailand!

Time to check out these islands now…