Bangkok

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

It's HOT! Hong Kong was warm, but this is horrible. Humidity is probably 100% and I arrived into about 90 degree weather, not pleasant. Despite the weather, Bangkok started off awesome! A taxi ride that is usually about 300 baht ($10) to get to my hostel was free...why? Well, I was wearing my usual black hat, nike shorts and nike shirt. My taxi driver was hilarious, I didn't understand a word he said (he was supposedly speaking in English, although it sounded like hardcore Thai to me) and he had stickers all over his taxi saying he was a supporter of two things, Chelsea Football and Tiger Woods. So, seeing me at first he was really excited, I didn't really know why but the minute I stepped in the taxi he told me how he thought I looked like Tiger Woods (now, we all know that is not true). I laughed it off, but he was being serious. From what I understood, Tiger Woods is half Thai. I know he's half asian, but I didn't know that asian was Thai and that his mom is from the same place the taxi driver is from. So...

Thanks for the free ride brother

Anyways, the hostel I was at was pretty cool. It was located in an area known for guesthouses and I met some pretty interesting people there. I've noticed that there is a huge amount of tourists now, especially those around my age. Most are on similar trips as me, backpacking, whether it be around SE asia, or Round The World trips. I was in Bangkok for a total of 3 days and each day was pretty eventful. I usually set out with someone from my hostel to go explore the city. In order to keep transportation cheap, we used water taxi's as much as possible. They were really convenient, refreshing in the heat and about 5 baht for each ride. 

Your typical water taxi station

During the time I was in Bangkok a lot of the major roadways and touristy places were actually closed. Protests were taking place in pretty much all the central places of Bangkok for the "Go Red" rally. Now, it's true that the "red" protests have been happening for quite some time, but it was pretty big when I was there. It's known to be a usually very peaceful movement, but on one of the days, there was apparenly bags and bags of human blood thrown on the Emporer's palace in protest. In order to avoid violence and more situations like this, there was security everywhere, dressed in riot gear just in case, and many of the main roads were closed. This just meant more walking for me...great. Here are some pics I took of the protest.

I left the hostel one day with another guy I met to go around the city. We unfortunately got scammed by this Tuk Tuk driver (Tuk Tuk is like a motor rikshaw, seen here) who told us he would take us around all the major temples in the main Bangkok area for about 40 bhat (little more than a dollar). Obviously, this seems like a scam at first, but he said that because of the protests happening, the current govt was paying the gas for all tuk tuk drivers today so that they can still take the tourists around. So, we took it. Yes, he took us to the first two temples, but then he took us to a jewel market, the ultimate tourist trap in Thailand. These types of elaborate tourist traps are all over the place, so I guess it was first hand experience. Myself and Jarred (other guy from Hostel) left through the back enterance and just left the place and flagged a real Taxi down. Here's a few pics from our scammed Tuk Tuk trip

Going Out

There's a place called Khaosan Road in Bangkok. Pretty popular with the backpacking crew and full of tourists. Let's just say its the best night out I've had so fun. Bangkok is a crazy place full of some of the most interesting/weird people I've ever met. I went out with about 3 other people from my hostel and ending up having a few drinks, getting some henna done (my name in Thai....I don't know why, impulse move), eating a deep fried cockroach and meeting these two Swedish guys that win for being the craziest people I've ever met. So crazy that throughout Khaosan road there are people selling travel info and such and these two guys bought round trip tickets to Nepal for the weekend...the plane in the picture for the trip showed a 747 flying into the Himalayas, I'm pretty sure the plane they were going to take was no where near that, let alone with jet engines. Anyways, it was late and we actual helped them pack for their trip...weird I know, but a lot of fun. There's definitely a lot more stories from this place, can't fit it all in here.

One of the streets in Khaosan Road

Deep fried bugs all over the place

A guy advertising for a "fish massage". I don't know what's creepier, the massage or the salesman

Two of the Swedes, took a few soco&limes with them

Video of the place. 24/7 party.

On my final day, my hostel booking was a little messed up and I couldn't find a place for the night. The hostel recommended I stay in a hotel for the night. I asked for something cheap and they got me an AMAZING place for about $20 bucks. So amazing that it was a single suite, all with living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and washer/dryer room. This was heaven, after all these days of staying in dorm style room (I already got sick of it after one year in college), it was really nice to have a single room. I did all my laundry and just walked around the area since I had an early morning flight out to Phuket the next morning. Took a water boat ride out to the Grand Palace and caught some nice views.

All in all, Bangkok was a crazy place. It's extremely busy and pretty populated. I was actually excited to leave. As fun as big cities are, going to one after another, I wanted to get away from all the noise, pollution, congestion and unfortunately for Bangkok, the ridiculous amount of Ladyboy's here (haha). I wish I took a picture of this one menu, but it was for a restaurant that was offering an all you can eat dinner special. It literally read 150 baht for men, 130 baht for women and 140 baht for ladyboys... Pretty funny.

Next stop: Phuket, Thailand