Day 164 Bangkok

20th March 2009

Bangkok

Day 164

Landed in Bangkok at 11:30pm Thai time. Went to the prayer room to get some sleep but people were praying in there (obv). One guy was lying down and getting some kip but he looked Thai and suddenly I didn't think it was appropriate for me to go in there and try to get some sleep.

There were no more buses to the city so I slept in the departure lounge. It was noisy and cold and not nice on the steel chairs. Not a good nights sleep (3 hours sleep max). I woke up and opened my eyes and saw a monk on the seats opposite in bright orange robes.

At 5am I went to get my bus to the city centre but just missed it. A guy there that I asked said the next bus would be in 2 hours, but he could take me to a taxi. I declined as I wasn't sure if he was just saying this so he could get commission for the taxi, and guess what - another bus was there in 10 minutes.

Went to a guest house near the main strip of Khoa San Road in Bangkok. They passed me the keys for me to check the room before I decided to stay. To be honest I would not know what to expect and probably would have stayed anywhere with being so tired after my night in the airport combined with my lack of knowledge in knowing what a good room was, but I went to check anyway. There was no lift so I set off up the stairs to the first floor, then I realised the lady had said 'third floor' , not 'first'. So I trekked up 2 more flights of stairs.

The room was basically four walls with a metal frame bed, a window and a fan on the roof. I thought it was well cool, and only 4 quid! (Hostels in Oz had been up to 15 quid). Was jet lagged and couldn't sleep so went for a walk. It started raining so I went to a bar. There was one other person at the bar and we got chatting. She was from England too and also staying in the same hostel as me! Quite a coincidence in the most touristy and popular city in Thailand.

We (Lucy and I) decided to meet up later for some drinks in Khoa San Road. It was crazy! There were people everywhere. Bedlam. There was stalls selling foods and so many beggars sitting in the road, many of them disabled. I was shocked.

We picked a bar to sit at and sat on the seats near the front. Bad idea. So many people came up to us every few minutes and tried to sell us all sorts of things - bracelets, wooden frogs, etc. It was awkward, mostly because we weren't use to how to handle the situation. A 'no thank you' would not always work and the sellers would keep trying or just stand there. So we went to another bar that was on a balcony away from the street sellers. Problem was that the music in there was so loud that we could hardly talk.

On the walk back to our hostel we came across an elephant. It was a baby elephant in the street. Its owner was parading it around selling nuts to people so they could feed it. Random.

Bangkok is crazy.