The Centric Ratchada Bangkok

... paralized guy I sat next to on the plane to Bangkok was an interesting guy, he lives in Alaska and travels all over the world in his wheelchair. How's that for balls of steel! Europeans and Austrialians are fun to cruise around the city with during the day, and going out at night to the tourist bars/clubs seems like people don't really know how they are supposed to act because everyones from places far apart, so people can be wild and delirous, chaos.

... a fast exit off. Grabbing our luggage and fending off taxi drivers we reunited with the Dutch couple and decided to share a cab to our hotels, which were roughly in the same part of the city.

By the time we arrived to our hotel it was 5am and the front desk clerk forced us to pay an extra fee to check in early. When we got to the room though it was all worth it; I sank into that Heavenly bed like a rock hitting the water, dead to the world until 10am.

... hotel that Anthony had recommended, while Troy was staying at another place five minutes east of me, and sharing with his friend Susan who had also arrived in the city that day. My room was pimped out, with two beds, an ensuite bathroom, air con and cable TV. Me and Brian had planned to meet up an hour later, but I started getting a really bad headache, most probably from tiredness, so decided to just have dinner at my hotel, before going to bed.

... the same size.
It was great to see this side of Bangkok. From the beggars and freaks of the old town to the Versace and Louis Vertonne of Siam square. I went to bed that night early, tired from all of the walking and crowds. The next day was my birthday and I had a long day planned.

Friday 9th October
I woke at 7am on the Friday and took the sky train down to Saphan Taskin, the south of the river that runs through the city.
I took the ferry up to Banglamphu ...

... about this scam, and I had laughed at another couple of hucksters who told me this and that was shut (one even tried to convince me that China town was shut for the day) but this guy was good, I mean he had an official looking polo shirt and a big cardboard map for god’s sake, so about five minutes ...

... photos tres bientot - enfin, je vais tenter de le faire). Les couleurs y sont slendides. L<architecture des multiples temples de la ville est egalement spectaculaire. Et les narines se regalent des odeurs d<encen et de jasmin qui flottent partout dans les marches et dans les temples (fleurs que les thais offrent en offrades aux bouddhas) - et qui coupent avec celles de la pollution ambiante !

Et enfin, je souligne le sourire et l<amabilite des ...

... we continue to look at places. Wish us luck!

Jason & Lauren

Update-
Yesterday we looked at 2 more condos in the general area. One looked amazing on the outside, almost like a medieval castle, but we just decided that it was way too big on the inside for 2 people. It was 4 bedrooms and 4 stories! The other place we looked at, and I am ashamed to say that I forgot to take pictures of it, was nice but nothing special, so we decided not to go with either of the two ...

... barged past a man that was doodling about like he had nothing better to be doing while on holiday in Thailand, turned into the Indian restaurant that is the ground floor of my Indian guest house and saw the floor stretch out into infinity, and I still have to get the key back from reception. I call out "113!!!" before I have even reached the desk and someone has to drop what they are doing to accommodate me, they fumble in a tin of keys and I can feel that now, I am literally ...

On Saturday, I decided to eat at a restaurant I had heard served a good Western breakfast, which I was sort of ready for after either pale attempts at Western breakfast with extremely runny scrambled eggs, etc., or breakfasts consisting of rice and the like. I didn't even think about what time it was, but all this trip I've been rising with the sun, so even after a shower and getting stuff together it was only a bit past 7:30 and it was closed. This sort of marked how my day would ...

... human mayhem and music bumping from loud speakers. The place was glitzily alight; sort of Christmas without fairy lights. All sorts were roaming up and down sheepishly, downing beers in wayside bars. Anxious to escape a lousy Western existence back home. I Found a hotel and exchanged some hard currency into Thai Baht at a kiosk across the way.
I felt the novelty of Bangkok returning and of Khaosan also having returned.