An Interesting Start...

Trip Start Oct 17, 2007
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Trip End Mar 14, 2008


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Friday, October 19, 2007

Well, the journey's finally begun and I still can't really believe that we're actually here...  We're staying just off of the infamous Khao San Road on Rambutri St. (thanks for that one Oscar.)  Everything here seems familiar, but every once in a while I'll get hit with a smell, or hear a new sound and I'll realize that I'm in a whole new place regardless of the same old fast food places and seemingly endless 7/11's everywhere.  It's quite the feeling and I'm still getting used to it.

Anyways, we got here yesterday after a nice 24-hr trip since we left Vancouver and we were tired as hell.  We got our bags and headed over to the taxis making sure to turn down all of the people offering to drive us to Khao San for 700 Baht.  We found the taxi stand and made sure to ask for the driver to turn on the meter which he did and off we went into the city.  Then 2 minutes into the ride the driver tells us that the meter isn't working (surprise, surprise) and we reluctantly agree to paying 450.  It sort of sucks to get ripped off like that, but in the end you just need to laugh it off and realize that we could have gotten ripped off way worse and also that in Vancouver the same cab ride would have cost probaly 3 or 4 times the price.  So no big deal.

Once we got to Khao San, we wandered up and down the road looking for places to stay and having Tuk-Tuk drivers shake our hands (apparently everyone here is your best friend) and we finally found a place to stay.  We're living it up pretty well for about $13 bucks / night with two beds, A/C and a private bathroom / shower with hot water... Nice.  Then we went back outside and cruised around a little more and wound up buying tickets to The Black Eyed Peas!  Hahaha, it was without a doubt the last thing I thought we'd be doing on our first night in Bangkok, but it worked out and sure enough we wound up getting some decent seats and round trip transportation for less than $30.  They put on a pretty decent show, especially with a little help from the generous servings of Singha beers they were handing out.  Turned out to be a great random first night. 

Today we haven't done much at all.  We walked around a bunch more, got ripped off a bit for flip-flops and a wallet.  We decided to go for a tuk-tuk ride as well and wound up visiting two tailor shops and two travel agencies.  The ride was pretty good, but it was a bit of a pain in the ass getting pressured into buying suits and booking trips even though we knew it was coming.  I'm still finding it hard knowing who to trust, I've become pretty skeptical which I guess is both a good and a bad thing.  I'm sure we'll get the hang of it soon and get more of a feel for this whole travelling thing.  We're not exactly in any sort of a rush...  Still trying to figure out where to go next, we're thinking Chang Mai in the north and maybe doing some trekking and Thai cooking courses or something...

Anyways, hope all is well with everyone back home! 

Dylan
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