Doing the Bangkok thing
Trip Start
Aug 30, 2006
1
20
33
Trip End
Jun 11, 2007
Bangkok,
Thailand
Sunday, November 19, 2006
And they have good reason to come here. What to say about Bangkok? It is cheap. Rooms are as little as $3 or $4 per night. You can eat three meals a day for about $2 a day. Khao San Road is the epicenter of all this activity, and is basically State Street--pedestrians, shopping, clubs and bars
Bangkok in a nutshell
. At the end of the street is a gorgeous Buddhist temple and monastery. Wrapping around this monastery's walls is another tiled walking street with trees hanging over it, with food stands and bookstores and shops. Around the corner is where most of the guesthouses are, all in a row, all mostly clean and cheap and nice.The district has some great touches for backpackers. Everything is traded or sold--there are stores that advertise, "We Buy Everything!" and they have a random assortment of packs, shoes, sleeping bags, stethoscopes, camera flashes, and books. All books, when finished, are sold to one of the many bookstores, which often have a great selection for mere dollars. Guidebooks are also sold, and so there are dozens of Lonely Planet guidebooks for Thailand, as well as for places like New Zealand, Mexico, India, and even Central Europe. Bags can be left, there are airport shuttles, visas can be bought, Internet is cheap. Here is a place where you can be happy to identify as a "backpacker," as opposed to a "tourist" or a "vacationer"--they understand that traveling is work, requires you to leave things like books and shoes and sweaters behind. I dare say it's a little cliche, but it makes you proud in a way to be young (at heart, at least) and full of adventure.
Thailand has some interesting touches for all people as well
Countryside is countryside
. Even in late November, it is very hot and humid. Air conditioning is common, but they are mindful of turning it on and off, to keep a constantly pretty-cool temperature. Bottled water is cheap. Plumbing is too--to flush a toilet, you pour a bucket of water in until the water turns clear. Usually takes less than a Western toilet. In order to turn on the electricity in your room--the lights and the fan--you have to insert the room key into a slot, thereby making it impossible to leave the lights and fan on when you're gone--a great feature. I wonder, why don't far more "advanced" places like the US have little touches like this?The people here are really great too--the Westerners, sure, but also the Thais. They are really nice and friendly, often speak with terrible accents that are forgiven. For two nights in a row I have been taken out by random Thai people to all sorts of places, had drinks bought, been invited to parties, etc. This has been due to the fact that I've been alone, maybe, but also is because I've been going to this one bar that is a miracle among bars. It's called Adhere the 13th, and it is a genuine blues bar. A great all-Thai blues band with an amazing lead singer plays every night of the week. The bar is a hole in the wall, with photos of Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Miles Davis, etc. on the walls and records stacked in the corner, and the awning above the actual bar is covered with notes, quotations, drawings
Karaen village, northern Thailand
. Drinks are cheap, the air conditioning is always on (although apparently it's now cool among Americans to call it "air-con"), and I keep meeting these interesting people--an artist from Germany, a woman from France who teaches French at the U.N., a South African, and all these Thais, who tend to just start talking to you and invite you places. So last night I went to another place called the Brick Bar, which is a large cavernous place full of Thais--almost no farang, or foreigners (the one word of Thai that I know). In the Brick Bar there is a 10-piece ska band full of crazy guys with tattoos and blonde afro wigs, who play tunes like "No Woman No Cry" and "You May Be Right" (a nod to Pete, I know), as well as Thai ska tunes, with manic energy. The place is just insane, until it shuts down at 1 AM. So I've been enjoying myself, with lots of music and interesting people.Other than that, life has changed considerably for me--I have over a month to just hang around Thailand, and am in no hurry to go anywhere outside of Bangkok. A far cry from traveling through three countries in one day. The task of passing time has become a task--writing is slowly doing the trick, playing guitar, talking to people. Yesterday I cut the legs off my pants and made them into shorts. A vacation from a vacation, I guess you could call it. I had considered for awhile living in a monastery for a week or two--a relatively common practice here, at least among Thais, as almost everyone is Buddhist--but I'm in no hurry to do that
Our camping spot, the waterfall
. The food is good here, although I have yet to find anything really as spicy as I had hoped. Maybe they water it down in the backpackers' district. I have not been sick though. Walking around is also pretty amazing here. The Buddhist temples are gorgeous, all red and gold, candles, elaborate altars, and paintings, the most ornate shrines, incense, people worshipping, monks chanting at certain times. The government buildings are great too, especially the King's Palace, which is just as ornate as a temple and more colorful, and the royal gardens. And no, you'd never know that the government has been overthrown recently, as it is peaceful and controlled here. As it's been explained to me, the king is still officially in power, although he's been that way for 60 years and is 80 years old now. Lots of people wear yellow shirts with an ensignia that says they support the king--an elegant analogy to someone wearing a "Flush the Johns" shirt, or an American flag perhaps. I don't know, do they have pro-Bush shirts? Has anyone seen one? What would it say? "At least he's not Harding"? But I digress.
So, the deal on Thailand is that I'm adrift, swimming in a sea of future possibilities that seem just out of reach, in a beautiful country with nice people whom I can't really communicate with that well and tourists who I can't really understand well either. The future is mine, and if you go to Bangkok it will be yours too! If you have a backpack, go there! You may not be disappointed.
Comments
I'm jealous
This place sounds like Eden. Well, for travelers anyway. Hope you're doing well. Love you!