BKK. Khao San Rd area is my HOME only because I keep a bag in perpetual storage at a hotel. It's mostly clothes I bought at the clothing market ("if I buy 10, how much discount can I get?) that I don't like enough to carry around. Since October I have passed through BKK about 10 times, my yearly average is about 4. I noticed something new this time: how many rats come out at dusk. You dont see them at first because its rush hour and maybe your attention is focussed on all those sweet university students in black skirts and white form-fitting blouses. But look near the drains, under the feet of the commuters-the rats are out getting first pickings of the night.
I traded my books in to Shaman books, they rip people off now. That fat @#$% manager at the desk who can barely read English now offers 50 baht for a first rate book which they sell for about 300 baht. JM Coetzee: Nobel and Booker prize winning books, also some rare Zen Buddhism books, they offered me 250 baht for 5 books which was not enough to buy one book in their shop. I was so angry. I went to every other book store and table, but they either sold junk or not interested in buying that day.So I traded for Gogol and Isaac Bashevis Singer, classics in poor condition, but at least I felt I gained a small victory since these books were undervalued by that hippo.
Fitness: Khao San fitness center, a tiny gym on the 3rd floor across
from the police station. There is enough room to do yoga if there is fewer than 3 customers. The pulley machines and weights are cheap with hand-grips that will tear your skin off. There is some grungy looking lifting gloves in a basket. There are a few serious yoga studios in Bangkok, but too far from Khao San, at least I havent found any yet.
At MBK shopping center I hopped into a taxicab with a rigged meter. The cab
putted like it had a tractor engine, the ID photo of driver was not on the dash.The ID # was handwritten on a piece of duct tape, not even cut evenly. At 60 baht I tossed the money into the hand of the driver when he was stopped at a light and jumped out. The driver of the next cab I found told me I should call the cops, but I feel that he had some guts chugging around in his jerry-rigged deathtrap, and 60 Baht is not serious amount. About 55% of the taxis I took lately in Bangkok try to overcharge, especially to and from the airport. I'm going to take the bus from now on.