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Day two in Bangkok

Wednesday, February 8th, 2006

Last night I met the coolest group of people at Suk 11, the coolest guest house in Bangkok. How fitting. This place exudes charm from every crack of it’s four stories. People have plastered their names and pictures on every reachable or unreachable parcel of space. After sharing some Awamori sake (a sayonara present) with three Japanese girls, Tanya and Kai, a couple from Germany strolled in. We chatted and drank the night away before agreeing to meet the next morning.What a great day. We started shopping near the national stadium (since I brought no clothes), then headed to Chinatown to pig out on dim sum. Then we hopped on the new Bangkok underground line to go to a highly recommended Thai massage parlour. Now I’m not much of a massage fan, and I can’t say that I enjoyed the experience, but I’m sitting in BKK airport right now waiting for my flight to Phuket…and I feel great.

I only knew Kai and Tanya for less than 24 hours, but it was sad to say goodbye to them. They became good friends in this short time, hopefully a sign of things to come.

Bangkok day one

Tuesday, February 7th, 2006

Having ended my seamless transition from sedentary life to one on the road in best possible form, I set out into Bangkok today ready to shred all my preconceived notions about this steamy Asian metropolis. The story I heard about it being hot checks out, but who cares, it’s south Asia? It’s hot! Something I didn’t expect is the scale and architecture of the urban landscape. I’m not really a fan of malls, but I went to the coolest mall I’ve seen in the heart of central Bangkok. They’ve managed to combine the vertical maze of Japanese department stores with the sprawling expanse of the American shopping mall. The result: An airy column of shopping bliss that tempted me to spend…so I left. Let’s get to that other rumor about Thailand. You know what I’m talking about folks. Here’s the part the mom’s stop reading. Just kidding Mom! No, but, I didn’t get propositioned in any way for exactly 18 hours. Of course I haven’t been in the local haunts, per se. But the way some people were talking, I was gonna have girls approaching me at the airport. 18 hours? I’ll never trust another NAVY guy again.I stopped and ate 6 times today. It’s hard to pass up a hot bowl or plate of something steaming before your eyes, usually for between 50-75cents. Bangkok is delicious.