Hong Kong To Bangkok; First few days of Bangkok
Sunday –
I managed to wake up before 5am yet again and was ready to go. I gathered up my final things, Strong was not even back yet from partying probably in jail somewhere or in the hospital, crazy dude. Bob woke up, which I felt bad about, but he went right back to sleep five minutes later. I put my back on the front and my back and made my way to the station, in the rain nonetheless. Day 3 of rain, nuts, considering I hadn’t seen rain for over 3 weeks. When I got to the subway station it was closed, apparently the first train wasn’t for another hour, great, I didn’t remember that being the case the last time I left Hong Kong. My only option was to take a cab to the airport express station which should be open this early (530am). I found a cab, and when I got there it was open, but the first train wasn’t for another 25 minutes and the check in for the airport at the train station wouldn’t be open for another 10 minutes. I put my bag around my backpack like usual to make sure the straps weren’t ripped off. So many times I have heard stories of where shoulder straps have come back completely ripped off, so when I bought my back a few years back at college, I decided to invest in this covering bag. Great investment on my part, I’m sure with all the flying I have done over the past three years that it has really helped me out and saved my bag from destruction and with all the mishandling that goes on with airport handlers, I was being smart.
I hopped on the first airport express train, took the mini train within the airport to the terminal and then decided to check in. There was a line for the first time in ages, and they took quite a while to check us in. There was only one person working the counter for each class of travel and I was getting a little pissed that they wouldn’t bring another person in to work the counter. Eventually a few more people came to check people in and it went a little quicker. I got my aisle seat as usual and headed off to find food. I hit up burger king and used all my coins from Hong Kong that I possibly could use. Typically you cannot change coins of different currencies anywhere so you are stuck with them if you don’t use them up.
The people behind me in line I’m sure wasn’t happy about that, but I didn’t care because I would be losing out on money. I kept the notes that I had and would exchange them for Thai Baht when I got to Bangkok. The best part about Hong Kong International is the free internet throughout the whole airport, free wireless that is. I killed some time online, made a few more phone calls to use up the remaining time I had purchased on my SIM card (called amy and others) and then got on the plane.
Hong Kong – Bangkok
When I got on the plane and sat down this Indian couple had asked me to switch to a neighboring middle seat, I responded by saying “are you kidding me?” Who the hell wants a middle seat, you might as well stick me underneath the plane before I sit in the middle seat. So after denying the huge Indian lady her aisle seat, I saw a girl in my row and started chatting with her. Her name was Minette and she was originally from the Philippines but now lived in Chicago and worked as a nurse. We had a nice chat, she asked me about my trip, I asked about hers, blah blah. She told me she was married, which was cool, but she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, which I found odd. Usually men don’t wear the wedding rings, but I don’t know of any woman that would not want to wear some sort of ring to indicate their marriage to some other guy, it seemed a little shady. She told me that she lived in Chicago and her husband lived in LA, again the whole story seemed odd. Never mentioned his name or anything, so I don’t know.
She had previously been to Bangkok like six times so she knew the area quite well. We decided to split the cab ride back to my hostel first. She wanted to see if Suk 11 had any available rooms for her and her family who would be arriving the following day. After going through immigration and customs (another stamp!), we got our bags which made it, exchanged some money and then had to start with the whole ordeal of Bangkok. Bangkok and Thailand are known for schemes, shady dealings, and scams. I had asked Bob during my stay in Hong Kong for hours about Thailand and Bangkok. I was nervous for the first time in a while about going to a place. Just all the stories made it seem like some horrible place where people would jump out at you trying to scam you and whatnot. The first obstacle was trying to get a taxi. Taxis are known for trying to tell tourists that the meter doesn’t work and then try to charge an absurd amount for a short ride. We knew that the ride back to Suk 11 should not cost more than 250 baht. Unmetered taxis and illegal taxis would try and charge 800-1000 for the same ride, incredible I know. I got a tip from Bob and others that instead of going to the taxi stand where you would be ripped off, often it was best to go up to departures and find a taxi who is dropping someone off. After asking how much the bus was and how much taxis would charge, we decided to head up to departures and give it a whirl. As we were exiting the airport a taxi pulled up, gave us the nod and Minette went to work to see the deal. He agreed to use the meter, we said “sweet,” and we were off. It took a little while to explain or make sure he understood where we were going. I hopped in the back seat and enjoyed the ride to the hostel. Bangkok was nothing like I had expected it. Not as developed as I thought, but not bad overall. The cost of our taxi to Suk 11 was only 220 Baht! A steal when you think about how awful traffic can be, but lucky for us we had arrived on a Sunday where traffic is at its lowest point.
I arrived at Suk 11 with Minette, checked in to my room, and Minette asked about her room situation. They told her they didn’t have anything for a couple days, so Minette just decided to go to Khao San Road and go to the hostel/hotel she had previously stayed at when coming to Bangkok. KSR is known for being where all the backpackers go and where all the prostitutes and scam artists come out at night. There are many bars, cheap hostels, and tourists to rip off. There are also many shops, and street vendors to bargain with. Street food is great, and really cheap. I was really looking forward to living cheaply for a few days considering all the money I had spent over the past two weeks in Tokyo and Hong Kong. It is really crazy to think about all the places I have been in the past month. I will reflect in my last entry of my trip on all the places and give out the rewards, but I really don’t think it will hit me till I get home and start to tell stories or talk about my trip. Anyway, we jumped in another metered taxi, which was air conditioned and headed off to KSR. It was brutally hot in Bangkok at the moment, probably in the lower 80’s but humidity in the upper 70-80’s. It is really unbearable. We arrived in KSR and I was a little nervous, again after all the stories you hear about the infamous or famous street, depending on your view point. Minette assured me that the day time was fine, and starting around 5pm was when the freaks come out. We walked up and down the street, I bought a few things, mainly the patches I needed for the countries I had missed before. Patches had been really hard to come by, did a little bargaining and we then checked Minette in at her hostel/hotel. It was called D&D and really nice. I regretted a little bit not initially staying there, but in the end made the good choice of staying at the Suk. After we dropped off her bags, we walked around more, got some pizza, she showed me some things, explained the streets, and did some more shopping. Thailand is known for having to bargain heavily for the price you want. The vendors and shops market up their items like 300% percent or something. Typically when I want something I immediately ask for the price at a 1/3 or ½ of what they are initially offering. They usually don’t get angry and really enjoy bargaining. The first thing I bargained for were the patches, wasn’t so successful, but then I took over the reins from Minette and got my bargaining really on. I ended up bargaining a lot for several things, and got solid prices. They were laughing as was I, and it is really funny because basically the game is to see who will give in first. If you give in they win, and if you can wait it out stick with your price you give them, generally if it is not absurdly low, they will give in and you get the price you want.
You really have to program your mind not to be bothered by the fact that you are bargaining over sometimes pennies or cents. But I quickly got over that realizing how bad they wanted to rip me off. After walking around KSR for a while, Minette told me of another place called MBK. It is a huge shopping mall filled with vendors and stalls similar to KSR which should be cheaper considering more locals shop there. KSR is filled with tourists and prices are often jacked up more than usual, which makes it harder to get the price you really want. We hopped in a cab over to MBK and started exploring. I ended up buying to Polo collared shirts, probably real, considering all the name brands are made in Thailand, for about 300 baht or less than 10 dollars. Not bad considering I needed some new clothing and that seemed pretty cheap. I would end up buying several more items which I cannot remember, bargaining like crazy, which started to become fun and a game of how low could you go. After MBK I told Minette I wanted to head back to the hostel and relax, I had been up since 445am to take my flight, and was tired. We said our goodbyes, but not before we got SIM cards for our phone. We bargained for those again, got a great deal and I bought a prepaid card with it as well. We exchanged numbers and had a preliminary plan to meet again in Bangkok.
Oh before leaving she took me to a great, cheap ice cream shop called Swenson’s. For 59 Baht (less than 2 dollars), we got huge ice cream sundaes that were spectacular. We took a few photos with the ice cream, picked up Minette’s phone that she got unlocked and then I headed off on the skyrail home. It was getting dark by this time and I really wanted to find the hostel in the daytime, because once night hits, my sense of direction becomes nonexistent. After taking two sets of sky rails, I made it to Nana station, my stop and figured out which side of the road to be on.
I got back and just chilled out. I sat downstairs in the lobby just hanging out, trying to meet some people to chat with. Eventually I found a few guys just drinking some beers chatting. One guy’s name was Paul the other was Brent. Paul was 39 and had traveled quite extensively in his life, and Brent who was from Louisville, Kentucky, was 29, ex marine, and had been traveling for a few months through South East Asia. I decided to start my night, grabbed a few local beers; Leo and Chang (the alcohol content of Chang varies since there is no regulation on that, so mine was 6.4%!). After a few beers Paul and Brent proposed going to KSR for the night to explore the nightlife. Paul had been there many times and Brent had been in Bangkok for several days and recommended a place called Gulliver’s. This night would be crazy, and definitely an interesting first night in Bangkok. Before leaving the hostel we met these two Frenchmen. One was originally from Algeria, the other from Cameroon. The one from Cameroon spoke English while the other guy only knew a few words. So we would speak to one and then he would translate for the other. They also wanted to head to KSR with us, so that was 5 and that meant having to find a cab that not only would do meter, but would take 5. Now I’m not a big guy, but these other dudes were huge. Completely squished in the back seat we made the journey to KSR. It was a pretty good hike over there, coupled with traffic and the fact it was on the other side of the city, the ride as interesting. We arrived, paid the small fare each for the ride, since there were five of us the cab was dirt cheap and then started the adventure. As I previously said at night is when the crazies and the stories you hear about the road are born.
Brent was already pretty drunk and kept insisting on going to this place called Gulliver’s. I had to piss really bad after drinking two huge beers, so I kept insisting on finding a place to piss before we headed over to Gulliver’s which happened to be the last place on the street. I wasn’t going to make it, I really had to go, worse than those times on the bus in Europe where if you tried to use the bathroom on the bus you would be booed for days. We found a place to grab a drink and I used the bathroom. To get the key you had to be sitting down for a drink, the guy asked me if we were sitting down, I had no idea if they had or not, and just said yes, grabbed the key and made it to the bathroom. It was delightful and I think I might have broken a record on that one.
The boys had gotten be a Singha beer completing the tri-fecta of the night on consuming the local beers. Chiang, Leo and Singha were the three popular local beers. After making a quick stop at this bar we headed to our destination of Gulliver’s. There was no cover charge to get in but you had to buy a drink when you got there. We were immediately hounded by these beer girls who insisted on us buying a drink. Now I didn’t know if we had to or if they were just pushing us to do so. Eventually one of them brought over some dude who basically said we had to buy a beer. I gave in and bought a Tiger, my fourth different beer of the night. I wanted to take the bottle and smash it over the girls head when she brought it to me. It was overpriced and really small. I was pissed, but quickly put it behind me paid, and enjoyed the bar. It was a little small, but packed with foreigners and local ladies. Now these aren’t just your typical locals, virtually all of the girls whether they told you something different or not were hookers. Bangkok is infamous for having tons of hookers, lady hookers and ladyboy hookers. Often it is difficult to tell the difference between a transvestite and a regular lady hooker. I steered clear of all of them, enjoyed the house music which was loud like I like it, and just tried to find some westerners to hang out with. We were at the club till it closed around 115am. In Bangkok all establishments that serve alcohol which are “legit,” must be closed by 2am. This closed at 115 just to get everyone out early I think. Brent and I left, but had lost the two French guys and Paul. When we got out of the club we found the French guys but lost Paul who might have gone off with a girl or tried too. It was weird one moment he was there then just disappeared in to the night the next, like Batman. The two french guys wanted to go to Patpong, the red light district of Bangkok. Brent said alright and just told me to stick with him and that we would be fine. Again I was a little skeptical considering we were going to a not such nice area late at night and I had never been there. Basically this is where you had all the famous “ping pong shows” and “magic” shows, which I will not go into greater detail on the blog.
We got in a cab which was metered, but got taken for a little joyride, so the driver could get a hire fare. We arrived in Patpong the four of us plus some other African dude, or so he claimed. When we got to Patpong Brent asked this African dude who we didn’t know, but the french guys had met, what he did. He said he was a “businessman,” so Brent asked him what he did and he just came right out and said “I deal Coke,” Brent responded by saying “Oh Cocaine, that’s cool,” it was a hilarious response, right on cue, without even hesitating. I fought back my laughter and just kept walking. The African guy eventually just walked in to a place probably to do “business,” and Brent and I were off on our own. The french guys had left us to go wherever with the African dude and Brent was ready for the ride. He told me to just stay close to him and go along. Basically he found some dude to take us to all these strip clubs and “massage parlours,” and Brent had said that he had done this before, where he would walk in take a quick look around then say “sorry not interested, or too much money.” I said alright lets do it. The guy ended up bringing us too numerous places, ending with a massage parlour that you only read about in stories. There were eight women sitting in a booth staring at you, the lady there asked us our price for “renting the room,” Brent said “200 Baht, joking around, the lady said “too low,” and wanted us to pay 2000 Baht each. We obviously had no intention of paying anything and just wanted to joke around and have some fun. Eventually we said sorry not interested and left. At this point it was like 245am, still drunk and since it was Brent’s last night he was looking for more. We then took a cab ride back to near our hostel. On the way back home Brent got a little loud. He was really drunk and kept yelling at the taxi driver that he was taking us for a joyride and that we were paying way too much. Brent was right, the taxi driver had taken us for a joyride, considering Patpong was pretty close and we shouldn’t have paid anywhere close to what we really did pay much more than we should have, but at least we had a meter.
At 245am it is hard to find a taxi who won’t screw you and use the meter. So we were lucky in that respect. When we got back to our area Brent still wanted to stay out, I said fine, even though I had been up for almost 24 hours again, but was having fun. Basically we just walked up and down the streets, Brent would joke around with the hookers who were looking for a trick and I would just go along for the ride. At about 315am I came across this dvd stand. I had been looking all day for cheap dvd’s, as I had heard they were really cheap in Bangkok. If it wasn’t the case I would kick myself for not buying them in KL where they were almost 2 dollars each, and probably could have gotten less if I had bargained. Anyway after spending a lot of time in MBK with Minette trying to get my price, these guys gave in. I wanted to buy 20 dvd’s and wanted to pay 1500 Baht or about 75 Baht each (2.35). Brent bought some then I got my deal and had to pick up 20 movies. He was getting restless since it was his last night and he was watching me try to pick out 20 dvd’s. After I found my 20, Brent said he wanted to just stay up all night, since it was 315am and he was headed to the airport at 4am. I said it was a pleasure meeting you and I was off to my hostel.
A side story about brent: First, he seemed like a real hot head, thank g-d he was on my side and I befriended him. He almost got in to a fight with some dude on the street of KSR with like 50 cops watching. I had to break it up and keep Brent away, he insisted on being fine, but he was ready to fight. After that in the cab ride home he had told me that one time he got jumped by three guys, fought them all off individually, they eventually they got smart enough to jump him all at once and he bit the ear off of one of the guys Mike Tyson style. We had a brief talk about criminal law and he said that he was unable to use self defense since he used force excessive to what was used upon him, which is exactly what we learned in class, haha. Anyway to stay out of jail for the felony and lose the charges minus probation he had to pay $15,000 which seems cheap. At that point I was like oh boy, we have a psycho on our hands here.
Anyway I made it back to my hostel at like 330am went upstairs and passed out. That was day 1 in Bangkok, definitely a trip.
Monday – Day 2 in Bangkok
Today I had to wake up real early to drop off my passport to get my visa for Vietnam. I had found a travel agency close to my hostel that I could drop it off and then get it back the following day. It was located at Soi 18 and I was at Soi 11. I had to be there by 830am or I thought it I had to be, so I rushed over there to Soi 18, walking feverishly and couldn’t find it. Soi 18 was a long street and I had forgotten they said it was near the Rembrandt hotel. I started freaking out that I wouldn’t get there in time, and wouldn’t able to get the visa and not get on the tour. I called Mom, during Sopranos, she was real pissed, made a fuss but got on email and gave me the phone number and address of the place. She told me the number as my phone was dying and told me the address was Soi 30. She was wrong, it was really on Soi 18, I just hadn’t walked farther down the street it would have been there. So I hopped on the back of a motorbike for 30 Baht without a helmet and went for the ride. This motorbike was weaving in between traffic on the street, going on the sidewalk, it was absolutely nuts. I real trip, and a great experience. I arrived at Soi 30 and it was the wrong place. I hopped back on the bike for another 20 Baht and he took me back to Soi 18 and actually knew where the place was. I finally arrived at the place, dropped off my passport, paid for it, and then they told me to pick it up before six on Tuesday night. I said great, see you tomorrow. I then decided to walk back to the hostel.
Today I was thinking about doing some touristy things. I woke up feeling like a champ, took a shower and headed downstairs for free breakfast. I asked how to get to the Grand Palace which would be my first stop and another girl overheard me asking and asked me if I was headed to the temples today. I said yes, would you like to join me? She said sure and we headed off. Her name was Ricke and she was from Denmark. She was 19 and starting University when she got home. She had worked in Australia for 7 months, traveled around, she was stopping in Bangkok for two days. So we hopped on several skyrails, and then made our way to the boat. We were going to take a boat down the Klong to where the Grand Palace was. I thought that would be nice. We got on the boat for like 13 baht, dirt cheap, took the boat about six or seven stops and found our way there.
This is where the schemes and scams would begin. The moment we got closer to the Grand Palace we were bombarded. People were telling us the Grand Palace was closed, take a tuk tuk to see the “lucky Buddha,” take a boat ride, we got it all. Even the person in the tourist information booth lied to us telling us that the Grand Palace was much more expensive then it should be, that we weren’t even dressed properly. It was all bullshit. Anyone who spoke to us during the day near the temples was lying to us. It was really weird, but it was my first day of seeing all the scams right in front of my eyes. The Grand Palace and Wat Po were incredible. We spent several hours walking around each of the places, and it was so hot. I mean like 90+ with high humidity. The best part were all the scams that were going around. There was one guy who tried to scam us with the “So there are guys telling you about lucky Buddha and boat trip” scam. Basically trying to befriend us my asking us about the Palace and stuff, where we were from and laughing about the people trying to scam us when he was really scamming us! That was great. There were signs all over the GP saying beware of strangers don’t take a boat trip, a tuk tuk or a trip to see the lucky Buddha. Ricke and I started cracking up as all three had happened to us before we even set foot in the GP. The last scam was the “tourist guides” in bright yellow. Basically they stood right outside the Palace, but it looked like it was in the Palace, but technically was outside the walls. They were offer fake tours for 400 baht. They apparently had created fake badges and uniforms to scam tourists. I knew they were fake and that had been confirmed by a taxi driver on the way home.
After Wat Po and GP we took a taxi over to KSR. Ricke wanted to see it and I always love to shop. She was taken aback by it all. She was a quiet girl, fairly conservative and I think it was a real experience for her. I bought a pair of real nice thin cotton pants for the temples and what not along with a poster of the Grand Palace Buddha, and some other small items. We got a bite to eat in some tourist restaurant which was quiet good. After KSR I was tired and we headed back home to recharge. I was not looking to go out tonight, but instead just chill out and hopefully meet some other people. I saw Paul as usual sweating like crazy drinking Heineken’s like water. Chatting with him was a nice guy named Edward from England. Edward had spent most of the day trying to get a visa to Iran. He had to spend three hours filling out the forms, interview and paying the heavy fee for a visa. They told him that after three weeks they may or may not grant him the tourist visa and would still keep the money!
After a while Edward and Paul wanted to go to the arab street to grab some Mediterranean food. I was down for that. We ended up going to this real good Egyptian restaurant where we ordered the same main dish and some hummus and bread. It was good, but afterwards my stomach was in shambles. I had sharp pains on my side and was feeling really full. To try and help me out, Edward bought me this drink which is basically cultured bacteria that is good for you. He said this would do the trick. It tasted horrible, I sipped it and it did the trick! When we got back I went upstairs to lay down and called it an early night.
Tags: Travel
Josh
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