Southeast Asia

Got the hotel shuttle back to the airport and from there managed to find an airport bus that went into the city for 100 Baht. Bangkok has some serious infrustructure, the express way into the city was 12 lanes and there are rauised highways everywhere, none of this cross city tunnel shit. If the roads here are slightly congested they build another highway above it. I wasnt sure when to get off, but i saw a sign that said “soi 1/11” so i took a stab. Was walking down the street with no idea where i was going when i suddenly realised i was in the right place, a bit of dumb luck never goes astray. Now most people are probably thinking ‘well done nic you managed to catch a bus and get off and walk to the hostel’, but seriously it was a really big achievement to do it without getting lost, maps are almost no use here because everything is so chaotic. Checked into Suk11 with no problems, the place is so cool. Its almost hard to tell if your inside or out, the corridors are full of plants and wooden plank bridges and each room is made to look like a little hut, its so cute. I have my own room with air con and a bathroom for 450 baht a night.

Spent the afternoon wandering around BKK, had some really good fried noodles for lunch and then went shopping. Typical me, within 1 day of being in a new city ive found the 2 best shopping centres and an ice rink. Needed to find an adaptor so i could charge my phone. Finally found one in the MBK centre which was a shopping centre more like i imagined BKK to be, with tiny shops that are packed with items of questionable use. The siam centre across the road was gorgeous, very much like shopping centres at home, only nicer and with better shops. If it wasnt for the fact that i cant carry anything i would have spent all my $. Also got charged 1 Baht to use the bathroom in the MBK centre, its the first time ive had to pay.

It appears that in all the chaos of BKK there is a shed of sanity, the sky train. No form of public transport has ever been easier and for only 15B. Now i have it worked out im a little bit more confident about getting around. Despite feeling like falling asleep in the afternoon, i felt i should go out and meet some people. Met Dee from BnA, also Nic F and his friend Dave, along with a few others. Dee is heading to Chiang Mai tomorrow and Dave and Nic to Laos tonight.

Dee and i decided to head to Khao San Rd, the big backpacker district, for dinner. Khao San Rd was packed and it seemed to buzz with excitement and energy. Passed on the cockroaches and silk worms for dinner in favour of chicken currry (didnt give me bird flu), the food was amazing. Did a bit of shopping in the street, the whole street had a party atmosphere, it was amazing to think i was in Thailand, it could have been a street in syd on NYE. We caught a tuk tuk there for 140B which was great fun and i didnt mind being ripped off a bit for the experience, although we did get the price down from 300B, it gets really tiring always being on guard to not be ripped off. Taxi back to the hostel only cost 70B.

i still cant get over all the fairy light, ive never in my life seen so many in one town they are everywhere and the whole city is so beautiful. i discovered that they are all in aid of the kings birthday which was on Mon. They really love their King here, there are shrines outside all hotels and most shops. Back at suk11 i ran into dave which can as a surprise since he was suppose to be on an overnight train to laos. Unfortunately he left his wallet in the taxi on the way to the train station so had his work cut out for him finding it / cancelling all his cards.

After not sleeping well the previous night and walking around in the heat all day followed by heading out for dinner, i got back about 11:00pm and passed out from exhagustion as soon as my head hit the pillow.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.