Bangkok Part 1

After our elephant adventure Saturday, it was time to leave Chiang Mai. Sunday morning we came to the airport and departed on a flight to Bangkok. We've had a whirl of little adventures since then, trying to figure this city out.


Bangkok is big, but it is disorganized, and quite behind-the-times in terms of navigation. Getting to the hostel was fairly straightforward, as it lies right off of a skytrain stop (elevated train). After checking in we wandered around the nearby shopping malls and had a bite to eat, and eventually decided to go on an adventure.

On the other side of town is Khao San road, the "hot" place to be for backpackers, mainly a party scene, but generally just a dense street of culture and tourism. Getting there wouldn't be easy. We took the skytrain to nearest stop, but I realized it was no where near close enough.Eventually we settled on grabbing a tuk-tuk, the famous three wheeled transport. After a short bout of haggling we were on our way (on the matter of price, I had no idea what a reasonable price was, or even how far our destination was). And what a ride it was. Our first tuk-tuk ride went zipping through the city--largely following traffic rules, but generally the experience had an exciting danger to it.

Also, please note that between every event I list, there was undoubtedly a whole lot of standing around confused, wondering where we are, how to proceed, etc. This will always be true and has been true across basically every post of this blog.

Khao San

Khao San was busy, a night market dominated every inch of road, and clubs and bars flashed off to every side and down allyways. We wandered the market and made a few purchases--I replaced my sunglasses which I'd broken in my sickly sleep back on Ko PhiPhi.

After a while we were tired, so we went back to where the tuk-tuks were--immediately we were solicited, and I told them to take us to the station we'd come from...forget it's name...The initial quotes were astronomically higher than what I'd paid to get here, and I said so. Eventually I

What followed was the sort of ride that turns hairs gray, taking corners at wild speeds, overtaking cars and bikes with unreasonable zeal. I can only imagine this was the driver's passive-aggressive vengeance upon me for not giving him the fare he'd wanted.

Anyway, we lived. If only we'd had the gopro to record the fun. I doubt we'll bother with a second take just for footage.

Monday

Today we headed off to a part of Bangkok that is rife with temples and govt. buildings, around the grand palace. We didn't wear proper attire to enter any buildings, but we accepted this because to wear long pants would have been suicidal in Bangkok's heat. 

Getting to this area required conveyance along the river. We took the train to the river, and there moved over to a ferry which moved upriver to all the official ferry stops. Like a bus on water.

Miraculously, we make it to our destination without any wrong turns. After a short walk, we arrive outside the grand palace, and crowds of tourists flow in and around the area. We walk a lot and take pics of things we pass.

We discover some random cafe that every starbucks wishes it could be. We walk more. We wind all the way around and back to Khao San road, which is very different in the day. I drink a beer and buy Christian a smoothie because he has forsworn alcohol forever after Ko Phi Phi. 

We loop back down and back to the river, where (after ample confusion) we get back on a boat, back to the pier where the train connects, back on the train, back to the hostel. 

We have a weird pizza with potato on it for dinner. It was yummy, but I think a different pizza would have been even better.

I won't talk about today right now, I'll leave that for later and publish this.