Back in Bangkok

Well, it's been just around 6 months since I was last here.  Bangkok reminds me a lot of LA with its huge highways, tall buildings, and crowds of people - definitely one of the most Western cities of South East Asia.  And like LA, it's a city that most people either love or hate.

I enjoy the city, especially visiting for just a few days at a time.  It is so convenient with all the shops, 7/11s on every corner, and other travelers everywhere - and anything you might need is little more than a 10 minute search away.  Bangkok is such a huge travel hub that most people end up passing through it several times on their travels - people starting their trips, ending their trips before flying home, or like me passing through mid trip.

The 13 hour bus ride from Cambodia was long, especially over the unfinished dirt road on the Cambodian side.  Arriving at 10p I walked around, each guest house being annoyingly full.  I finally ended up finding a room a few blocks away from the craziness of Kho San Rd.

This time in Bangkok I visited the Grand Palace, home of the emerald buddha, and a couple of famous wats, like the one that houses the enormous reclining buddha.  Visitors swarmed around the sites taking billions of pictures, usually right where you intended to walk by.  I had kinda enough of the sites, and though it was raining I decided to take a walk down to China town and little India.  I did get a few looks as the rain picked up, the crazy farang without an umbrella.  It was fun however to aimlessly walk and people watch, I walked through several of the small streets selling random nick knacks, plus the flower market.  Every so often I would stop and get a snack from street venders selling the usual excellent tasting Thai food.

In the evening I walked over to Kho San Rd.  It's a little hard to describe the oddity of Kho San.  The street and sidewalks are full of people from all over.  You see spaced out dreadlocked hippies walking next to vacationing business men who are gazing at ladyboys in leopard dresses, that's Kho San for you.  Finding a seat a sidewalk bar I take in the scene.  After a drink I end up joining a group of solo travelers sitting at a nearby table - a 40yr old Scottish guy who does something along the lines of being a vet, a 26yr old guy from Norway that owns his own business making wheelchairs, and Melinda, my age and originally from the states but now living in Canada.  She is at the beginning of a 5 month trip around Thailand, Lao, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  It was a fun group, Melinda and I decided to turn in before it got to late, but I'm guessing the guys were out till dawn.  Anyway, M. mentioned that she would be heading to Ko Chang, hmm, I might end up going there - I still need to look into what islands to visit in the South.