First days in Bangkok

Man it is hot and sticky here! The heat is soooo draining, just walking around is exhausting. I'm staying with my German friend and his girlfriend for the weekend and then another friend is coming next week and we may go island hopping!

Yesterday I arrived in the city center around 1pm and we went to a nearby street for lunch. I had something like pad see ew for lunch and it was quite yummy. The noodles were a soft, chewy consistency, a result of using fresh rice noodles instead of dried.

We then took a speedy TukTuk (a cheap 3-wheeled vehicle) ride to Chinatown to explore. The driving here is NUTS, but ironically nobody seems to ever get angry despite the chaos. While it's very common for TukTuks to drive on the wrong side of the street, horns are still used much more sparingly than in India or China. It can be very thrilling to ride in a TukTuk! Lots of things to look at but pretty similar to other Chinatowns. There were durians, but their odor was much weaker than in Singapore. I will probably get some sometime before I leave. Lots of big bins of dried goods (fruit, nuts, mushrooms) but I'm very perplexed as to how they don't get moldy from all the humidity in the air. Everything, even liquids, are packaged in little plastic bags with twist ties at the top.

We went back around our hotel for dinner and the restaurant had a live guitarist who played Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and the like. My dinner of Pad Thai (40 baht = $1.24) cost less than my large Chang beer (80 baht = $2.47), totaling $3.71. With these kinds of prices, I almost feel like I'm stealing!! Throughout dinner, vendors came up to tables from the street offering large scorpions on sticks (as a snack), trinkets, and friendship bracelets that say various crude things like HAIRY BALLS, BIG COCK, and SUPER PUSSY. Dinner and lots of entertainment!! You can also get large towers of beer so that you can have your own "tap", which come in 3-liter and 5-liter towers for roughly the cost of 2 pints of beers in the States. We had a fairly early night and went to bed around 10pm.

Woke up at 8am and had breakfast in the lobby of hotel (which is included with the room). Again, a choice of eggs and toast or rice soup. Today I opted for the western breakfast. When we came back to the room we noticed something outside our window. The building across the street is under construction with very modest bamboo scaffolding around it. There was a guy on the top floor (about 5 stories high) who was standing on one bamboo rod and sanding the outside of the building, no rope or anything for safety. He seemed perfectly calm, but it definitely made us nervous! Definitely different from how things are done at home!

We wanted to check out some sites so we walked about a mile to the Grand Palace. Along the way we were told by several different people that temples won't let us in because of our clothes (shorts, tank tops) and that the temples were only open to Thai tourists now so we would have to go back later. This is all a scam to get you to go on a boat tour instead!! All the temples provide robes or clothes that you can borrow (for free or for a deposit that you get back full upon returning the clothes), and most are open with typical hours everyday.

In looking for the entrance of the Grand Palace, we accidentally went to Wat Phra Chetuphon (Reclining Buddha Temple). This was fine because we wanted to see it anyway! A ticket cost 200 baht (about $6) and each ticket includes a bottle of water, a nice perk :) As is custom in Buddhist temples everywhere, shoes are removed before entering the buildings. Donations of small change can be made throughout the various buildings, along with flowers and incense. This temple was much shinier than other temples I've seen, with lots of gold and glossy tiles. The tiles on the roofs resembled fish / dragon scales. One of the buildings was enormous and had a very high ceiling. There was a Buddhist with a microphone who was talking to a group of students and it seemed like a class of some sort and visitors could quietly sit and listen to / observe the lesson. It was very peaceful and interesting to witness. This temple was pretty big and it was very nice that some areas had nobody but us there. At one point, a few students came up to Jurgen and interviewed him about Thailand! He gets approached a lot in Asian countries due to his blonde hair :-P

Afterwards we went looking for the entrance to the Grand Palace. When we arrived, we saw that the clothing rule was more strict. A deposit of 200 baht ($6) was required to borrow clothing and the tickets were 500 baht ($15). None of us had enough baht to cover the costs and we were pretty tired from the previous temple anyway. We decided we would check out pictures online and if it looked really awesome we would just go back tomorrow!

We walked back towards the hotel and stopped for ice cream to help cool us down a bit. I got taro root flavored ice cream for 25 baht (~$0.75). It was funny walking down the street eating it because it was melting so fast!

We got back near our hotel and walked down Khao San Rd, which is a busy road for tourist with lots of vendors. Here you can get name brand clothes, sunglasses, electronics, and even fake IDs for lots of different countries! Merchandise here is much more expensive (although still ridiculously cheap) compared to other roads, and most of the prices are fixed so you couldn't bargain with them. The vendors were also considerably more rude here.

Had lunch by the hotel of vegetable red curry that was of course delicious. We are now back at the hotel resting before we go to the red light district tonight! Should be an interesting night!! :-P

One thing I forgot to mention in the previous post is how the buildings of Bangkok are. When riding the train to the city center from the airport yesterday, I noticed something. There are tons of tall buildings, but instead of them being clumped together and concentrated in a main city center area, they are all spread out. I mean ALL spread out! It was pretty interesting to see so many tall buildings spaced so far apart. Will try to get a picture later.