Bangkok, Baby!

We arrived this morning in Bangkok after taking the overnight bus from Hat Yai. The bus left last night at 8pm and we finally disembarked just before 11 am this morning at the Bangkok Bus Terminal. We caught a taxi to our hotel, had a light lunch, a rest – did some laundry and exercise – and then I went out for my first little wander around Bangkok.

I have never been to a city like this before. I cannot imagine there are any other cities in the world like this. It is crazy. It is busy and hectic, full of locals and full of tourists. And the tourists are from everywhere – all over Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia/New Zealand, and, of course, North America. I have never been to a place with so many tourists from so many different places (well now that I’m thinking about it maybe NYC….) but it is just crazy.

For my first stop on my wander I made my way to a fruit vendor to pick up a snack. In Hat Yai fruit cost THB$20 for a piece of fruit (or about US$0.75). I just assumed it would cost the same here so I ordered a piece of fruit. There were two Russian men ahead of my in line who were hassling the vendor really hard about the prices. The vendors are known to rip tourists off here in Thailand, but the Russian man was being overly rude – I would’ve ripped him off if I was the fruit man. Once the Russian left, the guy cut up my fruit, I handed him the THB$20 and that was that. I never actually asked him how much it was and he never told me. We both just knew it would cost THB$20. So much easier than getting into a big argument with the fruit vendor like the Russian man did. (I actually did this same thing with another fruit vendor late – handed him a $50 and he handed me $30 back – no discussion about price.)

Fruit in hand I headed through the markets which were packed. One nice thing about the markets here is that they don’t hassle you much to look at their products like they did in KL. It gets really annoying so it is nice to be able to browse without too much hassle from the vendors. Another difference from KL is the vendors seem to sell more useful items – clothing, shoes, bras, socks – and less touristy junk. Not that there isn’t touristy junk, because there is, but there seems to be lots of “real” things there – and Thai people as well browsing along with the tourists. This seems rather unusal. Most places we’ve been there are touristy places and local places and they don’t overlap much. Here it’s all one-and-the-same.

After getting a few more snacks and being rather overwhelmed by the market I decided to head back to our hostel. I was only a few blocks away where I heard a bit of commotion and saw a girl lying in the street just next the curb outside a taxi. At first I assumed she was a really drunk tourist who had fallen from her drunkenness but it turned out to be a girl having a seizure. She obviously has them often because the two friends she was with knew exactly what to do – thank god – so I left. But really? In my first small walk around Bangkok I meet overly rude Russians, get totally overwhelmed by the plethora of tourists at the market, and then see a girl having a seizure in the road. This place is way too much for me! I was scared to leave the hotel room again but Elizabeth dragged me out in the evening. We took another wander (thankfully no seizures involved this time) and then had a quick meal. I am now falling asleep and it’s not even 8 pm. I am going to watch a quick show on Netflix and then off to bed. Hopefully I’ll wake up tomorrow back on the Singapore schedule – early. I can get up, go for a little wander by myself in the morning for an hour or so, do some exercises, have some fruit, have a coffee, just enjoy a little alone time and then off to do some exploring.

Night!