Bangkok!

My flight to Bangkok was so easy. The plane was maybe only 10% sold out, so there was lots of space. I was easily able to snag a whole row of inside seats and laid down for a nap on the 9 hour flight.

Bangkok is a big, crazy, smelly, city. Some parts are rough around the edges, other parts are ultra modern, shiny, and new. In the same day, I was awoken by roosters crowing outside of my guesthouse window (and I was definitely staying in the city, not a farm!), and took a monorail to the centre of the city and perused huge shopping malls with Porsche dealerships inside of them. It's really a city of contrasts.

I met up with my old friend Nick Taylor. He's been on an around the world trip since August. I only spent two full days in Bangkok, so our time to hang out was pretty limited. We walked around Khao San Road (the super touristy, but very cool, shopping street) and the markets on neighboring steets. Nick's friend Irena (from Slovenia) hung out with us, too. She's flying to Australia soon, so I was able to give her travel advice! Likewise, they supplied me with travel advice too.

Food is very yummy here... and very cheap. Most meals from street vendors are less than 30 baht (that's less than CA$1) !!! The food isn't as high quality as you'd find in swanky restaurants, but its certainly enough to live on -- and a lot of people do.

Nick and I also went out for beers. We drank mostly Beer Chang. Rumour has it that it's made with formaldehyde. Reminds me of goone in Australia.

My second day in Bangkok, I tried to play the role of a tourist and went to see the sights. I went to this fantastic Buddhist temple called Wat Pho. There was a very very large reclining Buddha there -- 42 metres long and 14 metres high. Each of his feet were taller than me. HUGE! It pust the Daibatsu in Nara, Japan to shame!

That day, I also went shopping in the expensive shopping malls in Siam Square. I needed to buy headphones (since I lost another pair), and chargers for my iPod and Nintendo DS. The prices of the headphones and iPod charger were sadly very similar to Canadian prices. The DS charger was a mere 200 baht, though (CA$6).

Not just food is cheap, it seems almost everything is! I knew it was supposed to be cheap, but to finally get here and see it first hand is pretty astonishing. 1 litre bottles of water are usually 12 baht (about 30 or 40 cents), bus fare is 7 baht (20 cents approx), articles of clothing are almost always less than CA$10 in outdoor markets, private rooms in guesthouses are often less than CA$10, too. Sooo cheeap. I need to stay here for a while to reap the benefits, for sure.

I took a careening tuk-tuk ride to Chinatown where I wandered around, enjoyed a steamed BBQ pork bun, and some fresh pineapple. Fruit stands are ubiquitous in Bangkok. It's the easiest thing to find cheap fresh fruit to eat almost anywhere. I'm going to like it here.

Tuk-tuks are little three wheeled taxis powered by smelly two-stroke engines. They are noisy, and are usually driven by annoying touts. They're well known for trying to rip people off and take you to surprise destinations (usually so that they can get a commission). You do have to be careful when you take a ride in a tuk-tuk, but they are a very convenient way to get around, so they are probably a necessary evil. They drive like crazy men possessed -- cutting off taxis, squeezing through gaps, and liberally using their horns.

My next destination was to go to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand to meet up with Adam Freed and Michelle Gauthier to see their wedding. It's a 12 hour bus ride or 14 hour train ride to get there from Bangkok. I booked myself into a sleeper carriage for an overnight train ride to Chiang Mai. It only cost me 680 baht (CA$22).

I know that I wanted to spend more time in Bangkok. I barely got to see any of the sights or hang out with Nick and his crew at all. Getting to the wedding is important though, so I had to hustle out of there.

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Rob Sz
Chiang Mai, Thailand