Bangkok: Falang!

 

And my love affair with Thailand continues. I left Cambodia early to meet friends from Seattle: Ali, Sirima and their adorable 9 month old, Keegan. So Bangkok for 10 days. Hummmpph. In hindsight, I would not have spent so much time there but hey, I was in between meeting friends and the hostel was wicked cool, so why not? No one would ever describe Bangkok as boring. Lub D was the name of my new home for 10 days and was ranked high on hostelworld.com (the bible for backpackers) and was like my second family as I stayed there on 3 different occasions and even used it as my physical address. It means good sleep in Thai, and not exactly the best sleep as I was staying in a 4 bed all female dorm ("no man's land", the sign greeted me) with 3 security doors so I felt beyond safe but as I'm a light sleeper, sleep is not always my friend, I'd rather be talking. Once settled in and shaken off the 22 hour bus ride to get here, off to tackle the sky train to meet my friends. Ok, so only 4 stops away and 1 exchange should've been a quick trip but it took this sleep deprived girl two hours to find the hotel A and S were staying at...except they weren't there so off in a cab to dinner which I arrived as they were finishing but I scored some really yummy pad thai anyway. And how surreal to meet up with friends in a foreign country, great to catch up! 

OMG, I'm already talking about the food and get used to it on this post as Bangkok knows how to eat! The next day, I met the A and S crew along with their friend, A, who just arrived from Seattle too so guess what? An insider's claim to the best crab curry anywhere in the world and this from a foodie, yes, I'm in! And yum it was amazing! Other unusual suspects were eggplant and whole fish, I vowed to go back but never made it with all of the other good restaurants and street food.

Back to hostel life and meeting up with peeps from my dorm room, a cool bunch of girls, even an American who gave me hope that we could be laid-back, ha! Ate dinner on Khao Son Road, backpackers' central, a dinner of only $1, the cocktail accompanying dinner was more spendy coming in at a whopping $2. This is the road to people watch, full of bars and street food where I first came across bugs to dine on but couldn't...yet...do....it. Shopping too, lots of knock-off clothes for sale. 

AYUTTHAYA
Day trip to Ayutthaya, booyah, this is Thailand's answer to Angkor Wat and I never get tired of ruins! I was lucky enough to join Sirima's Thai family for a day trip in a VIP van with karaoke, air-con, and the family's driver, by far the most plush ride I'd had the whole trip. Bangkok traffic is legendary and we weren't spared: a bad accident slowed us for over an hour. So we were all extra hungry stopping at a riverside restaurant indulging in snake head fish, deep fried catfish cakes with papaya salad, huge river prawns and whole fish, eyeballs and all. Was the fish caught from the muddy banks of Chao Phraya river? I think so but damn it tasted good, all of it. Along with Singha beer, of course!

Off to the king's summer palace, Bun Pa. I'm always disgracing someone with my dress, this time bare shoulders definitely not acceptable so I had to wear the rogue yellow hawaiian shirt along with Sirima's niece, nice one. Too sexy for the king apparently :-) As we were in a rush getting such a late start, we took a boat ride around the grounds and then pure luxury: a golf cart to drive around versus walking in the heat, wicked! I'm sure I learned something about the history and I think it goes something like this: King Rama 4 had the summer palace built, from the King and I fame and King Rama 5 freed the slaves but quite frankly I just enjoyed the beauty of the grounds and oh! We spotted a komodo dragon, wicked! That'll save me a trip to Indonesia, well, let's be honest, no, I'm still going! We also saw the effects of the horrible flooding Thailand experienced just months prior, sand bags were still around the palace.

We stopped off at one of the family's favorite stops: a temple for good luck. And we were in luck, Buddha was being undressed, uh oh, sexy times! But then he was dressed again and we all got to participate touching the scarf and bowing.

Then on to the ruins! Wat Phra Sisanphet was impressive with its Buddha in a tree, very nice at sunset, a festival was to happen later that night but we all bailed still needing to visit the floating market and head back to Bangkok. So we just walked around taking pictures, doing cartwheels, and oh yeah, almost getting my purse stolen. WTH? I set it down to cartwheel and Sirima was watching it the whole time as this man just appeared out of one of the ruin's corners. He probably preys on all kinds of suspects but Cara Croft would have none of the purse stealing, I'm done with all of that bizness. HA! 

The floating market was pretty touristy and as it was the end of the day and nearly closing we did a quick walk through and this is when I appreciate being with locals. I so would've passed this stand as it looked like colored noodles and traveling, I'm never gonna cook (ha, even if I lived there to be perfectly honest, I probably wouldn't cook it.) Anyway, Sirima's dad bought us all roti sai mai, which I've renamed cotton candy tacos, soooo yummy! It's rope sugar cane just like sweet threads of palm sugar (coconut!!!!) in a pancake like thing, more tortilla-ish than anything. Also tried rice crackers with palm sugar and these buns with chocolate sauce. Have I mentioned I have a bit of a sweet tooth? Oh but all good things have to come to an end. Sirima and Ali were busy with her brother's wedding so I was grateful to see them but off to explore Bangkok's environs on my own.....

BANGKOK
And once I arrived back to Lub D, my good friend Jai was there!!!!!! So girl catch up time it was! Hanging out in the hostel was all we needed, woo hoo! Love to keep seeing the same people when traveling, what I love most about the backpackers circuit.

As I'd been on the go for so many days, I chilled for much of the rest of my time in BKK. Sometimes going to movies: saw Harry Potter at the imax and the facebook movie. My fav thing was at every movie they play the Thai national anthem and everyone has to stand! These people have pride and are in love with their king! Not a one of them has anything bad to say about him and I can't imagine what they would do if you did say anything bad about him. Nope, didn't chance it.

So another fav thing I have when traveling, well it's basically the art of wandering. I gave myself the luxury of no plans for a few days and some funny things happened. First off, I was just searching for a cafe with wifi to eat breakfast and apply for jobs, you know trying to be productive, and instead I ended up supposedly stalking this guy who was looking for the same thing at the same time. So he invited me to join him for brekky, as the kiwis say, and we hung out all day. Random! He's a rock climber on his way home to NZ...and now I'm off to Raillay beach this week upon his recommendation.

The other strange thing is that I had a semi-breakdown of sorts. I still had 4 days left in Bangkok with no real plans and what was I doing traveling for so long anyway, do I need a purpose while traveling? All these questions came at me full force because I was sitting still and long enough for them to rush in, yuck! Reality? Are you serious? I'm kicking you to the curb! Just when I was really getting into the traveling groove and ok with my purpose: to wander! Or perhaps it was the transition. I went from traveling with my long distance bf for a month to being on my own for about 6 weeks to seeing friends from Seattle and then my evil twin sister (this is said most lovingly:-) would be meeting me in a few days to explore Thailand and spend Christmas and New Year's Eve with me. Life was good. So what do I do now? Keep traveling? Huh? Please, just go away, uneasiness, I don't like you much. I want to travel. I will travel. I will kick you in the arse, uneasiness. And eventually....I did!

By seeing more of Bangkok and learning to love it's nuances. You see, it's not a city that wows you with its' skyline like many Asian cities. It's more about the food and shopping and so Westernized in many ways. There are western fast food joints everywhere, Starbucks on every corner, so was I really traveling? Or is this just any other city?

No. Not any other city. Not with the wats, tuk tuks and massive street markets. It has the Grand Palace, which I had visited years ago so didn't feel compelled to go again, instead I just wandered the street food stalls around it. I visited Chinatown, just plopped myself down at a restaurant in an alley with the locals; there was no menu just what size noodles would you like in your soup? Love it! Wat Pho really was impressive, the reclining Buddha that makes you say oh my god! But really it's not my God so oh my buddha is much more appropriate, dontcha think? Catherine and I visited after taking the wrong stop on the sky train and just wandering through the streets we found it, a hot hour later. So we indulged at Wat Pho by way of a traditional Thai massage, nice! Then ate noodles by the river as it was raining with a view of Wat Arun, not a meal I will soon forget. Taking the ferry across to the Wat, we climbed its' very steep steps and were rewarded with a great view of Bangkok and the grand palace right on the river! Getting around Bangkok is quite interesting as well, the tourist ferry whips you from tourist site to site along the muddy banks of the Chao Praya river.

So, remember my adventurous Belgian friend? Do you believe in random events? I don't care, I'm gonna tell you anyway, I don't and I ran into her as I was going back to my hostel at the sky train stop! In all of southeast Asia, in all of Thailand, in all of Bangkok, seriously what are the chances? So she joined me for a quick bite and we had plans to try to meet up at the weekend market the next day but it was just too massive. Chatuchak Market! Otherwise known as the best street market ever, it's (thankfully) organized into clothing and housewares and food and I'm sure much more which I didn't get to as I barely covered a quarter of it and I was there the whole morning! Scored some gifts for others and finally bought some clothes for myself, much more indie in style than the massive shopping malls surrounding my hostel, love! Ate drunken noddles in the street, tight! Then spent more on an iced coffee than my noodles at this hip joint surrounded by gorgeous dark wood furniture and airy fabrics, again, tight!

The only other historical thing I did was visit the Jim Thompson house, a great example of traditional Thai style housing. So he's known as the thai silk king, an american ex-pat living in Bangkok but what makes him even more interesting is his mysterious death. He went missing in Malaysia while meeting friends, many theories as to why he disappeared. I just enjoyed the architecture, his home on the water very near my hostel then walked along the pier and then through the huge malls to get back. Oh my am I ever tired of these malls and the huge crowds, needing some culture! So I got some in the form of night life!

Saturday night in Bangkok, oh what to do? Join Skye, an intern at the hostel, with her friends, of course! And what fun! They were wicked cool speaking English and absolutely loving when they taught me Thai phrases and I would shout them!! Khao Son Road again, it's the place to be! We stayed at this place all night as there was live music, a cover band mostly, and then once it got late enough, we headed into the disco room and stayed there until 5 am, woo! But really could've been a place in the states with the dj's music but the company.....so not! The renditions of bad romance with our hands, wow, what a night!! I will never be able to listen to that song again and not think of all of them, so fun! Falang!!! (that's thai for foreigner) I was craving a cheeseburger after all the dancing but had to wait until the next day.....

And I slept in! Satisfied my craving and just hung out in the hostel all day, oh the lazy days! And the night brought on Chang beer along with the Chang girl, so of course, I had to wear my Chang shirt, woo hooo! And then be interviewed by Paul's brother's girlfriend for school about clothes and why I choose brands, something to that effect so I interviewed her just the same. It was her first time talking to a falang, have to show we don't bite, ya know? So we shared a whole tower of Chang beer and street food: papaya salad and noodles. Yum!!!

Ok, these days of not doing much, I'm craving adventure and know I'm about to get some in the form of my troublesome friend, woo hoo!