The train arrived in Bangkok around 8 AM. I departed and looked for a cab. Some information people immediately came up to me to ask me where I was going. I told them "Khaosan Rd." They then explained that I can either take a cab or a bus. The man actualy tried to convince me to take the bus because it was cheaper, but I opted for the cab because I had my bag and it was only 3 dollars. I got dropped off right at the start of the Backpacker district, which is on Khaosan Rd. It was pretty early so it was deserted, a few piles of trash and a few passed out travelers, otherwise empty. I saw lots of bars and signs for guesthouses, so I started walking down and checking. I didn't book ahead because there are so many guesthouses and many of them don't even bother to get listed online, especially the really cheap ones. I made one pass down the road and got to the end and realized I had only talked to 2 places that had rooms available (of about 10 places I tried to go into), so I walked back the way I had come in hopes of finding more. I found one that I was going to check into but they weren't ready yet, so they let me leave my bag and told me to come back in an hour, but while I was out I found another place, slightly more expensive but nicer and with wifi so I feebly walked back to the place I had left my bag and begged to undo my reservation. They were cool with it, which surprised me, so I checked into Chandra Inn, showered, and sent an email to Luke and Jo.
I had a private room at Chandra, but the bathroom was shared, down the hall. It was pretty nice for the price though, and the wifi was way better than what I had been dealing with in Laos and Vietnam. They also included a coffee and toast breakfast. Finally I got an email from Luke and Jo, explaining where the room was, the Marco Polo hostel, which was just a few doors down! It was a bit hard to find because the sign was white like the clouds in the sky--easier to see at night, but some nice man in a turban pointed me to it after telling me that today was my lucky day. "Of course it is," I began. "I found my friends", and then walked off.
I found their room and we had a reunification hug. Luke was still kind of in bed. He go ready and we walked off towards the Temple close by. Luke and Jo has been there but wanted me to check it out. They were going to go into a cafe to wait. I tried to go in but they were stopping people who were wearing shorts because its not allowed. I turned back and left, not realizing they give you pajamas pants to wear over your shirts. No wonder so many people were dressed so awfully. It was no big deal though. I was pretty hungry. I found Luke and Jo at the cafe across the street, and also across the street from a protest, possibly by the redshirts, which we tried to peer at from inside the cafe, but we really had no idea. The people looked pretty peaceful and the police looked kind of bored. There was a man sitting next to us wearing a Virginia Tech hat so I told him that I had gone to Virginia Tech. He was no more excited than if I had told him that I had just ordered a black coffee. I thanked him for his time.
We walked through a small market on our way to the pier and I got a basket of mixed fried fries: potato, sweet potato, banana, and mystery. They were all good except for mystery, which we suspect was fishcake. We got on a boat taxi but weren't sure where to go. A lady was walking around collecting money and she asked where we were going--we didn't know, so we told her, "the fourth stop". She kinda grunted and demanded some money, then gave, us a ticket stub. We just wanted to go south a bit and then get off and walk around. We waited about four stops and then got off, following the crowd. I was also taking notice on my compass on my watch, the most important piece of gear I brought with me. Luke admitted that it had saved our asses a bunch already. We checked where we were on the map and it looked like we should be close to Chinatown, but we may have been in it. Just because it's called Chinatown doesn't mean it will look any different. After a ways we found a partially covered indoor market with small shop rooms along a trenched road that doubled as a sewer. We stopped off for some soup then moved on. I noticed that a bunch of vendors were selling these bright pink patties. They looked like those plastic pork chops you buy for kids to go with their fisher price kitchen sets. It kind of looked like meat. We debated it--Jo thought it was meat. I bought one anyway and was about to take a big bite when Jo stopped me, saying it might need to be cooked. I looked at the shop keeper, with my mouth half open, around the goopy pink pork chop. She nodded as if to s ay its ok, go ahead. I bit--I think it was a dough from rice--not meat--and filled with spinach. It was ok, but a few bites were enough.
We walked on and I directed us with my compass. We kind of just wandered for a bit. It was really hot, so we had to stop for some water. Then we checked on our map, to see that we were close to a "Giant Swing". Not sure what it was and a bit intriguied at an the prospect of riding an adult, or giant, sized swing, we went to check it out. It didn't look like the kind of swing you can use, but it was kinda neat, at least to glance at, so we kept going. Next we found a park and chilled out under some trees, getting some shade. It was a quiet park and it reminded me of Beijing because it had those silly exercise machines.
As we headed back towards Khaosan road we found this victory monument. We alked towards it and also bumped into a book store. Jo popped inside and Luke and I loitered about. We started at the monumen, puzzled at what it was supposed to represent. Finally after a few minutes of pondering, we agreed that it looked like the primary weapon on the Death Star. I got some bagged pineapple because my allergies were getting better. It may have been helping--it would be specious to think so, but it was easier to just keep everything the same than go through a process of elimination.
As we walked down Khaosan road I saw a bar was playing an NFL playoff game so I told Luke and Jo to pick me up there in an hour. I sat got a beer and had been there for about 30 minutes when they told me that they were closing and I would have to leave in 10 minutes. Terrible. Annoying. I chugged the rest of my beer and left a bit annoyed. If I knew how to say "Thanks for the heads up skyscraper face", in Thai, I would have said that.
I met back up with Luke and Jo a bit later at my hostel. We walked around the neighborhood and got some snacks on the street. Then we went to an internet cafe/bar to meet Jo's friend, Maria who was flying in from England to meet up with her for a couple weeks. Luke ran into guy from Germany he had met in China who was with his wife. The guy had a really strange laugh. It was like a bear had his head stuck in a huge jar and was trying to mimic the beastmaster. The Germans left and about an hour later Maria arrived. We checked her into a hostel and then went for dinner at an amazing streetside local joint with organic smoothies for a dollar. The smoothies actually came from another shop and the waiter would take off in a sprint to get them. There was an ounce of remorse for ordering them seperately.
After dinner we went to a streetside bar and got a bucket each. Buckets are all the rage in southeast Asia. They are supersized cocktails for the price of a regular. Its a McDonalds size and price. I ordered one with gin and pineapple juice. Maria got one with Whiskey, which he poured at our table--it was exaclty one bucket of ice, one flask of whiskey, and one can of coke. I never finished mine, but my nose was really bad, and the Alcohol only made it worse. Luke was about 85 percent done with his when Jo secretly switched hers, which was about 60 percent done, with his. In the end, Luke finished both. He was the most capable drinker I met on my trek. After our drinks we called it a night. Day one of Bangkok was crazy!
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