Welcome to Bangkok!

November 15, 2013 by Kris 1 Comment

I have been in Thailand for almost 2 weeks, and I did not anticipate not having any time to post on here!  So much has happened, it started out with my flight being delayed, which forced me to have a 5 hour layover in Beijing and then another 8 hours or so in Bangkok before I could check into my hostel.  I couldn’t sleep at all, so I suffered through the 40 something hours of traveling and when I finally arrived at my hostel at 1pm, I slept in bed (which was so hard it was like sleeping on the floor) until 11pm, woke up to another traveler in my room, and him and I ended up talking until 3am.  I couldn’t get used to the time difference quickly enough, so I spent the next 2 days just walking around the area by my hostel and searching for street food, and meeting random people in the hostel.  I finally met Ondra, who introduced me to my first Chang beer, then we met Fabian and Jon, which led to Saman and Lewis and Elisa and Rachel and 2 German girls whose names I don’t recall.

Fabian, Saman, and I explored Bangkok for 3 days, seeing Wat Pho, Wat Arun, Chinatown, the Flower Market, rode in a tuk-tuk for the first time, either just the 3 of us or with other travelers.  Jon ate a scorpion while we were drinking on Khao San road, we all went to a patpong show (google it, I HAD to!), drank on the rooftop of our hostel, and tried a bunch of different foods and places to eat.  I ended up going to Ayutthaya with Fabian, on a 3rd class train, where we were attacked by swarms of mosquitos because we traveled at 7pm or so.  Once we arrived in Ayutthaya, we took a ferry to cross the river, and in the middle of the river, the ferry broke down!  The driver kept on trying to start it up, but then he just started stripping down to his boxers.  Once all his clothes were off, he looked at us and said “be back in 5 minutes” and jumped in the water!  We nervously giggled and waited, while he pulled the boat to another boat that we unloaded off of.

Then we got lost on the way to the hostel…I was too proud to take a tuk-tuk because I KNEW we were close, and they all wanted 50 baht to take us there, which was a rip-off.  So we wandered with our huge bags all hot and sweaty and exhausted for maybe about 45 min.  We asked locals for directions, and they tried to help us, but we were not getting anywhere.  Finally, we got to a cafe and asked another local Thai where it was, and after trying to explain it to us, him and his friend just hopped on their scooters and gave us a ride there!  In Bangkok, everyone was trying to scam us and we were so used to that, that it was strange to have everyone be so helpful and not try to sell you anything all of a sudden.  We rented bikes and rode the streets of Ayutthaya, looking for wats, and everyone was smiling and waving and yelling “hello!” and it was then that I saw why everyone said Thais are one of the most friendly people.  We had schoolchildren ask to practice their English on us, and they helped give us directions to the next wat.

Fabian and I stayed another night, explored more the next day, and by the time we got back, we were so sweaty and disgusting.  The owner of the hostel offered us a shower in an outside toilet (I should mention that all the hostel bathrooms I’ve seen so far have the toilet and open shower in the same room), and I had to practically sit on the toilet to get into the shower spray, and I had to eye a HUGE spider on the wall the whole time.  The spider almost made me refuse the shower, but I was that desperate, and it was probably the best shower I’ve ever taken in my life.  We got on the overnight bus to Sukhothai after eating SO MUCH street food at the night market (SO cheap), and I ended up realizing I had left my passport in the hostel at Ayutthaya and my kindle on the bus from Ayutthaya to Sukhothai.  So my trip to Sukhothai is cut short because I had to hop on another bus back to Ayutthaya (which is where I’m typing from now) to get my passport, and one of the hostel employees got my kindle back for me.  I cannot describe how important my kindle is, even more important than my laptop, and I almost cried when he came to me holding it in his hand.  Again, Thais are the nicest people I have ever met.

So I had to leave Fabian and leave Sukhothai earlier than planned…  I will hopefully meet up with him in Vietnam, traveling with him was so wonderful; he was the best travel guide and had so much of Lonely Planet memorized, and he loved street food and beer possibly more than I did.  I had to take a later bus than planned from Sukhothai to Ayutthaya because I thought that my Ayutthaya hostel would send my passport back by bus, which would have saved me a lot of money with transportation, but oh well, it was my fault anyways!  The only problem is, I will be arriving hopefully around 5 or 6pm, which will give me about 1 to 2 hours to get a tuk-tuk back to the hostel, get my passport, walk to the ferry, cross the river, and buy a train ticket for Bangkok.

Once I get through this though, Samantha will be here in 2 days and off we go to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party!  Almost every traveler I have met so far has either been there or is going to the one on 17 Nov, so I am super stoked to go and I hope that she won’t be too jet lagged to enjoy it!  It seems every hostel there is more expensive and has a 4 or 5 day minimum stay, so we are staying there for 4 nights, which is fine by me because I’d love to relax by the beach.  It’s crazy how expensive the hostels there and in Bangkok are, and then how we found $4 and $7 hostels in Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.  I also lost my overseas debit card (I know, I know) in an ATM last week in Bangkok, so I await for Samanatha with my replacement debit card.  So yes, these past 2 weeks have been hectic and fraught with mishaps, but I also had unplanned fun trips to the old cities of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya, the best food ever, met awesome people and saw some beautiful things, so I wouldn’t change a thing.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of my trip holds…

After Koh Phangan, Samantha and I will either stay in the islands for a little or we will go to Chiang Mai and Pai, and just figure it out from there until she leaves on the 1 Dec.  After that I have to get out of Thailand because my visa will expire or do a visa run, and I am debating between spending a week or 2 in Cambodia or trying to see if All Hands in the Philippines will take me as a volunteer to help clean up the mess that Typhoon Haiyan left behind.  I’ve always wanted to help out places that have been hit by natural disasters, but I’ve always been working or in school or not in the area…why not do it now?  I have to apply and see if they even want me, but I think I will do that when I get back to Bangkok and see where things will lead me!  I will try to update this more often, and hopefully I won’t miss the train tonight and be stuck in Ayutthaya for another day!  Until then…wish me luck!