Back in Bangkok

After a long 24 hour trip from Darjeeling to Baghdogra (by zooming minivan with a funeral procession on the road along the way and some maniacal driving on the last stretch to add just a tad of momentary stress) to Delhi (by flight with one stop) and then by Jet Airways to Bangkok on a 1am flight(!), we finally arrived back where we started 7 years ago! Yep, Khao San Road, Bangkok, folks! This is backpacker central for South East Asia. Guesthouses, street vendors, banana pancakes made roadside in a quick 30 seconds, and lots of cheap fake clothing!

I have to say after India it was kind of a relief to be in Bangkok - it seemed almost 1st world compared to India. Bangkok has changed since we were last here though. Or maybe I have. No, really, it was actually different. The new airport was the first noticeable difference - very modern and making quite a different impression than last time we fly into Bangkok. Khao San Road has gone commercial - Starbucks is there! (We were bad and went there almost everyday for iced coffees and blueberry muffins...we could not resist. But then again, we have been Starbucks deprived in the DR for the past 3 years so it's different if we go there versus the other backpackers who have just landed from England or Holland or wherever.) Khao San Road had a lot more "real" restaurants and prices were high. Still we were happy to have a large Chang beer and sit there and watch all the people go by. It is still quite a great people watching place - albeit 99% foreigners, though it seems that some of the venues there now seem to be the hip place to go for Thais who want to drink Heinekens. Some of the places had this cool see-through contraption that held 3 liters (who knows what that translates to into non-metric) within a tube-like thing that had a cooling element inside it.

We stayed off Khao San Road on Soi Rambuttri which is a slightly less chaotic but still fun street about a block away. I highly recommend the Lamphu House - and we will be going back there at the end of June for our flight to the UK.

The reason for us going to Bangkok was solely to get our Vietnam visa. I think we both didn't really think we'd be that into being in Bangkok, but we really enjoyed ourselves - in fact we PAMPERED ourselves there. V got a haircut, some waxing, and a Thai massage. While I went for a much needed facial, waxing, and Thai massage. This was our first Thai massage which is very different from Swedish or the other techniques. This involves the masseuse using more than just her hands - at times elbows, legs, and upper body were put to use. It was....well actually kind of painful at times but I was feeling a lot more aligned after it. It was alomst like a chiropractic visit in some ways. I think we both will go for another one when we return in June.

Aside from pampering ourselves, we ate like queens! My stomach was finally back to normal after the India Trauma and boy did I go after it! Tom Yum Gum soup, fried rice, green beans with cashews, pad thai, lots of spicy shrimp dishes.....the Thai food really does rock.

We hit the waterways of Bangkok too - gotta do that as you see much cool stuff that way. We hit the ferry on the big river there and cruised that. We went to the Jim Thompson House by long tail ferry on the canal. You had to watch out for getting splashed on that one though as the canal water is probably a bit toxic.

One of the best things we did was go on an early morning bike tour with the Co Van Kessel company. Yep, a company owned by a Dutch man who likes biking no less. Those Dutch! Of course the 2 other people on our bike ride were Dutch - a young couple nearly finishing up a 6 month trip around the world. This bike ride took us through the tiny alleys of Chinatown where we slipped and slided our way through fish guts (courtesy of the fish market), loads of strange foods being prepared, and lots of people who seemed unfazed by us trying to squeeze past them with maybe an inch to spare or else you'd be in their big vat of noodle soup. A few temples, a church even, and a quieter side of Bangkok on the opposite side of the river which we reached by putting our bikes on to one of the ferries. It had rained the night before so it was not so steamy which was good thing. Did I say how hot it was in Bangkok? Well, if India was a hair dryer blowing hot air on to you, Bangkok was like the DR in summer.

We can't forget our trip to the PatPong area. No, no ping pong shows, people. We went for the cheap fake clothes and accessories. We did our part for the local (illegal) economy and loaded up on fake Lacoste shirts ($5 each), a pair of Gucci sunglasses ($6), Prada sunglasses ($6), and a Cartier watch ($15) - V couldn't resist. A few margaritas and a talk with a very friendly Thai waitress who is more accustomed to speaking to disgusting foreign men who are waiting for the ping pong shows to get going. She was happy to practice her English and thought it funny that we were going to Hanoi -- "Oh, so many motorbikes. Hehe! Hehe! Oh and you for Obama or Hillary?" Wow, a politically minded Pat Pong waitress. Times have a changed in Bangkok!

Well that about sums up Bangkok. It was a great few days where we could kick back in a city that we knew and in which you can really enjoy yourself. Since we'd already seen many sights around the city we had an excuse at times to just relax. All in all we were glad to be a back!