100 baht = 3 US dollars
I did some last-minute research on the internet prior to leaving to establish and agenda because I had lost my travel book "Southeast Asia on a Shoestring" in KL the weekend prior. I decided my best bet was to head straight from the airport to Khaosan Road (KSR), which is a one block stretch that is full of younger, backpacking folks. The street is filled with market stalls, massage parlors, suite shops, bars, and some more bars. The demography was mostly 20-30 year olds from Europe or Austria stopping in Bangkok during their month-long backpacking trip. From those that I talked to, it seems like this is a popular thing to do during breaks between the different stages in school. I was a little nervous being by myself, but it turns out all I had to watch out for were tourist traps that BK is notorious for.
The second I step off the bus, I'm convinced by a tuk-tuk driver to go to a "Tourist Information Center" for 5 baht so I can get a map. Seemed like a great idea because I needed to take the infamous tuk-tuk ride and I also had no idea where my hotel was. Turns out this was a little trap because the tourist info. place wasn't certainly for profit, as they tried to sell me a map for 300 baht. I didn't bite. They didn't know where my hotel was. I took the tuk-tuk back to KSR. From there I resorted to my mental map. I wanted to go to the Siriraj Hospital which had three small museums. Two centered around human anatomy and parisitology and the third dealt with pre-historic human history.
Of course I didn't have the map that I drew the day before, but there was a large park nearby and that was a great reference point. I followed Thai folks as they crossed the street so I didn't die, and I ended up walking along the fenced park, no side-walk, on a 3-lane road. Everybody else was doing it so why not me. If you've ever been walking along the side-walk and a speeding bus flies past you unexpectedly you'll understand what it was all about. Just add nasty exhaust fumes, remove the side-walk, and increase the temperature. I made it to a ferry terminal that I knew was correct because I could see the hospital across the street. There were all sorts of information desks at the terminal, but it turns out they are there to sell tourist over-priced river tours and not advise on how to use the cheap ferry service offered by the city. I just hung out, observed which ferries went where, took the correct ferry and cruised across the river. I sat down on the half of the ferry covered in shade, and 3 monks immediately followed. They were the typical monks that you image in your head with the orange clothing and bald heads. Interestingly enough, the got up to allow these Chinese women to sit down and they moved to the opposite side of the ferry and sat in the sun. I figured I should do as the monks do, so I followed suite. I was a little out of my element, so I left out the small-talk and just soaked in the sights and sounds of the big city.
It took a while to find the museums. The first was the pre-historic one and it was really small and pretty boring. Pretty much a bunch of rocks that were labeled as different kinds of tools and bones with scientific labels that were beyond me. The anatomy museum was very interesting. It was kind of like the Body Works exhibit in the U.S., but Bangkok style. There were essentially real, human dissected portions of the body preserved in formaldehyde. There were also two full adults, babies and fetuses at different developmental stages, diseased parts of the body, yaddya yaddya. It was pretty cool for me as these sorts of things interest me, but quite erie at the same time. The third museum on paristology was closed. I ran into this English guy walking out of an area marked do not enter. It turns out inside were school children dissecting cadavers. I took peak into the rooms with him, and it was pretty crazy. The kids looked like they were in their young teens. Groups of about 5 or 6 had a human cadaver that they were dissecting. When they noticed us they all started waving, it was pretty cool.
Following this I returned to KSR on foot and had nothing to do. By now it was about 3 or 4 pm and I was meeting my group at a hotel at 11 pm, which I had no clue where it was. I ended up finding this hotel/restaurant/bar and got a couple beers. I met an employee, who also worked at a suit shop that was connected, named Krishna aka Jonny. We sat and drank and watched a WC re-run, then the Italy-Slovakia live match. I proposed a bet on who wins, and I chose Slovakia just so he would accept. I wanted to spice things up a little. A beer was on the line. I had to leave before the match ended, but it turns out Slovakia one, and I ended up getting that beer when I returned the next weekend. Krishna was a great resource for us because he informed us on the different ways we might be/were scammed and answered all our foolish questions about life in Thailand. I ended up getting a great picture with him wearing a tailored suit for this massively overweight Belgian man that was waiting to be picked up. Unfortunately all my photos for this day were deleted because I had to reformat my memory card. Krishna attempted to help me find where my hotel was but we never really came up with anything. I left at about ten, giving myself plenty of time. I knew the address of the hotel. I told the cabbie the address and he pretty much had no clue. We ended up stopping at a police station and 3 hotels to figure out where this place was. I finally made it an hour later and met up with everybody at the front steps.
The next day, Friday, was temple day. We went to the Gran Palace, Wat Pho (reclining Buddha), and the standing buddha. This was all via a 20 baht tuk-tuk "tour" where the drivers would wait for us at each stop and then take us to the next. In reality this was all a scam because they also took us to about 5 shops in between the temples that they were getting paid to take us to. The drivers made up this grand scheme that it's a gov't sponsored tourist day, and the gov't subsidized public transportation's fuel so it's cheaper. All they have to do is get fuel at different stops, which are actually the shops. We just walked in, looked around, and never bought anything. They actually didn't care if we didn't buy anything, we just had to walk in the front door so they could get paid. It wasn't really that bad for us because it was super cheap for the transportation (20 baht). They did end up taking us to somewhat of a bogus temple I think (standing buddha). When I return the following weekend I learn that the tuk-tuk drivers try to propose this to pretty much every white person walking on the street.
At night we got ate, got some drinks, and made it home safe and sound.
The next day, Saturday, was market day. We went to the Chatachuk market, also known as the weekend market, which is massive. We were there for about two hours and saw maybe 10% of the whole thing. I picked up this great antique map of Southeast Asia that is written in Thai. We started out walking through the animal area which had a ton of dogs, little squirrel things, iguanas, snakes, birds, and fish for sale. All very illegal and very sad. Then we went through this area full of really cool furniture. I decided I'm going to have a room in my house with an Asia theme -- I dubbed it the "Asia Room." The day carried on and we figured out how to take a ferry way up the river to another crazy market. This was much smaller, but filled with locals. I don't think we saw one westerner in this part of town. It is also the location of our bug eating experience. It was a fried grasshopper I think. It actually tasted pretty good. I guess you really can fry anything. In the evening, once again, we ate and drank and had a great time. This time our taxi driver didn't know how to get back so we went through the same ordeal I did Thursday. My group finally understood why i was so ecstatic getting out of the cab on Thursday night.
Sunday we went to Victory Monument then took a cab to the airport. We were all tired and maybe hungover. Victory Monument wasn't that great, but we did see a burned out building just loaded with trash. Definitely aftermath from the redshirt protests.
good entry bro. fun to read.
ReplyDelete