Yeah so like Chris said our first night in Bangkok included some interesting lady boy viewing and me trying durian (the rotten vegetable). I have no idea what drives me to do it, but seeing weird food and being called out to try it always gets me. The smell was pretty awful and it was about the consistency of a Banana, but that did not seem to be enough to stop me. So I grab a finger full and threw it in my mouth... to date it is probably the worst thing I have ever tasted in my life. I am not sure how to describe the taste, other than awful, just know that for the rest of the night my burps tasted like farts. Since then every time a smell it on the street my stomach turns and I feel like I want to puke.
Day 1: Temples and Stuff
The first full day in Bangkok we took pretty slow since we did not go to bed till late, that and I think some general trip fatigue had started to set in. As I said before I spent the morning dealing with Fedex and then we headed out to see the giant reclining Buddha and the palace. On our way to the palace we found a scam or two on just about every street corner. The first one we encountered was the most extravagant and started with a nice guy approaching and trying to tell us about the area and the sites. He pretended to work at a hotel and was not outwardly trying to sell us anything just give us some pointers. He told us the yellow tuc tuc's were government subsidized because it was a Buddhist holiday and that they would take us to all the sites for just 20baht (.75 USD). He also tried to convince us the palace was closed till 4pm and pointed us down the road. To get rid of him we headed in the direction he pointed and right away his accomplice pulled up in a yellow tuc tuc and started giving us the same speech. At that point we were real suspicious and just kept walking trying to get away from him. I will say if anything they are pretty persistent and will follow you for blocks. The same thing happened 2 more times while we walked down that road and at that point we were convinced it was a scam. Once we were out of sight we doubled back and headed for the palace. The detour probably doubled our walk and we were pouring sweat by the time we got back up to the palace. Just outside the palace Chris got attacked by a lady feeding pigeons. She just walked up to him and started pouring seed on his wrist. I swear the most taxing thing about Bangkok is every way you turn some one is grabbing you or yelling at you trying to sell you some crap or scam you. Once inside the palace, which of course was not closed, we looked around. It was pretty cool. I must admit Thai people like their bling and everything is painted in gold and bright jewel colors. From the palace we walked toward the giant reclining Buddha getting hassled all the way. We made quick work of the Buddha and walked around the temple for awhile. At that point we decided we had had enough of the temples and the heat so we headed back towards the hotel.
Once home we made arrangements to meet up with John and Laura again. Since we did not get back in time for the muay tai kickboxing match we headed down to Pat Pong. We walked through an open air market and took in some shopping. I am not much of a shopper so this was not really for me, but it was fun. For those who don't know this is also where you can take in a sex show and there are no shortage of guys on the street trying to sell them to just about anyone, including women. They pretty much have anything you can think of and more and Chris and I are prime targets so just about every 5 ft we would get hit up. Once we got to the end of the first strip we headed over to Silom Soi 4 and ducked into a bar and grill called the Sphinx so John and Laura could grab some food. Lucky for us it happened to be a gay bar.. and we saw some giant white dude getting a little to touchy feely with a tiny Thai man. I am pretty sure the dude was an escort, which sucked for him since he did not look like he was all that into it. I also got a compliment from the the waiter saying I looked like a football player from Argentina. No clue what that means, but I think he was trying to be nice. After eating and we walked back to the market and ran the gauntlet again. Once we got to the end of the market we were all pretty tired and thirsty so we walked across the street to a place called the Happy Beer Garden. We stayed there and had a few drinks till about 1:30am and had a good time with the staff. They were all pretty cool and seemed to like hanging out at our table. One or two of them were pretty enamored with my hair and it ended up getting braided before I left. I wont say any more about it than that (it looked awful), but Chris did take pictures for those interested. From there we grabbed a cab and headed home, in bed by around 2:30am.
Day 2: MBK and Maui Thai
Once again we were up late and not moving fast. Either the late night or fatigue really started to settle in for me. I felt nauseous and tired pretty much all day and probably should have just slept, but I did not want to waste the last day in Bangkok. It's funny when you get tired and don't feel good you tend to think a lot more about home, the people you miss and the comforts you enjoy. Yesterday, was probably the longest day of the trip for me and I spent a lot of time thinking about those things.
Anyway we headed to MBK around 1:30. Its just a big shopping mall and while impressive we have already been in Hong Kong and Japan so we have seen our fair share of malls. After that we just went back to the hotel to relax and to make sure we were home in time to go to the Maui Thai kick boxing match. We were doing this with John and Laura also and were worried about being late because the tour lady insisted it started at 5pm. Complicating things we had planned the night before to not meet John and Laura until 5 or 5:30. We were never able to get a hold of them to let them know the time had moved to 5pm so we spent a few tense moments wondering if we would be able to get in since we were going to be about an hour late to the fight. In the end it did not matter and may have been better since 3.5 hrs of kickboxing can only be so much fun. I must admit though that the fights were cool and we got to see some blood and knockouts even though most of the fights were just about wearing the other guy down. Chris took some pictures and movies so hopefully we will get those up soon. There was also a fake fight, like the WWF or WWE whatever they call it these days, where they showcased traditional fighting and some more jump kicks and stuff. None of that ever happens in the real fights so it was pretty cool to see them do it, even if it was fake.
After the fight we went back down to Pat Pong and the Happy Beer Garden since everyone had so much fun. I will be honest I had no desire to be there and by 9:30 just wanted to go home and go to bed since I felt like shit. It sucked most of the night for me and the heat adn humidity was not helping, but I toughed it out since no one wanted to call it a night and I did not want to ride home in a taxi on my own. Once at the place the night pretty much went like the one the night before and we ended up going home around midnight just like we said we would not do. Once home I checked in on the Fedex issue one more time and went upstairs to crash.
Day 3: Koh Samui
Today we got up late again.. a reoccurring theme in Bangkok. I felt a little better, but was still really tired. We checked out of the hotel around noon and headed for the airport and ultimately Koh Samui. Once here we checked into our hotel/bungalow. It is not the Hacienda del Mar in Cabo, but hopefully it will be nice and we wont get eaten by mosquitos. Honestly, I am looking forward to spending a few days relaxing and not feeling the pressure to go see more sights. At times it feels like we are rushing a bit to see everything and not getting to just enjoy the experience of traveling and just being away from work. We will see how tomorrow goes, but I am hoping it includes the beach and a little bit of sitting.
