THAILAND - BANGKOK

Noisy, dusty, polluted, dirty, hot, humid, sticky, drunk, plain crazy... These are the words to describe Bangkok where we've spent the last 4 days starting from 5am past Monday. After a very long bus journey from Malaysia to Bangkok, which took about 17 hours, we arrived in Bangkok at about 5 am, got off near the train station Hualampong and took taxi to the ultimate backpackers destination on Khao San road. Although it was 5am in the morning, time when the sleep is deepest (at least for me), there were quite a lot of people, mostly drunk, scantily dressed. About 50% of them were foreigners, the rest were Thai girls, boys, and something in between. We saw this piss drunk Irish guy who was challenging the religion of the ATM, the telephone booth and so on. He was talking to them dramatically gesturing with the whole length of his arms asking the ATM, a telephone booth and so on, what their religion was and that he was challenging it. We also saw lots of Western guys with Thai girls and lady-boys negotiating some services, which I only can guess what they were. The garbage was all over the streets and you could feel sorry for them, because I'm guessing it happens every night. I think Katy was quite shock. Not a very good first impression.

Since we didn't have an accomodation booked we started walking around and look for one, referring to my 5 years old Lonely Planet guide. Surprisingly all guesthouses were full, except for more expensive hotel-like types. Being very tired and hot we were walking like zombies in the zomby (drunk foreigners, locals, etc) area. After walking for about 40 minutes we finally stumbled on one guest-house run by Indians, where he had a room with an air-conditioner for 450 baht (about US$15). I ran upstairs to check if it had windows, (and it did), and we checked in. It was nice to have a good shower after sweating for over 24 hours and not being able to wash off all that dirt. As it is expected, we just fell into a bed and slept well into the afternoon.

Right now is the hottest and driest season for Thailand. Having spent here 4 days we're glad that we have an air-conditioned room. Just now going upstairs to our room there was a girl like in her underpants with her door open. Of course, I, being a modest guy couldn't look in her face, so, I don't know if she was local or western, although the color of her thighs tells me she was of Asian descent. haha~

Anyways, we did little of sigtseeing in Bangkok. We did more of shopping and planning our further itinerary. We did go to the Vimanmek mansion, where Katy wanted to go. It was somewhat frustrating experience, but I guess it was still nice to see it.

Bangkok is run by the gang of Tuk-Tuk drivers and touts. One night we went to the Patpong night market, which is also famous for being an area full of Go-go, transgender and gay bars. Every 5 steps we were offerred to see a show. They had a piece of paper with the show names on it, about 20 of them I'd say. Katy read some and she said that half of them start with the Pussy in it. There also were words like ping-pong, banana, love... Let your imagination flow regarding what it can be. We constantly had to fight them off, as well as tuk-tuk drivers and other scammers. It all starts with the innocent "Where are you from my friend?" You answer that you are 30% towards being scammed. You answer the next question the possibility grows proportionately. My advice would be, do your research and don't listen to any advice given in the street by the friendly Thais. You may end up buying stuff or paying for something you didn't wanted.

But it's not all that bad. There are many good sides to Bangkok. It is a very exciting city, which doesn't ever sleep. We are leaving Bangkok tomorrow for Ayuthaya (the old capital), spending a day sightseeing and then off further north to Chiang Mai for the Thai New Years, Songkran. Usually on this day the Thais are splashing water on everyone. The prime target is foreigners as well. Especially for this purpose we bought a couple of dry bags to keep our stuff dry and safe. Should be fun and very... very hot.

Below is Katy's brief account on Bangkok.

Vlad has been to Thailand before and told me it was great, but at 4.30 in the morning Khao San Rd is anything but. It is rat infested, the white people everywhere are dirty and/or drunk and the transvestites look tired.
Later on in the day, the drunk white people are sleeping, so the place improves slightly, but the heat then takes over.
Yesterday we spent the better part of the day walking and sweating, carrying our bags in various positions to avoid shoulder rash. Although at one point we felt like idiots for not paying the exorbitant price asked by the tuk tuk driver outside the Vimanmek Mansion, after negotiating the narrow alleyways alongside the river, and discovering St. Francis Xavier Church, the small boat jettys, Thai schoolgirls practicing cheerleading and young monks playfully whacking each other with brooms, we felt like we had seen more of the real side of Bangkok than if we had spent twenty minutes stuck in traffic.