BANGKOK, THAILAND

After flying from India there was no way Thailand was going to be disappointing. My flight from Delhi landed on time and next thing you know I was in the very modern and pleasant Bangkok Airport. I had a hotel in mind and was able to book a room there from a desk downstairs and soon I was outside waiting in the taxi line outside. It was very warm and humid even though it was late in the evening, but it felt good being somewhere other than India for the first time in two weeks. I piled in a taxi and was almost overwhelmed that I was suddenly in a big, new, luxurious sedan with its air conditioning blasting. If this taxi were in India it would have been by far the nicest one in the whole country. So far so good.

The airport is a long way from the center of town so it took about 40 minutes to get there. We finally got off the freeway and I noticed about ten 7-Elevens in the dozen or so blocks we traveled down on our way to the Viengthai Hotel. The book said this was a well-known and popular hotel so I was expecting it to be decent. I was paying $40 per night including breakfast and that is expensive for this region, but I felt like treating myself to a bit of luxury after India. The hotel turned out to be incredibly nice. It’s basically a 4-star business-type hotel so I felt it was cheap for the money. My room had a huge and comfortable bed and best of all it had central air. Window units can produce deafening noise, but this room was perfectly ice cold and was totally quiet. I went down to a 7-Eleven around the corner to get a few beers and drank them in my room before I went to sleep.

The next morning I had the buffet breakfast at the hotel and then started checking out the area around the hotel. It’s in a neighborhood called Banglamphu, and just a block from the famous backpacker street called Ko San Road. Maybe it was just the contrast from India, but I walked around there and was extremely impressed. It’s very clean and well organized for tourists on a budget. The street is lined with shops and other vendors take up every bit along the sidewalk, but mixed in there are quite a few bars and restaurants and 7-Elevens (including two that literally face each other with front doors about 50 feet apart). There are also plenty of travel agents selling bus, train, and airline tickets, but I wanted to go to the STA Travel across town to see if they had better deals for my next flight to Australia.

I took a tuk tuk to the STA Travel for about $5, but I expected to save enough to easily make it worth my while. The tuk tuks, by the way, are nearly identical to the auto-rickshaws in India, but they are clean, painted like hot rods, and are much faster. The other difference, unfortunately, is the dome-like roof that prevents people taller than 4 feet tall from seeing anything but the asphalt right next to the vehicle itself. I hunched way down for most of the journey, but still couldn’t see much. The neighborhood where the STA Travel office is was a very nice part of the downtown office area. It was another amazing contrast coming from India and seeing things so modern and clean. Unfortunately the prices at STA Travel weren’t even as low as some quotes I received from agents in Banglamphu so I left without a ticket.

My tuk tuk driver insisted on waiting for me, but I told him it wasn’t necessary. He was there when I got out and I asked him how much to go back to my hotel. He said it would be half the price as the trip there and he would also stop at some temples (wats) along the way. I knew this was too good to be true and he quickly admitted that he would take me to a tailor along the way too. Bangkok is known for its cheap, custom-made clothes, but I wasn’t interested at all. Still, I decided the offer was worthwhile anyway and the driver assured me I didn’t have to buy anything.

He drove me to a wat and then another. Both were quite impressive, but over the next few days I discovered wats like this are all over town. These were good ones, but after the first few they start looking alike. Then we stopped at a tailor shop and I walked in. The sales pressure wasn’t too over-the-top and 10 minutes later I was back outside. The clothes seemed nice, but the prices were much higher than I was expecting. On my way back to the hotel the driver suggested I stop off at the government tourist office to get ideas of where else to go and that sounded perfect to me. When we pulled up to the office I was greeted like the king of a friendly foreign nation so I knew this was no ordinary office. It turned out the driver also got a 50 Baht ($1.25) gas coupon just for taking me there and he would get 5 more of those coupons if I booked a trip.

The people in the office were all extremely nice and helpful and they even offered me fresh bottles of water as I chatted with an agent. At the time I thought it was the government run tourist office (the TAT) that Lonely Planet really recommends, but it turned out it was just TAT approved. Nevertheless, they were extremely helpful and recommended an interesting trip to the island of Ko Samui way down south. I needed to read up on their recommendations some before booking so I told them I would come back the next day. I offered to let my tuk tuk driver take me the next day so he could get the coupons and that thrilled him. He drove me back to my hotel and sure enough it I only paid $2.50, including the mini-tour.

That evening I got dinner at a cheap local restaurant and checked out many different bars and discos along the Ko San Road. It’s quite nice there, but the nightlife was all very casual and informal. One disco I went into was empty and most of the rest of the bars had a TV playing or some boring music. I had a couple of beers and met a Scottish guy who also just got there from India. I mentioned how fond I am of the movie Gregory’s Girl and he was also a big fan so we spent 20 minutes quoting from the movie and laughing about it.

The next morning I had breakfast and saw my tuk tuk driver waiting for me right on time. He took me back to the travel agency and I bought the package I looked at the previous day, but without the flight back to Bangkok. It consisted of a 1st class berth in a 2 berth cabin on an overnight train to the city closest to the island, then a bus and ferry ride to the island and also 4 nights accommodation in a beach bungalow at a new resort in the center of Chaweng Beach. It was only about $160 total for a total of 5 days and that sounded cheap, but I still had to find my way back or elsewhere on my own.

Later that day I walked around and took some photographs of other temples in the area including a grand one called the Golden Mountain. That one required a long walk up a tall peak in the middle of the city and by the time I got to the top I was pretty spent. It wasn’t so much the stairs, but the unreal heat and humidity. It was really tough to enjoy sightseeing in that weather, but if I wanted to see Bangkok I had no choice but to forge on. I saw a few other things in my neighborhood and then went to rest in my ultra comfortable hotel room.

That evening was sort of a rerun of the previous night, but without the Gregory’s Girl nostalgia. The Ko San Road (the signs actually say Ph Ko San, but even the locals call it Ko San Road when they are speaking to an English speaker) is really fun, but still lacking something vis-a -vis nightlife. It’s great that they close the street off to traffic in the evenings so the street itself becomes jammed with revelers, but the music being played at the outdoor places was pretty uneven and rarely inspiring to me, or many other people from what I could see. I booked a van tour of the famous floating market for the following morning at one of the travel agencies, but other than that I just had a couple of beers and took it easy.

The next morning I woke up early for the half-day van tour. I met a group of travelers in front of the travel agency at 7:00 and a bit later a modern van pulled up and we piled in. Two of the other passengers were cute girls I had noticed at my hotel during breakfast that morning and the morning before. I rode shotgun so I didn’t get a chance to talk much to the folks in the back, but I was able to hear a Canadian couple quizzing these attractive girls (one Aussie and one Kiwi) who work as flight attendants for Dubai Airlines and are based in that Arabian kingdom. The ride to the floating market took about 90 minutes, but it was interesting to finally see a bit of Thailand outside of Bangkok, especially since I was leaving the following evening.

We got out of the van and we were told it’s best if we pay 100 Baht each for a seat in a boat that navigates tourists along the canal and right through the markets. The van tour was only 150 Baht so even with this boat ride the whole thing was only $6. We all got in two boats and I was seated right behind the girls from my hotel. They were from the Netherlands and both very nice. Since I have such a fondness for their country we had lots to talk about. The floating market itself was a mystery to me until we started moving in the boat, but it soon became clear. This part of Thailand consists of a few dusty roads but also dozens of artificial canals. For some reason they have set up this system were people selling nearly everything do so out of long canoes, some moving and some stationary, as buyers and tourists float by.

It was charming enough, but a bit of a rude awakening when suddenly the woman steering our boat suddenly slammed us into the side of a souvenir boat where the merchant stuck her wares right into our faces while our captain held us there. It’s obviously a commission deal, but I have gotten very used to that by this time. We cruised through the canals for about 40 minutes and had many opportunities to buy items, but few of the 7 or 8 people in our vessel bought anything. I was talking to the Dutch girls most of the time and the shopping in canals thing is really quite a novelty so I was happy enough with everything.

After we got out of the canoes we were guided over to some other boats that are called Long Boats and were hitched along a wider canal that has no shopping. We were told our van tour included a ride in one of these things so we all got in and enjoyed a 15-minute motorboat trip up and down this larger canal before we were deposited back on the dock. At this point our time at the markets had expired and we met the van driver for the trip back to Bangkok. We all got in at 10:45 a.m. and started barreling back toward Bangkok and it looked like we would be getting back much earlier than the 1 p.m. promised end of the tour. I asked the driver about this and he admitted in his severely broken English that we would be stopping at a wood carving shop on the way back. Okay, now it made sense. We were to be held hostage at one of those roadside souvenir complexes to help subsidize the tour. I informed the rest of the group and a few people groaned since they knew what this meant, but overall the mood of the crowd was still good.

As we drove I asked the driver how long we would be staying and he said 45 minutes. I asked him if we could leave early if everyone agreed that we didn’t want to stay that long and he said yes. I wasn’t sure he even understood so I asked him so do we all have to stay the entire time and he said yes. He was a nice fellow, but his English was limited. We pulled into the wood carving place and all strolled over to the craftsmen. Amazingly, it was quite interesting and their work was pretty amazing. Not so much that they were doing something that no one else could, but the pieces they were making obviously took many days so the patience was quite impressive. Most of the work was being done outdoors, but there was also a big air conditioned store that sold the wood pieces as well as every single other souvenir relating to Thailand.

I was planning on taking a taxi to the district famous for go-go bars that evening and one of the Dutch girls asked me what my plans were so I suggested we all go out and she agreed. We got back in the van, but the Dutch girls got in a different van since they paid for the all-day tour unlike the rest of our group who only did the half-day. The second half of the tour centers on a trip to the Bridge over the River Kwai. This is a fairly popular attraction, but my book assured me that it’s basically a plain looking bridge with a fascinating history, but seeing the bridge doesn’t add much to the story. An hour later I was back at my hotel and it was so hot and humid that after I got some lunch I just went back to my room and watched some movies on the HBO-like stations on the cable and enjoyed the air conditioning.

I met the girls in the lobby later that evening and they said the second half of the tour was quite interesting, but I was pretty happy just relaxing. We got in a taxi and took the 20-minute ride to the Patang district. The area was nicer than I expected and there seemed to be an infinite amount of souvenir and clothes booths along the streets. We sat down at a bar with a Top 40 band playing inside and had a beer. It was about $3 for a Heineken and that was the most I had paid for a beer in quite a while, but there was a band after all, so it was no big deal. We walked through the area and along the streets with the go-go bars. Every few seconds someone would approach us, usually the girls strangely enough, and ask us if we want to see a “Ping Pong Show”. On my own I might have been a bit interested to at least see what that is, but we intended to check out some of the dance clubs that are bizarrely wedged right in between the adult entertainment emporiums.

We first went into a place with an excellent sound system, but they were playing hip-hop. I liked many of the songs so we stayed a while, but then we went back outside to circle through the streets in the area we had seen yet. We all agreed that a place we had seen earlier called Lucifer was the best bet so we went back there hoping there were some people inside. We climbed up the stairs and the doorman let one of the girls in to look at the place. She said it was good so we paid the admission and went in. The sound system was phenomenal and the music was the kind of trance and house that I really like. That kind of music is also extremely popular in the Netherlands and the Dutch girls were really into it too. The crowd was quickly building and after about 90 minutes the dance floor was so packed that it was almost impossible to dance. It was after 1:00 a.m. so we all agreed to get a cab back to the hotel.

I had a card from our hotel to show the taxi drivers, but the first few said they didn’t know where it is, even with the card. It’s a huge hotel in a popular tourist district so that seemed amazing. We finally found a driver who said he could take us and we got in. It turned out he had no idea where he was or our hotel was. He drove around and started asking other drivers and even pedestrians if they knew were our hotel was. He got some answers from the people he asked, but a few minutes later he was lost again. The meter had gotten up well above what the meter was on the way there and the girls were getting restless. They kept talking to each other in Dutch as a code and then later in German so I could understand. Eventually we told the driver we were getting out and then we did, without paying anything. We hailed another taxi and it turned out we were somewhat close to our hotel so we were quickly there.

The next day I had a train at 6 p.m., but I had to check out of the room by noon. I took full advantage and enjoyed the luxury of the room as long as I could and then checked out and stored my bags there while I saw more sights. I started on a walking tour along the river that is described in the Lonely Planet. It was unbelievably hot and humid though so it wasn’t too fun. I saw a lot more of Bangkok, but I was baking. I went to the palace, but they have some rule where you need to be wearing long pants and have proper footwear to go in. They will loan you shoes (I had on sandals and shorts), but I doubted they would have my size. They will also rent some baggy pants to wear over shorts, but it seemed like a big hassle. I took some photos from the perimeter and left.

The next stop was the oldest temple in town called Wat Pho. This place is incredibly ornate and contains many different buildings with Buddhas inside, but the most famous is the gigantic Reclining Buddha. That one is gold plated just like all the others, but it is enormous and takes up almost the entire room. Just as it sounds, it’s a Thai-style Buddha that is reclining on its side for some reason.

After that I thought about going to see a movie, mainly just to escape the heat, but the movie theaters were all in neighborhoods neither close to Wat Pho or the train station. Bangkok is really spread out and that is the only bad part about it for the tourist. I walked back to the hotel and almost drowned in my own sweat, but I made it. I just sat in the cool hotel lobby for almost two hours reading my book. I then got my bags and took a taxi to the train station.

I arrived almost an hour early for the train, but fortunately the train was there waiting for me already. I found my carriage and my cabin. It was the same size as a normal compartment that seats 6 or 8 people, but it was outfitted with two bunks on one wall and a sink on the other. I settled in and relaxed on my (the lower) bunk and waited and waited. I was hoping no one would claim the upper bunk and as the departure time approached I was feeling more optimistic about it. The departure time came and went and no one else entered my compartment, but the train didn’t move. We left about 40 minutes late, but I was very happy that I had the compartment to myself. I could have guaranteed that by paying about $16 extra, but I took my chances and it paid off.